Chef David Wolfman made a special appearance at St. Michael Catholic Secondary School on Friday, as the culinary visionary behind a television show and author was in Stratford to bring his fusion style of Indigenous cooking to the students.
“This is an opportunity to not just learn how to cook but perhaps get into this as a career,” said Wolfman. “I’ve been a chef for over 40 years and something I have learned is that everyone eats, so this is a transferable skill that can be taken all over the world.”
Students from the dual credit food program, along with members of the St. Mike's Multicultural Club took part in the cooking class. One of the students was Vanessa Scott who took the cooking class in grade 10, and is a member of the dual credit program.
“I’m not too sure what I want to do but I’ve been cooking my whole life and love it,” she said. “Now that I am in grade 12 there is much being offered and I love it.”
The program started off with Chef Wolfman talking about the history and the roots of the different ingredients that were being used, before talking about his own Indigenous roots and traditions. After the presentations the students got to cooking. Afterwards they were given a presentation from Wolfman about the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP).
“Chef Wolfman is a product of the OYAP program,” said Lauren Coughlin, a guidance counselor and specialist-high skills education teacher at St. Mike’s. “He lets students know about the different options available after high school, you know it's not just university or college, there are many apprenticeship program opportunities, so many routes students can go after graduation.”
For Wolfman, his love of food started from a young age.
“When I was around nine years old I went into the kitchen and I was very hungry, and we didn’t have much,” he said. “I remember smelling baked bread, and I came in there and my mom asked what I was doing in the kitchen, so I told her I came to help. So she gave me an oversized apron, and we made a stew, and homemade bread, so she had me stir the stew. She’d let me eat the broken pieces and while that is why I was there, it turned out to be so much more, as my mother taught me how to cook and about our culture. The best part was when I cooked, I didn’t have to do the dishes, or argue with my sister over who would do them.”
Wolfman is a member of the Xaxli’p First Nation from British Columbia. He has taken his culinary skills and turned them into a fusion combining traditional and Indigenous cooking skills and products and making unique and delicious dishes.
“A lot of people think that Indigenous people lived out in the wild and did this and that, but there is so much more to it. As I explained at the beginning of the program, I talked about how a certain flower coming out of the ground would tell us that the salmon were running upstream,” said Wolfman. From there we knew how to catch the salmon, share parts that wouldn’t be eaten with bears, and use other ecological indicators that would tell us it's time to go hunting.”
Wolfman completed his apprenticeship, and had a career that included working in England, and at nursery homes, but he soon discovered ways to bring his roots into his food.
“I took my skills and added a different flavour which is my culture and that is how I sort of built my Indigenous fusion,” he said. “The skills I had learned were transferable as were most of the products, and I would switch out things like the protein. So instead of lamb I use buffalo for example.”
For the actual cooking the students broke off into groups that were led by Wolfman in preparing buffalo egg rolls, mango and raisin curried elk, shawnee cake, elk medallions and scallops with a parmesan cheese cup, and maple pumpkin cupcakes.
The students then got to taste the fruits of their labour, and then extra meals that were pre-ordered were given out. The meals were purchased with funds raised going back to the community.
