Eat like who you are

Eat like who you are

Chefs spread the gospel of Native cuisine

Chef is watched by onlookers.

Submitted
Welder-turned-chef JD Kinlacheeny, center, incorporates traditional foods into everyday meals.

MISSOULA, Mont.

JD Kinlacheeny used to use a torch to weld pieces of metal. Now he may wield a miniature torch to scorch the sugar on top of a crème brulée.

Kinlacheeny, a former industrial welder and now catering coordinator at Navajo Technical University, said his wife inspired him to follow his passion.

“My goal here is to really get our students, our young Navajo kids, to understand their own traditional foods and really try to motivate them in the field they are in,” he said.

By incorporating traditional foods and ingredients into everyday meals, Kinlacheeny brings identity back to the table. “I think a person should learn about traditional food because of our roots,” he said. “It’s who we are as Navajo, as Diné, as Indigenous people.” When Kinlacheeny isn’t in the kitchen with his students, he’s at chapter houses across the Navajo Nation talking about the importance of healthy cooking. “We try to look at what a person would have on the rez, in their kitchen and we try to make something that would be more healthy to their diet,” he said.

Kinlacheeny’s goal is to eventually teach his Navajo clients how to cook traditionally, but for now he wants to make sure they have healthy alternatives. When he’s teaching people how to make Navajo tacos, for example, he encourages them to use more vegetables and to use ground turkey instead of ground beef or to find a leaner ground beef.


 To read the full article, pick up your copy of the Navajo Times at your nearest newsstand Thursday mornings!

Are you a digital subscriber? Read the most recent three weeks of stories by logging in to your online account.

  Find newsstand locations at this link.

Or, subscribe via mail or online here.




About The Author

ADVERTISEMENT

Weather & Road Conditions

Window Rock Weather

Overcast

36.0 F (2.2 C)
Dewpoint: 33.1 F (0.6 C)
Humidity: 89%
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 30.22

More weather »

ADVERTISEMENT