This year’s Fall Rendezvous activities at the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site to be held from Wednesday Sept. 25 to Saturday Sept. 28 will include a special food event.
Indigenous chef Zach Keeshig of Owen Sound will be visiting the site to demonstrate Ojibway meal preparation and offering a taste of his culinary creations to visitors at a ticketed event Saturday Sept. 28.
There will be two sessions — the first at 10:30 a.m., the second at 2 p.m.
Tickets for Saturday’s culinary event are $40 per person and can be purchased in person at the Ermatinger Clergue National Historic Site or by phone at (705) 759-5443.
“It’ll be a cooking class with time for questions and answers and food tasting," Keeshig said in a phone interview with SooToday. "It’s knowledge sharing about cooking Indigenous food."
Keeshig said that Saturday’s meal will be served in the form of a tasting menu for paying customers — consisting of sample portions of many different dishes served in several courses — and will include bannock, hung yogurt, smoked lake fish, Canadian caviar and foraged herbs.
Keeshig has been a professional chef for 18 years, trained at the best hotels in Canada.
After operating a popular pop-up business at farmers markets, Keeshig purchased a bricks and mortar building in Owen Sound in January as a home for his own restaurant named Naagan — Ojibway for ‘dish.’ The restaurant’s interior has undergone extensive renovation and is designed to resemble the inside of a log cabin or sweat lodge with floor to ceiling wood. Keeshig anticipates opening Naagan to diners in October.
“I specialize in progressive Indigenous food (combining Indigenous dishes with knowledge and techniques gained from working in upscale hotel kitchens) served in a tasting menu form. I have nine courses for guests who reserve at Naagan,” Keeshig said.
Everything is served fresh.
“We don’t cook with frozen ingredients. The only things we cook with are locally sourced from local farmers, anglers and hunters as well as foraged herbs in our area,” Keeshig said.
Keeshig’s culinary work has been highlighted in major newspapers and on TV.
The chef wants to see Naagan become Canada’s first Indigenous restaurant to receive a Michelin Star, an award given to restaurants with exceptional cuisine.
“Indigenous food is under-represented cuisine. You hear about Chinese food, French food and Italian food but we want Indigenous food in that conversation. That’s the mission that I’m on, to put Indigenous cuisine on the map in Canada, to be right up there with everybody else,” Keeshig said.
“I was in Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island not too long ago but I’ve never been to the Sault. I’m looking forward to it,” Keeshig said of his upcoming visit.
Photos of Keeshig's Indigenous dishes can be seen at the Naagan by Zach Keeshig social media page.
