Siksika chef shows expertise in foraging, cooking

A Siksika First Nation chef whose Toronto restaurant is receiving overwhelming reviews will kick off the second season of Untamed Gourmet.

“I had received requests for different TV things, but production quality and the sensitivity to the subject matter … and their art really showed through on their first season and it was just something I really wanted to be a part of,” said Aaron Bear Robe, who opened Keriwa Café in Parkdale, a trendy area of Toronto, two years ago.

Untamed Gourmet is a concept that spun off from Landscape as Muse, explains Ian Toews, executive producer with 291 Film Company. Landscape as Muse followed artists through Canadian landscapes and captured how they found their inspiration through nature. Untamed Gourmet follows chefs as they find ingredients in the wild and prepare their meals.

“We do documentaries. We don’t do hosted or reality shows,” said Toews. “We watch them forage their foods and prepare their meals.”

Chefs were chosen based on their use of Indigenous ingredients and geography, he adds. The six-episode series features chefs as they prepare meals ranging from bufflehead duck in interior British Columbia all the way to lobster in Prince Edward Island. Bear Robe’s segment is one of three which features Aboriginal chefs. In one episode Ben Genaille hunts duck, grouse and snowshoe hare in interior BC, and in another episode mother/daughter team Dolly McRae (Watts) and Annie Watts prepare sockeye salmon in Port Alberni, BC. As well five Aboriginal guides are teamed up with five chefs to help with foraging and hunting.

Bear Robe’s appeal was about more than easily fitting Untamed Gourmet’s criteria, says Toews.

“He’s young and charismatic and he’s good in front of the camera.”

For the season premiere episode, Bear Robe and his guide travelled two hours north of Toronto to the Collingwood area.
“By and large the entire meal was foraged for,” said Bear Robe. “I made a kitchen outside with a wood burning campfire.”

The three-course meal included an appetizer of wild salad, which “came from the forest floor” and consisted of wildflowers, spruce shoot and wild leek vinaigrette. The main course was rainbow trout wrapped in wild leek leaves and fiddleheads sautéed in wild ginger. Dessert was spruce tip infused sabayon with feral rhubarb syrup.

For his café, which focuses on Indigenous ingredients, Bear Robe doesn’t have the time to do his own foraging, but instead deals with local and regional suppliers. But his bison, which is a focus of Keriwa Café, comes from Alberta.

“Putting my own spin on it, bringing myself to the table, being able to express my ideas as a chef, obviously my culture comes through. I want to shine that, I want to showcase that and I’m glad it’s well-received,” said Bear Robe.

Keriwa Café’s website explains Bear Robe’s philosophy as, “Every ingredient has a purpose and that purpose is left unhindered as best at Keriwa Café.  An ever changing and evolving menu that can change at the whim of the seasons reflects an approach to cookery that is in tune with the Canadian landscape.”

Bear Robe lived on the Siksika First Nation until he was about 11 years old and then moved with his family to Calgary. He started working professionally as a chef in the downtown Calgary restaurant River Café.

“It’s all hard work. There are no shortcuts. I’ve been working 10 years as a chef. There’s a lot of things that go into restaurants when you’re thinking about being successful,” said Bear Robe. “I’m still learning as I go.”

In 2012, Keriwa Café was selected as one of Air Canada magazine En Route’s top 10 best new restaurants in the country. This past March, Bear Robe was noted as one of “30 top Toronto chefs” to participate at FoodShare’s annual Recipe for Change fundraiser in which 400 patrons pay $125 to taste the fare.

Bear Robe’s episode of Untamed Gourmet will air on Sept. 3 on APTN.