LORETTA BARRETT ODEN

Loretta Barrett Oden, Native American chef, food historian and lecturer, began her passionate relationship with food as a small child at the side of her mother, aunts and grandmothers near the Citizen Potawatomi Reservation in Oklahoma.
Founder of the famed Corn Dance Cafes in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oden along with her son, the late Chef Clay Oden, opened the first restaurants dedicated to showcasing the amazing bounty of foods indigenous to the Americas. She has spent most of her adult years studying, teaching and adapting recipes to preserve the culinary legacy of her upbringing.

She is currently filming a 13-week series for PBS entitled "Seasoned with Spirit, A Native Cook's Journey," that will begin airing in November of 2006.