Sandra Hale Schulman
Special to ICT
After five years from inception to publication, acclaimed Indigenous Chef Crystal Wahpepah has released her first cookbook featuring more than 125 intertribal recipes from blue cornbread to Three Sisters salad with venIson.
The long-awaited cookbook, “A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes from an Indigenous Food Warrior,” released on March 17 by Penguin Random House, shows how to eat with the seasons, connect gardening and foraging to the land, and cook colorful, tasty food.
“I waited five years to finally see my cookbook on the shelves,” Wahpepah, Kickapoo and Sac and Fox, told ICT. “I remember the first conversation bringing it to life. It’s an unforgettable moment for me. This journey has been filled with hard work, patience, and so much love and tears.”
A new cookbook by acclaimed Indigenous Chef Crystal Wahpepah, “A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes from an Indigenous Food Warrior,” was released March 17, 2026, by Penguin Random House. Her restaurant, Wahpepah’s Kitchen, is in Oakland, California. Credit: Photo by Clay Williams, courtesy of Penguin Random House
Dishes include sweet blue cornbread with huckleberry compote, Indigenous popcorn balls with edible flowers, and smoked salmon dip with red chilies and chips. For carnivores, recipes include bison salad with blueberries and roasted rabbit three ways.
Wahpepah wants people to come away from the book knowing whose land that they are on, where the food comes from and what health remedies the foods provide.
“How can we connect and heal where it comes to these foods? I’m telling my story, how I feel about Indigenous foods and where it took me and where it’s taken me,” she said. “I want to take other people on that journey where we are so well connected with our food.”
The book features a foreword by bestselling novelist Tommy Orange, who, like Wahpepah, grew up in Oakland, California. He describes Wahpepah as a “tremendously talented, heart-and-soul-driven chef.”
“Food is one of those things so essential, like the air we breathe, sometimes we can forget that it’s there, and what it’s there for — its uses and its histories and the land it comes from, the people who took care of and lived on and cultivated that land for millennia,” Orange wrote.
“I’m honored to say that I was one of the first people to taste some of the food from the recipes contained in this book.”
Taking a journey
Wahpepah was born and raised in Oakland on Ohlone land, surrounded by a multi-tribal, tight-knit, urban Native community. She opened Wahpepah’s Kitchen in downtown Oakland in 2021, a bright,welcoming eatery with wall murals of tribal members and a deeply imaginative menu that focuses on Indigenous foods served up in colorful, flavorful ways.
She cooks up a meal weekly at the nearby Intertribal Friendship House, which opened in 1955. It is one of the oldest Native American-focused urban resource and community organizations in the U.S., and offers a place for people to gather for meals, drum circles, and support.
She has been featured on Food Network’s “Chopped” and “Beating Bobby Flay.”
Indigenous Chef Crystal Wahpepah checks the pumpkins at a local farm. She uses food from various regional and national farms in her restaurant, Wahpepah’s Kitchen, in Oakland, California. Credit: Photo by Clay Williams, courtesy of Penguin Random House
Wahpepah sources local ingredients from Indigenous farmers and organizations as much as possible, including Deep Medicine Circle, which grows greens for the restaurant. Salmon is sourced from the Lummi Nation in the Pacific Northwest, and California foragers provide acorns and bay nuts. She sources bison from the Cheyenne River Tribe and maple from the Ottawa Nation.
“I’m really interested in what people think of my book,” Wahpepah told ICT. “It’s my baby and I can’t wait for everyone to hold my baby. I want them to understand there’s urban natives all over. I take them on a journey where it comes to my journey as an Indigenous chef, but also at the same time I’m from the Bay area where we’re rich with Native community when it comes to cultural foods. We’re from all over the place, but at the same time, we all gather together.”
Looking ahead
She is now on an ambitious book tour that will feature cooking demonstrations, discussions on Indigenous food sovereignty, and tastings. It kicked off with a launch on March 17 at Oakland’s Intertribal Friendship House featuring Orange, author of “There There.”
A sign greets visitors outside Chef Crystal Wahpepah’s restaurant, Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland, California. Credit: Photo by Clay Williams, courtesy of Penguin Random House
“What a beautiful sold out first stop on my first ever cookbook release,” Wahpepah posted on Instagram. “Thank you to the Intertribal Friendship house and the community for showing this book love. An absolute honor being sung a song from my nephews, my daughter Rikki for speaking and to Tommy Orange for being a wonderful moderator. We celebrated this memorable night in a packed house ya’ll. See you on my next stops.”
Tour stops include Tulsa, Oklahoma, on March 27; Humbolt, California, on April 9; Oakland, California on April 23; and Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 20.
“It’s very important that we should be prideful where it comes to our food and how it’s grown,” Wahpepah said. “I showcase a lot of that, where I was very fortunate to work with food producers. We eat with our eyes, no matter whose land and what tribe they come from. I’m really excited for everyone to read the book, hold the book, connect with the book.”
The post ‘Food warrior’ Crystal Wahpepah dishes up Indigenous culture in new cookbook appeared first on ICT.
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