Chef Pyet DeSpain, Author of Rooted in Fire

Pyet—short for her inherited Native American name, Pyetwetmokwe—is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and an award-winning global private chef. She made history as the first winner of Gordon Ramsay’s Next Level Chef and was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top 25 Private Chefs in Los Angeles. Her work is centered on uplifting Indigenous foodways within the culinary industry while advocating for a more sustainable and sovereign food system for Indigenous peoples.

Chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson, Javelina

Chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson weaves together her Yakama, Hopi, and Mexican Indigenous roots to impart a culinary experience rooted in tradition, storytelling, and community. After a year and a half of operating pop-ups, she opened her first brick-and-mortar location in May 2025 in NE Portland, Oregon. Javelina is Portland’s first Indigenous restaurant.

Chef Elena Terry, Wild Bearies

Elena Terry is the Executive Chef/Founder of Wild Bearies and the Executive Chef of Tall Grass at MMoCA and she is a member of the Ho-Chunk tribe from Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. Elena is a butcher and wild game specialist and loves open fire cooking. You can see Elena on BBQ Brawl, Chopped, Top Chef, Family Dinner, and Breaking Bread.

Chef Ray Naranjo, Manko Native American Cuisine

Chef Ray is tribal member of Santa Clara Pueblo and has earned attention among Santa Fe's top creative chefs. Ray has been a chef since his teens, graduating from Scottsdale Culinary Institute Le Cordon Bleu in 2003. He believes in preserving his people’s foodways and ancestral knowledge and strives to continue on this path. By using both modern and ancestral cooking techniques, he attempts to push the limits of what is known, unknown, and forgotten about the Indigenous food cultures of North America.