Lois Ellen Frank, PhD

About the Author

Lois Ellen Frank, PhD, is a Santa-Fe based, James Beard Award-winning author, chef, Native foods historian, educator, and photographer. Dr. Frank has spent over 30 years documenting foods and life ways of Native Americans from the Southwest. She received her PhD from the University of New Mexico in Cultural Anthropology focusing on the discourse and practice of Native American cuisine and was a Culinary Ambassador Diplomat with the U.S. State Department and Office of Cultural Affairs.

Walter Whitewater is from the Diné (Navajo) Nation. He is now a chef with Red Mesa Cuisine, specializing in Native American Cuisine using ancestral foods with a modern twist. The Culinary Advisor on the James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, Chef Whitewater won the James Lewis Award for his work as a Native chef.