6 October 2023
Chef Sean Sherman, co-owner of Owamni and founder of North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), is curating the menu for a dinner in his honor at the Minneapolis Depot on Oct. 24.
Sherman will be presented with the 2023 Julia Child Award at the gala, which is open to the public. The award is accompanied by a $50,000 grant, which will help support NATIFS and the newly opened Indigenous Food Lab in Midtown Global Market. The Indigenous Food Lab’s mission is to expand access to Indigenous food.
Sherman’s gala menu ranges from scallop ceviche to cedar-braised elk, and will be prepared by his non-profit team and paired with wines from Native American vintners to celebrate the occasion.
Megan O’Hara and R.T. Rybak, president and chief executive of the Minneapolis Foundation, will co-host the awards on behalf of the Julia Child Foundation and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Speakers include Toni Tipton-Martin, award-winning author and food journalist and 2021 Julia Child Award recipient and celebrity chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern. Additional “surprise food celebrities” are also expected to attend.
Sherman, the first Native American chef to win the award, is an Oglala Lakota tribe member who was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. As he had limited TV options, Sherman, who showed an early interest in cooking, found inspiration in watching Julia Child’s “The French Chef.” on PBS-TV.
Sherman is in famous company. Previous award recipients include José Andrés, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Danny Meyer, Rick Bayless and Jacques Pépin.
The event runs from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Oct. 24 at The Depot’s Grand Hall, 225 3rd Ave. S., Minneapolis. Tickets, which cost $400 and support the ongoing care and preservation of Julia Child’s kitchen and benefit the Smithsonian Food History Project at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., are available to the public and can be purchased at juliachildaward.com/events/.
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Serving good patties buried under so-so toppings, Boga has potential. Hopefully they reach it.