B.C. Indigenous chef takes portable cooking school on the road

Chef Paul Natrall poses for a photograph in the trailer where he operates his catering business on the Squamish First Nation, in North Vancouver, B.C., on Friday September 21, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Chef Paul Natrall has been helming kitchens for over 15 years, mastering a particular cuisine that few have had the pleasure of sampling and even fewer have experienced cooking themselves.

That’s soon about to change, as the man behind Indigenous food truck Mr. Bannock gears up to bring cooking classes for First Nations fare on the road.

Little Spirit Moon, named as a nod to the 13 moons significant in Indigenous culture, is a travelling food lab designed to be taken to schools and work offices around Vancouver.

“The idea is to have a little pop-up kitchen, where I can travel and teach about Indigenous foods, traditional ingredients, and how to preserve them and cook with them,” said Natrall.

Whether at the crux of team building exercises, office parties or high school classes, the food truck’s aim is to educate the wider community on Indigenous culture and heritage in a way that is approachable and easy to digest, said Natrall.

“You get to learn from an experienced Indigenous chef, and you get to cook stuff and take it home and share it with your family and friends, so it’s a double win,” he said.

Housing a dehydrator, a freeze dryer, and a smoker, alongside equipment and utensils for canning and pickling goods, the food truck contains all the kitchen equipment vital for traditional cooking.

Using locally sourced, sustainable ingredients, budding chefs will recreate Natrall’s quintessential First Nations recipes, checking off bannock, dried meats, homemade jams, salsas, and spice rubs.

With students gathered around the truck’s pull-out table, Natrall will educate on the best ways to make use of their freshly crafted ingredients. Traditional Indigenous taco recipes for the salsas, for example, or plump, pillowy donuts to be paired alongside the homemade jams.

Racking up a decade and a half in the food business, Natrall certainly has a wealth of information and a history of crowd-pleasing recipes to pull from.

The Squamish Nation chef trained in French cuisine at Vancouver Community College in 2010, experimenting with traditional ingredients and learning the ropes of working within smokehouses and farmsteads.

He started Mr. Bannock in 2017, bringing traditional Indigenous food to the masses, and nabbed the title of Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the BC Indigenous Business Awards just two years later.

Recently, Natrall was appointed as a director of the Indigenous Culinary of Associated Nations (ICAN), an organisation that shares Indigenous cooking and culinary history with kitchens around the country. It was during a recent tour that the idea for Little Spirit Moon was sparked.

After seeing how hungrily his tutees ate up his cooking guidance and time-tested recipes, Natrall said he realized the wider community, even those whose careers aren’t in the culinary field, would have a thirst for learning more about Indigenous culture and history through their taste buds.

“The trainee chefs got to cook with us and pick our brains about the different communities that we've travelled to and the food that we’ve made, and they were always so interested and super happy and thankful,” said Natrall.

“It was always something entirely new for them, and definitely an experience they all said they would remember.”

Natrall said he would be hard pressed to find a person who couldn’t benefit from partaking in one of his travelling classes. Even for those that come from First Nations backgrounds, the methods and ingredients highlighted provide the chance to reconnect with Indigenous culture in a way that they likely wouldn't have before.

"Even for just for one meal or one session, they can be connected to an indigenous community once again,” he said.

"The idea is to share as much food and knowledge as I can with anybody that's willing to listen and learn."