Instagram story viewer> @spiritplateshow> Posts

spiritplateshow

@spiritplateshow

4.5K

followers

130

following

Spirit Plate is a streaming series where Chef Pyet DeSpain asks the question, does the future of our food lie in the traditions of our past? 👇

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Spirit Plate premieres today at 11 am ET on the PBS Food YouTube channel. @pbs #spirit plate by @spiritplateshow

2k

94

a year ago

🍽️ Spirit Plate with Chef Pyet DeSpain is streaming NOW during the Vision Maker Film Festival!

Join award-winning chef Pyet DeSpain, of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and Mexican-American heritage, on a culinary journey across Native lands and Turtle Island. Through cooking, ceremony, and storytelling, Pyet connects with Native chefs, seed keepers, knowledge holders, families, and communities who are revitalizing ancestral foodways and reclaiming their relationship with food, land, and spirit.

From 3,000-year-old ancestral seeds and traditional harvesting to fishing, foraging, bison, and community feasts, Spirit Plate explores how food can be a powerful vehicle for healing, identity, cultural survival, and Indigenous food sovereignty.

Everything is Connected

Spirit Plate is connected by Health & Wellness.

Health & Wellness recognizes that food is more than nourishment. It can be a source of healing, identity, connection, and spiritual sustenance. Throughout the series, Indigenous food traditions demonstrate the deep connections between the health of individuals, families, communities, culture, and the land.

✨ Watch Spirit Plate with Chef Pyet DeSpain and explore more festival selections streaming this month!
🔗 LINK IN BIO!

#SpiritPlate #ChefPyetDeSpain #VisionMakerMedia #VisionMakerFilmFestival #HealthAndWellness #IndigenousFood #NativeFood #FoodSovereignty #IndigenousFoodways #NativeStories #IndigenousCinema #NativeVoices #EverythingIsConnected by @spiritplateshow

20

1

a month ago

Long before stainless steel, non-stick pans, and industrial food processing, Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island developed cooking methods that worked with nature. Not against it.

From clay pots that slowly retained heat, to hot rock cooking that required no manufactured cookware, to wooden troughs, ash cooking, and the Hawaiian imu, these techniques preserved nutrients, used fewer processed ingredients, and connected people directly to the land.

Many modern cooking methods rely on highly processed oils, chemical coatings, and ultra-processed foods. Traditional Indigenous cooking emphasized whole ingredients, natural heat sources, seasonal harvesting, and community preparation.

These aren’t “old-fashioned” techniques. They’re time tested knowledge systems that sustained our ancestors for thousands of years.

Which Indigenous cooking method do you want to try?

#openfirecooking #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #NativeAmericanCuisine #IndigenousCulture #FoodIsMedicine by @spiritplateshow

3k

38

5 months ago

Rain, rough water, and lines in the ocean 🌧️🎣

Nothing beats chasing sockeye salmon and halibut through the wild waters of Alaska. Every cast came with a story, every wave with a challenge and we loved every second of it. 🐟🏔️

Prince of Wales Island, you were unreal.

#AlaskaFishing #SockeyeSalmon #HalibutFishing #PrinceOfWalesIsland #FishingAdventure by @spiritplateshow

48

2

5 months ago

Cooking bison the right way is all about patience, care, and flavor. 🔥🦬

Out at the Boys & Girls Club on the Prairie Band Potawatomi reservation in Mayetta, Kansas, Chef Pyet and her mom and grandpa come together to prepare a traditional bison stew for the annual pow wow.

The key? Low heat, a deep sear, layered seasoning, and letting the meat cook slow so it stays tender and juicy.

Because bison is leaner than beef, every step matters. From building that rich crust on the flat top to simmering it low and slow with broth, onions, and vegetables until the flavors come together.

Community cooking like this is more than food. Its story, tradition, and love being passed from one generation to the next. ❤️

#bison #kansas #decolonizeyourdiet #cookingtipsandtricks #indigenousfood by @spiritplateshow

77

6

5 months ago

“Before Native people were recognized as citizens of the United States they were already defending it.” 🇺🇸🪶

This Memorial Day, Spirit Plate honors the Native American veterans and warriors whose service and sacrifice helped shape this country’s history often long before the U.S. fully recognized their rights.

During World War I, nearly 12,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military, even though many were not yet considered U.S. citizens. Their bravery, loyalty, and extraordinary service challenged the federal government’s policies toward Native people and became one of the major reasons Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

Some powerful history and facts worth remembering:

• Native Americans serve in the military at one of the highest per-capita rates of any ethnic group in the United States.

• More than 44,000 Native Americans served during World War II.

• The Choctaw soldiers of WWI became some of the first “Code Talkers,” using Indigenous languages to protect military communications — a tradition later carried famously by Navajo Code Talkers in WWII.

• For many tribal nations, warrior traditions go back thousands of years and are rooted not in conquest, but in protection, honor, community, and sacrifice.

