Crystal Wahpepah is an indigenous American chef. She was the first indigenous chef on the cooking program Chopped. Wahpepah has a Native American woman owned catering business. She opened her own restaurant with to reclaim Native American cuisine. She received the Indigenous Artist Activist Award.
Wahpepah was born and raised in Oakland, California. She is a member of the Kickapoo, Sac, and Fox tribes from Oklahoma. As a child, she cooked with her older relatives.
Career
Wahpepah loves cooking. She attended the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. She studied French cooking. In 2010, she got a place at a program that helps women of color start food-related businesses.
She opened a catering business. Large companies like Google and Facebook have hired her to cook. Even though the San Francisco Bay Area had many kinds of chefs, there were no indigenous food restaurants. She traveled around the United States and learned more about Native farming and cooking. Eventually she opened her own restaurant.
References
Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century births Living people Native American people American chefs People from Oakland, California