Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: The History of Eight Plants Native Peoples Shared with the World

Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D.

Chef ; Native Foods Historian

Walter Whitewater (Dine/Navajo)

Chef 

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky is the story of eight plants that Native peoles gave to the world: corn, beans, squash, chiles, tomatoes, potatoes, vanilla and cacao. Prior to 1492, these plants only existed in the Americas. Once these plants were introduced to cultures of the world outside of the Americas these cuisines were changed forever This is the story of the history of these plants in Native American cuisine.

Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D., is a Santa Fe, New Mexico based Chef, author, a Native foods historian, culinary anthropologist, educator, photographer, organic gardener, and a James Beard Award winning cookbook author, for her book Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations. She is the chef/owner of Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC (), a catering company specializing in Indigenous Cuisine and Cultural Education with a modern twist where she cooks alongside Native American Chef Walter Whitewater, Diné (Navajo). Dr. Frank has spent over 30 years documenting and working with the foods and lifeways of Native American communities in the Southwest. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Local Hero Olla Award, which recognizes an exceptional individual for the work they do to create healthy, innovative, vibrant, and resilient local sustainable food systems in New Mexico.

Walter Whitewater (Diné/Navajo), is a Native American chef, specializing in Indigenous Cuisine and Cultural Education using ancestral foods with a modern twist. He worked on the James Beard Award winning cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations with Chef Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D. and has traveled with Chef Frank, as part of the U.S. State Department and Consulate General’s Culinary Diplomacy Program to Ukraine (2013), the United Kingdom (2105) and Russia (2016) where the two chefs promoted indigenous foods of the Americas through the culinary arts.  He was one of the first Native American chefs to cook at the James Beard House in New York City and won the James Lewis Award in 2008 from BCA Global for his work as a Native chef.

Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky Modern Plant-Based Recipes Using Native American Ingredients, authored by Dr Frank with culinary advisor Walter Whitewater, was published in 2023.

For more information, including cooking videos, see redmesacuisine.com