• Native veterans often returned home from war still facing discrimination, boarding school policies, land theft, and denial of voting rights yet continued fighting for their people and communities.

Today we remember the Indigenous men and women who carried both the flag of their tribal nations and the flag of the United States. Their stories deserve to be spoken, taught, and honored.

From all of us at Spirit Plate, thank you to our Native veterans, past and present. ❤️🫡

#memorialday #nativepride #militaryhistory #nativeamerican #nativeamericanculture taken in United States of America by @spiritplateshow

18

3

5 months ago

There’s something powerful about serving Indigenous food inside a Haida longhouse. Beach Asparagus dressed with fresh lemon. Blue Corn cake warmed from the fire. Freshly baked halibut finished simply so every buttery bite captures the richness of the ocean it came from. 🌿🐟

Cooking this meal for the Haida elders in Hydaburg is more than a meal. We see Indigenous foods coming together.

Dozens of stories shared through food.

Good medicine around the table.

If you could taste one of these dishes, which would it be?

#IndigenousCuisine #NativeFood #AlaskaNative #ChefLife #FoodStorytelling by @spiritplateshow

139

4

5 months ago

There’s a reason the imu has lasted for generations. 🔥

Long before modern kitchens, Native Hawaiian families gathered volcanic rocks, heated them over fire, and slow-cooked food beneath the earth in a tradition rooted in community, patience, and respect for the land. Chef Pyet honors that tradition by helping prepare pork in the imu using hot rocks gathered by hand, the same way kūpuna once did across the islands.

As the rocks hold and spread heat deep into the earth oven, banana leaves are layered on top, creating natural steam and kindling that locks in flavor while protecting the meat. Every layer has a purpose. Every step carries history.

This isn’t just cooking. This is storytelling coming to life through fire, stone, and soil. 🌴🐖🔥

Watching these traditions live on today is a reminder that Indigenous knowledge has always been sustainable, intentional, and deeply connected to the earth.

#NativeHawaiian #IndigenousCooking #FoodCulture #Imu #oahulife by @spiritplateshow

398

19

5 months ago

Before processed food, before preservatives, before “superfoods” became a trend, Native Hawaiian communities were already living from the land and ocean in ways that nourished both body and spirit. 🌊🌱

From kalo and ʻulu cultivated in rich volcanic soil, to limu gathered from the reef and fresh poke prepared straight from the ocean, these traditional foods weren’t just meals, they were part of a relationship with the ʻāina.

Minimal processing. Nutrient dense. Sustainable. Rooted in generations of Indigenous knowledge.
The future of healthy eating might actually look a lot like the past. 🤙🏽

#hawaiianculture #nativehawaiian #hawaiianfood #indigenousfoods #indigenousfoodsovereignty by @spiritplateshow

88

3

5 months ago

Walking this path to the Klamath River, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the generations before us who made this same journey.

For thousands of years, Indigenous families in Northern California came here to fish, gather food, and provide for their people. The river has always been more than water. it’s memory, survival, ceremony, and connection.

Being here reminded me that our traditions are still alive. Every step carries the prayers, teachings, and resilience of our ancestors who never let this way of life disappear.

Honored to walk the same path.
Honored to keep learning.
Honored to carry it forward.
🐾🌊💙

#klamathriver #NorCal #nativepride #nativeculture #indigenousstories by @spiritplateshow

83

5

5 months ago

“Our spit is good luck.”

Out on the waters of Prince of Wales Island Claude Young of the @tlingithaida Traditional Food Security Team teaches Chef Pyet the art of setline (longlining) halibut fishing to chef Pyet.

In Southeast Alaska it’s often casually called buoy hook fishing or fishing a skate line. Instead of actively reeling with a rod, baited hooks are attached to a line that’s weighted and left in the water, usually marked by buoys, then retrieved later. It’s a traditional and highly practical way to catch halibut.

Before the hooks hit the water, Hydaburg mayor Anthony Christianson offers a prayer and spits on each one. The act of saying a prayer and spitting on the hook is something you see in a lot of Indigenous and maritime fishing traditions across Alaska. Part blessing, part respect for the ocean, part fisherman’s luck. It’s less superstition in the cartoon sense and more about relationships: honoring the animal, the water, and asking for safe provision.

#alaskalife #halibutfishing #indigenousstories #nativeamerican #alaskaliving by @spiritplateshow

40

3

5 months ago

Maple, fire, and stone.

Chef Pyet joins Angela Ferguson at Onondaga Nation Farm to learn a traditional way of cooking salmon over hot rocks glazed with maple syrup gifted from the trees of the Nation itself.

From smoked, seared, and roasted salmon to a method rooted in land and ceremony, where maple is more than sweetness. It’s a reward after winter, and a responsibility carried forward through community and care.

Does the future of food lie in the traditions of our past?

#IndigenousFoodSovereignty #IndigenousCuisine #FoodReels #CookingReels #FoodStories by @spiritplateshow

186

10

5 months ago