Indigenous chef offers refined take on Nunavut country foods

Rich Francis whipped up this Arctic char ceviche while visiting with friends in Iqaluit last week. He called it the freshest ceviche he’s ever had. (PHOTO COURTESY OF R. FRANCIS)

Chef Rich Francis, second from right, poses with First Food Foundation volunteers, from left, Franco Buscemi, Aaron Watson and Adamie Sakeeta, in Iqaluit last week. (PHOTO COURTESY OF R. FRANCIS)

Chef Rich Francis impressed Iqaluit diners with his Northern fare: crispy-skinned Arctic char, served with maktuq and red berries in a Labrador tea broth. (PHOTO COURTESY OF R. FRANCIS)

What do you get when you bring a Gwich’in chef to Nunavut to apply his culinary skills to country food?

A whole lot that’s mamaqtuq, apparently.

Rich Francis, a Northwest Territories-raised and Ontario-based chef, spent last week in Iqaluit, when he was invited to prepare a meal for the First Food Foundation’s local fundraiser.

On the menu at the July 9 event; crispy-skinned Arctic char, with maktaaq, drizzled in red berries and a Labrador tea broth.

The main dish was a refined take on Francis’ childhood favourite, caribou and oats: braised caribou legs with a wild rice and oatmeal risotto, with sage blueberries and crispy shallots.

“It looked beautiful,” said Franco Buscemi, a board member with the First Food Foundation who coordinated the fundraiser.

“It was almost all northern,” he said. “People loved the colour and the presentation — it was really vibrant.”

The event brought in more than $6,000 — money that will go to a Nunavut school to support its breakfast program.

But Francis said he’s leaving Nunavut with much more than he may have brought to happy diners in the territory’s capital, and that’s a new-found appreciation of the Inuit diet.

“It all stems down from not just the food, but also the people, who in this case are really connected to their culture,” he said. “It was an eye-opening experience.”

The beauty of country food is, and always had been, its simplicity: the ability to tuck into freshly-butchered food, often raw and even unseasoned.

“That was the huge challenge as an artist — I didn’t want to mess with anything,” Francis said. “All I wanted to do bring some new elements to accent the country food. I just wanted to add to it.”

But Francis said he found himself feeling sentimental during his visit to Iqaluit, surrounded by a similar offering of wild foods — comfort foods like caribou — that he grew up with in his hometown of Fort MacPherson, NWT.

“Growing up Gwich’in, it was always that way, we lived off the land,” he said.

Now people call it paleo, he said, referring to diet trend based on ancient eating habits. “But it’s not just a fancy catch phrase, it’s the way we’ve always lived.”

Now Canadians eat so much processed “crap,” he said, which has led to obesity and diabetes.

So Francis’ goal is to promote good quality food, while also bringing some artistry and modernizing Indigenous foods and cuisine.

“I don’t just feed people,” he said. “I’ve come to a point in my life where I can use my position to influence people. Chefs have become major role models.”

Francis discovered his taste for the culinary later in life, he said. He was employed as an iron worker and carpenter in the early 2000s, when he got hooked on the Food Network.

He started developing his own style in the kitchen, preparing healthy meals from whole foods and innovating with local ingredients.

Francis graduated from a Stratford, Ont. culinary school, and placed third last year on the television series Top Chef Canada.

Now Francis runs his own culinary business, District Red, where he’s developed a uniquely Indigenous menu.

But he hopes to return to Iqaluit in 2016, with an even bigger country foods menu.

“I’m just so inspired by using foods like seal and maaktaq,” he said. “It’s opened my eyes to so many other possibilities.”