Contemporary, imaginative interpretations of First Nations cuisine, including lighter, healthier, and more nutritious versions of traditional recipes.

Native American cuisine comes of age in this elegant, contemporary collection that reinterprets and updates traditional Native recipes with modern, healthy twists. Andrew George Jr. was head chef for Aboriginal foods at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; his imaginative menus reflect the diverse new culinary landscape while being mindful of an ages-old reverence for the land and sea, reflecting the growing interest in a cuisine that is rapidly moving into the mainstream to become the "next big thing" among food trends. Andrew also works actively at making Native foods healthier and more nutritious; his recipes are lighter, less caloric, and include Asian touches, such as bison ribs with Thai spices, and a sushi roll with various cooked fish wrapped in nori. Other dishes include venison barley soup, wild berry crumble, sea asparagus salad, and buffalo tourtiere.

Full of healthy, delicious, and thoroughly North American fare, Modern Native Feasts is the first Aboriginal foods cookbook to go beyond the traditional and take a step into the twenty-first century.

Andrew George Jr. is a member of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia. He participated on the first all-Native team at the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany, and was head chef at the Four Host First Nations pavilion at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In 2012 he was part of a delegation of chefs from 25 countries on a US State Department initiative called "Culinary Diplomacy: Promoting Cultural Understanding Through Food." He develops Native menus for restaurants and hotels internationally, and teaches cooking to Native students. His first cookbook was A Feast for All Seasons; his second, Modern Native Feasts, was published in 2013.

Andrew George Jr.'s profile page

Modern Native Feasts fuses traditional recipe preparations like brining, smoking, and curing with using fresh, local, seasonal ingredients readily available in many supermarkets. Meals reflect a diverse new culinary landscape built on an age-old reverence for the land and sea.
-Gastrotraveling.com

Modern Native Feasts offers a fresh, innovative spin on time-honoured aboriginal cuisine.
-Brandon Sun/Winnipeg Free Press

The resulting recipes are unfussy yet often elegant, perfect for either a potlatch or a potluck ... George keeps his intros blessedly short, while still telling the background of each dish; the cookbook is beautifully designed, with a rustic look that's carried throughout.
-The Oregonian

Whatever you have in mind when you conjure up the image created by the title Modern Native Feasts, you won't be imagining anything quite like this. Chef George has taken the best of his indigenous Canadian culture and traditions and fused it with his modern training, plus a generous helping of very real talent and created a cuisine that, while it may be distinctly his, could feasibly represent a beautiful -- and delicious -- future ... This is sophisticated contemporary food perfectly informed by the chef's heritage and own sensibilities.
-January Magazine (A Best Book of 2013)