Authentic Indigenous Chefs
are among the most knowledgeable voices on what makes the seafood from our fisheries special. Meet the chefs, explore their recipes, and hear what these foods mean to the people who have always known them best.
Chef
Sheila Flaherty
Iqaluit, Nunavut
Arctic Char
Meet Chef Sheila Flaherty
ROOTS & IDENTITY
Sheila Flaherty, Inuvialuk name Gunuyung, is an Inuvialuit chef and food entrepreneur based in Iqaluit, Nunavut, whose cooking is deeply grounded in Inuit foodways and a lifelong respect for the northern lands and waters that sustain them.
HER VENTURE
As the chef and founder of sijjakkut, a 100% Inuit-owned tourism venture, Sheila leads a community-positive enterprise that preserves and promotes Inuit culture through inuksiutit menus and northern supply chains that keep culturally significant foods accessible.
PHILOSOPHY
Guided by family and community teachings, Sheila approaches every dish by honouring the animal and the place it comes from, pairing traditional Inuit techniques like drying, smoking, and clean brining with contemporary food safety, packaging, and presentation.
SIGNATURE WORK
Sheila's Maple Hot Smoked Arctic Char, gently brined and finished with a light maple glaze, has become her signature, served at a VIP reception for then-Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla in Iqaluit and featured in dishes as far afield as Nuuk and Reykjavík.
RECOGNITION
From a Top 24 finish on MasterChef Canada Season 4 to guest-judging Top Chef USA Season 22, and from presenting at the Sámi Parliament's first food conference to representing Canada at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Iceland, Sheila has earned her place as one of the Arctic's foremost culinary voices.
BEYOND THE KITCHEN
As Nunavut Director of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada, a Board Director of Travel Nunavut, a foreword author for Nunavut Arctic College, and the only circumpolar chef featured in the UN's cookbook For People and Planet, Sheila is as committed to advocacy and community as she is to the plate.
Chef
Steph Baryluk
Teetl’it Zheh, NWT
Whitefish
Meet Chef Steph Baryluk
ROOTS & IDENTITY
Chef Steph Baryluk is proud Teetl'it Gwich'in from Teetl'it Zheh (Fort McPherson) in Treaty 11 Territory, Northwest Territories, raised hunting caribou, fishing, and traveling the Arctic Tundra in one of the most northerly Indigenous communities in North America.
HER VENTURE
Steph founded the Rooted program at Simon Fraser University, bringing rotating Indigenous recipes to campus twice weekly, and launched MRS B'S JERKY, her own company that reimagines traditional Gwich'in dried caribou meat using beef to make it widely accessible.
PHILOSOPHY
Steph's cooking is a living act of reconnection, fusing the Gwich'in teachings she grew up with, honouring the whole animal and wasting nothing, alongside the classical French techniques of her Red Seal training, as a way to reclaim, retell, and celebrate who her people are.
SIGNATURE WORK
From duck tacos with charred corn salsa to blueberry BBQ salmon bowls, Steph's dishes bring Indigenous flavours into everyday settings, each paired with a QR code so diners can learn the stories and traditions behind the ingredients on their plate.
RECOGNITION
Named one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2024, Steph has taken Indigenous cuisine to global stages including the FAO in Rome, SXSW in Texas, and as a member of the Greenworks Collective, continues to advocate for Indigenous food systems and sustainability worldwide.
BEYOND THE KITCHEN
As a Red Seal Chef, educator, and speaker, Steph gives back by running cooking workshops for community members aged four to seventy in the Northwest Territories, driven by the belief that sharing food and its stories is one of the most powerful forms of cultural reconciliation.
Chef
Qwustenexun
Quw’utsun, BC
Sockeye Salmon
Meet Chef Qwuestenexun
ROOTS & IDENTITY
Chef Qwuestenexun (Jared Williams) is a Quw'utsun (Cowichan) Salish chef raised in a world of smoke and fish, shaped by his late grandmother and the traditional harvesting, preparation, and cooking methods of his ancestors on Vancouver Island.
HIS VENTURE
After nearly a decade and a half as kitchen manager at the Cowichan Tribes Elder's Building, Qwuestenexun now works independently as an Indigenous foods educator, writer, and consultant, collaborating with elders and knowledge holders to keep traditional Salish food practices alive.
PHILOSOPHY
Qwuestenexun's cooking is built on the belief that traditional food practices are living knowledge, blending the ancestral Salish techniques he learned at his grandmother's side with the western culinary experience he gained over a decade in restaurants across Vancouver Island.
SIGNATURE WORK
Qwuestenexun helped the First Nations Health Authority complete their first smoked salmon project, providing scientific validation that Salish smoked salmon is a safe and effective method of food preservation, a landmark achievement for Indigenous food sovereignty.
RECOGNITION
A Canadian Online Publishing Award winner for best multicultural story, a nominee for the 2022 BC Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award, and a featured guest on APTN's Moosemeat and Marmalade and CBC Radio, Qwuestenexun is one of the most recognized voices in Indigenous food sovereignty in Canada.
BEYOND THE KITCHEN
Qwuestenexun carries his advocacy far beyond the plate, sharing Salish language videos on TikTok, Indigenous memes on Instagram, and a widely read blog on the lasting impacts of colonization, using every platform available to keep his culture visible, relevant, and alive.
Chef
Brodie Swanson
Haida Gwaii, BC
Razor Clam
Meet Chef Brodie Swanson
ROOTS & IDENTITY
Chef Brodie Swanson, Haida name Kil Tlaa'sgaa ("strong voice"), is a Yahgulanaas Raven Clan member of the Haida Nation, born and raised in Gaw Old Massett on Haida Gwaii, where his grandmother first put him to work on the dock cleaning sea urchins and taught him that sharing a meal is sharing a culture.
HIS VENTURE
As Executive Chef for Haida Tourism, Brodie oversees the kitchens at both Haida House in Tllaal and Ocean House Lodge on Moresby Island's Peel Inlet, building a tide-to-table program rooted in local fishing, an on-site garden, and partnerships with community harvesters to keep ingredients as close to home as possible.
PHILOSOPHY
Brodie believes food is the cornerstone of Haida culture and approaches every menu as an act of reclamation, asking how his ancestors fed 50,000 Haida people before barges and preservation, and working to revive those techniques alongside modern methods like fermentation, smoking, and dehydration.
SIGNATURE WORK
Brodie's menus feature dishes like black cod with bull kelp and salmon roe, octopus with cow-parsnip chimichurri, and house-made sourdough with sea asparagus butter, all built around Ocean Wise seafood from Haida Wild and foraged coastal ingredients including spruce tips, sea asparagus, and wild berries.
RECOGNITION
After training under celebrated Chef Robert Belcham at Campagnolo in Vancouver and working at the renowned Indigenous restaurant Salmon n' Bannock, Brodie has become one of the most prominent Haida culinary voices in Canada, championing the inclusion of wild game in Canadian restaurant kitchens and calling on government to recognize its importance to the country's culinary identity.
BEYOND THE KITCHEN
As a member of the Haida band council in Old Massett, Brodie is acutely aware of the up to 80 percent unemployment rates in his community and is actively working to create harvesting jobs, training opportunities, and supply chain partnerships so that his people can do more than just exist but have a true connection to what Haida Gwaii offers the world.
