Restaurateur Inez Cook is a member of the Nuxalk Nation, from Bella Coola, BC. A child of the Sixties Scoop, Inez was taken away from her Indigenous family as a child and adopted by a non-Indigenous family. Growing up, she says there was always something missing. “I grew up without my culture, without my heritage, without my biological family,” she explains. “I was yearning for my culture my whole life.”
Having an early start in the restaurant industry, she dreamed of having her own restaurant one day, but her career took a different direction – several, in fact, as she eventually began working in the airline industry, living in Saudi Arabia, Africa, England, and India. “Once I had all of this knowledge of culture from all around the world my dream was to take people on a journey through food.”
Eventually she established Vancouver’s only Indigenous restaurant, Salmon N’ Bannock. It wasn’t an easy journey, but the best ones never are. Inspired by her world travels, much of the menu reflects Inez’s global inspiration and palette, created with local, Indigenous ingredients.
“Recently we came up with the idea of following the diet of bears in Bella Coola. So, what we did was infuse blueberries with buffalo sage, and then use that as a marinade for salmon.” She shares that recipe with us here.
Comments