Louis Trevino

Last updated
Louis Trevino
Native American Chefs Visit Chemical Engineering Class - 52310580136.jpg
Trevino teaching at UC Davis
Born1991
Education UC Berkeley
Culinary career
Cooking style Ohlone cuisine
Current restaurant(s)
Television show(s)
  • Tending Nature
Award(s) won

Louis Trevino (born 1991) is an American Rumsen Ohlone chef and co-founder of Cafe Ohlone. Trevino was raised in the Los Angeles area and attended UC Berkeley. [1] He met his future partner Vincent Medina at an Indigenous languages conference in 2014. [2]

Contents

Personal life

As a child, Trevino's family owned a Mexican restaurant in Chino Hills, California. [3]

Cafe Ohlone

In 2018, Trevino and Medina founded the first Indigenous restaurant in the state of California as a pop-up in the courtyard of the University Press Bookstore in Berkeley. [3]

In a 2019 interview with KQED , Trevino noted his work at Cafe Ohlone highlighted the legacy of colonialism in California, stating, "We’re making people responsible for what they know and where they live and what they’re implicated in by their presence here." [4]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, University Press Bookstore closed down in 2020, and Cafe Ohlone transitioned to a monthly meal kit program. [5] [6] In 2021, Cafe Ohlone re-opened as ‘oṭṭoy at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. [7] Trevino was a semi-finalist for a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Emerging Chef in 2023. [8] [9]

Teaching

Trevino has introduced Ohlone cuisine through teaching, guest lecturing in a food engineering course at UC Davis in 2022. [10] That same year, he gave a lecture at the Pacifica Coastside Museum in Pacifica on the history of the California genocide, followed by an Ohlone meal. [11]

Revitalization

Trevino is involved with the revitalization of the Rumsen language and teaches it through mak-‘amham — an Ohlone cultural organization he co-founded with Medina in 2017. [12] [13] Trevino stated to Slow Food that his aim is to uplift future generations of Ohlone youth, stating, "Moving forward, young people today and in the future will be empowered to continue the work of revitalization until our culture is as elevated and celebrated as any other." [14] Departures Magazine noted Trevino's work also goes "beyond revival" by reflecting "the vibrant, living, evolving Ohlone culture that is here now, that has been here for centuries." [15]

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References

  1. Brown, Patrich Leigh (11 December 2022). "Indigenous Founders of a Museum Cafe Put Repatriation on the Menu". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  2. Kell, Gretchen. "A healing collaboration: Café Ohlone moves onto Berkeley campus". UC Berkeley. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  3. 1 2 Mindess, Anna (30 August 2022). "Reservations are now open at one of Berkeley's most anticipated restaurants". Berkeleyside. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  4. "Indigenous California Chefs are Reviving and Preserving Native Cuisines". KQED. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  5. Tsai, Luke (29 June 2021). "Embracing a Painful History, the World's Only Ohlone Restaurant Finds Unlikely New Home". KQED. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  6. Levin, Aaron. "Winter Bounty: Indigenous Chefs Sustain Communities Amid a Pandemic". American Indian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  7. Birdsall, John (15 May 2019). "In Berkeley, Cafe Ohlone brings back the Bay Area's first foods". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2022-08-15. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  8. "THE 2023 JAMES BEARD AWARDS SEMIFINALISTS". James Beard Foundation. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  9. Harris, Emily. "Bay Area eateries and chefs named James Beard semifinalists". Axios. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  10. Pflueger-Peters, Noah (22 September 2022). "Native American Chefs Teach Chemical Engineering Students About Culture and the Food Industry". UC Davis. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  11. Campbell, Eileen (16 August 2022). "Cafe Ohlone opens in Pacifica for one delicious day". Pacifica Tribune. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
  12. "At the Table: Indigenous Chefs Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino from Cafe Ohlone". Asian Art Museum. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  13. "Vincent Medina & Louis Trevino". Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  14. Kunen, Julie (18 December 2019). "SLOW FOOD LEADERS: VINCENT MEDINA AND LOUIS TREVINO". Slow Food USA. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  15. Renata Aron, Nina. "Delicious Tradition". Departures. Retrieved 25 July 2023.