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Chef Loretta Barrett Oden
November 15, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Magic City Books is proud to welcome Chef Loretta Barrett Oden for a special in-store event to celebrate the release of her cookbook, Corn Dance on Wednesday, November 15 at 7:00 pm. This free event will take place in the Algonquin Room at Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer Street in downtown Tulsa.
Loretta Barrett Oden is a renowned Emmy Award-winning Native American chef, food historian, lecturer, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Growing up in Shawnee, Oklahoma, among a host of grandmothers and aunties, Loretta learned the lessons and lore of Potawatomi cooking, along with those of her father’s family, whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower. This rich cultural blend came to bear in the iconic restaurant she opened in Santa Fe, the Corn Dance Café, where many of the dishes in this book had their debut, setting Loretta on her path to fame as one of the most influential Native chefs in the nation, a leader in the new Indigenous food movement, and, with her Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Seasoned with Spirit: A Native Cook’s Journey, a cross-cultural ambassador for First American cuisine.
Loretta offers entertaining and edifying observations about ingredients and cooking culture. What kind of quail might turn up in your vicinity, for instance; what to do with piñon nuts, sumac, or nopales (cactus paddles); when to add a bundle of pine needles or a small branch of cedar to your braise: these and many practical words of wisdom about using the fruits of the forest, stream, or plain, accompany Loretta’s insights on everything from the dubious provenance of fry bread to the Potawatomi legend behind the Three Sisters–corn, beans, and squash, the namesake ingredients of Three Sisters and Friends Salad, served at Corn Dance Café and now at Thirty Nine Restaurant at First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, where Oden is the Chef Consultant.
Corn Dance is available now at Magic City Books or you can order a copy online at: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/corn-dance/1818.