BANFF – It wasn’t until he was 29 years old that Shane Mederic Chartrand discovered he was Plains Cree, from the Enoch Cree First Nation.
Now 47, the acclaimed culinarian is exploring and serving up his Indigenous heritage on a platter at the Banff Centre as the facility’s newest sous chef.
“I’m not looking for burgers and fries. I’m not looking for Cannelloni. I’m not looking for any of this stuff that everybody else already does,” said Chartrand. “I’m looking to reinvent what Indigenous food is.”
For the chef, that means starting from the ground up with seasonally and locally inspired spice blends. In his Banff Centre office lie jars labelled winter, fall, spring, summer and a unique 'Warrior' mix – each full of ingredients like dehydrated mint, sea salt, pepper, thyme, dried lemon and rind, and aonori sea kale, to name a few.
“I’m creating Indigenous seasonings and starting points to create what the next level would be, which will be the dishes we create with them,” said Chartrand, who joined the Banff Centre’s culinary team Sept. 12.
A key part of that creative process is understanding the relationship First Nations people have with the food they harvest – including game.
“The one thing we need to really grasp is everything is edible, from liver to kidneys to sweetbreads to all the things we may not necessarily want to try because we’re all freaked out or grossed out about it,” he said.
“But you have to remember those parts are the frequencies of the animals themselves – we can’t waste anything.”
With a then-incoming shipment of guinea fowls to the Banff Centre, Chartrand said every piece of the poultry would make it to a plate, in one form or another.
“I’m going to use every single piece of that animal to create something delicious. Those organ meats and neck bones – they can come across as beautiful, sweet stocks and sauces. Add mushrooms, onions, a little bit of cognac, and you’d be surprised how far that stuff goes,” he said.
As a Sixties Scoop survivor who spent five years in foster care, Chartrand enjoyed every bit of food that was put in front of him.
The word wasteful is not part of his vocabulary.
“I’ve always loved food from a very young age,” said the chef. “Everything you could feed me – I loved it – because there was a point in my life where I didn’t get a lot of it.”
Despite having a relatively normal upbringing after being adopted at the age of seven by his Métis father and Mi'kmaw-Irish mother, and living on an acreage outside of Edmonton raising livestock, hunting, and fishing, understanding his own identity was always a struggle for Chartrand.
“I knew I was Indigenous, but I didn’t really know who I was or where I came from, so I didn’t celebrate it,” he said. “I didn’t know what I didn’t know.”
It wasn’t until he was about 13 years old that Chartrand, unknowingly, began taking the first steps in discovering his Indigenous roots by way of a culinary journey.
It all started with a dream … of owning a pair of Air Jordans.
“I asked for a pair and my mother said to me, ‘You want to get yourself a pair of Air Jordans, you’re going to get yourself a job because I cannot support six other kids and the expensive stuff they want,’” said the chef.
And get a job he did, as a dishwasher in a truck-stop kitchen, where he discovered a newfound curiosity.
While scrubbing plates wasn’t exactly fulfilling work for Chartrand, he was fascinated by the line cooks and the hum of the flattop, fryer, and grill, or the ‘machinery,’ as he used to call it.
“I was mesmerized by the kitchen world,” he said. “So, I applied to be a cook.”
About 15 at the time, Chartrand’s application was met with a disheartening ‘No,’ but he didn’t let it deter him from pressing on. His persistence eventually landed him a job making toast.
“I would toast the bread, butter it and then hand it off,” said Chartrand. “No problem – easy.”
Easy until he was met with requests to toast slices of pumpernickel, marble rye and dark rye.
“That’s when I crashed,” he laughed. “I was 15 and I didn’t know anything about food.
“But I loved it, and I just kept going.”
Years later, after becoming a Red Seal-certified chef through the Culinary Arts program at NAIT, traveling the world, and working in Mediterranean, Italian and sushi restaurants – Chartrand met his biological family.
“Once I found my family, it was catch-up time,” he said. “Every day since then is counting down the days where I need to discover my own Indigenous culinary identity, my own life as an Indigenous person, and that’s where it began at the age of 29.”
Chartrand has also made it his life’s mission to learn as much about other First Nations’ traditions as his own – culinary and otherwise. He has also appeared on Food Network shows including Iron Chef Canada, Wall of Chefs and Chopped Canada.
His cookbook, tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine was published in 2019 and details his ongoing discovery of self through gathering and sharing knowledge and stories with other First Nations. It contains over 75 recipes, including the award-winning dish ‘War Paint,’ with quail legs and wheat berries cooked in pheasant broth, and a red-pepper sauce applied to the plate as a striking hand print.
In the Cree language, ‘tawâw’ [pronounced ta-WOW] means, ‘Come in, you're welcome, there's room.’
Banff Centre head chef Leandro Vega said the facility is excited to welcome Chartrand and experience what he brings to the table.
“I know that Shane’s vast experience and talent are going to be impactful in every way to our culinary scene on campus,” said Vega. “We can’t wait to see what he will bring in terms of diversity to our menus at Vistas, Maclab Bistro and Three Ravens.
“I believe that diversity is when you are invited to a party and inclusion is when you are invited to dance, and I can tell when I see a good dancer.”
The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada. The position covers Îyârhe (Stoney) Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country.
