Chef Jessica Walks First wants Chicago to have an Indigenous culinary scene

Chef Jessica Walks First started helping in the kitchen as a little kid, and she grew up cooking for her community in Chicago’s American Indian Center. Now, she runs Ketapanen Kitchen, a catering business with a focus on Indigenous foods. “Ketapanen” is an expression of love in the Menominee language. “If my community is eating my food, I want them to have great ingredients that are familiar to them and feel like home to them,” Walks First said. She wants to expose as many Chicagoans as possible to Indigenous culinary traditions, and she advocates for making those foods more accessible to Indigenous communities. In this episode, host Erin Allen talks to Walks First about Indigenous representation in Chicago’s culinary scene and beyond.