Brian Yazzie, known as Yazzie the Chef is a Navajo chef. He celebrates and promotes Indigenous American foods.
He was born into the Navajo Nation in Dennehotso, Arizona. [1] He moved to Minnesota in 2013. [2]
In 2014, he became the chef de cuisine at Sean Sherman's the Sioux Chef. [3]
In 2016, Yazzie and his wife Danielle Yazzie-Polk founded Intertribal Foodways, a catering company in St. Paul. [1] The company prepares Indigenous meals and leads demonstrations for Native American communities. [3] In 2020, he started working at Gatherings Cafe, but it shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. [1] [4]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he partnered with the Minneapolis American Indian Center to prepare hundreds of meals for elderly people and delivering them for free. [5] [4]
Yazzie is a member of I-Collective, a group of indigenous chefs, farmers, foragers, hunters, and food historians. [6] He is also involved with Slow Food and was a delegate to Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Italy and to Indigenous Terra Madre in Japan. [6]
PBS's Independent Lens made an episode of their series of shorts "alter-NATIVE: Kitchen" about Yazzie. [7]