Coming to Yellowknife as a guest chef for the NWT Culinary Festival, Steph Baryluk said, “the pressure is on.”
As part of the festival, she co-created the menu for a fine dining event on Saturday that highlighted Indigenous cuisine. Held at the Chateau Nova Hotel, the dinner used Mackenzie Delta whitefish, cloudberries, and cranberries.
“I’m very grateful that I get to use products so close to home,” she said.
Baryluk is a Red Seal certified chef and the creator of the Indigenous foods program, Rooted, at Simon Fraser University. She’s Teetł’it Gwich’in and is from Tetli’t Zheh, or Fort McPherson.
Over the past two years, Baryluk has been focusing more on Indigenous cuisine and Indigenous teachings, traditions, and culture.
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Based out of Vancouver, she’s worked at events around the world, recently bringing Indigenous dishes to events in Austin, Texas and Rome, Italy.
She knew that coming back to the NWT, there were going to be familiar faces.
“I think that’s why the pressure is on. These people know who I am. They know my family. They know my community. So I’m really hoping to come and deliver,” she said.
She was also more nervous coming back to the NWT because this is the first time in her career where she’s serving specific items, using her local food, out of a public institution.
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Saturday’s dinner included five courses: a fried bannock with spruce tip and honey whipped butter and smoked cranberry jam; a poached Mackenzie Delta whitefish with a sweetgrass beurre blanc with chive oil; a three sisters salad with a strawberry sweetgrass vinaigrette; a bison short rib with parmesan and garlic whipped potatoes and tri-coloured carrots; and a cloudberry cheesecake mousse for dessert. Celebrity guest Linda Garson provided professional wine pairings with each course.
Janet Dean, the executive director of the Territorial Agrifood Association (which organizes the NWT Culinary Festival), stopped in on Saturday to emphasize northern food sovereignty means getting northern food on plates – and that can include fine dining, such as the menu created by Baryluk for the evening.
In addition to serving up delicious food, Baryluk also stepped out from the kitchen between courses to tell the evening’s dinner guests more about each dish and the ingredients that went into it.
“It’s a chance for me to talk about these items,” she said. “I’m super excited to talk about Mackenzie Delta whitefish because it’s something, you know, I grew up with, living beside the Peel River. It’s something that still sustains our community.”
“Whenever I step foot in a new kitchen, the main thing I want people to understand is how we as Indigenous people respect our products, respect our food,” Baryluk said.
She thanked the NWT Culinary Festival for “giving me a chance to come back to the NWT.” Though she’s lived away for 10 years, she still gets excited whenever she sees a polar bear license plate outside of the NWT, and will try to see if it’s someone she knows.
“It’s always nice to be in my home territory,” she said.
Baryluk will be at the Culinary FEASTival on Sunday, which takes place from 10am to 5pm between the multiplex and fieldhouse, to share samples of her beef jerky.
