Welcome to my Weekend Ramble!
Food as Medicine: A Conversation with Chef Amy Foote
March 22nd, 2023
How a Hospital Food Program in Anchorage Strives to Heal the Alaska Native Community
Dear friends,
While I’m still out on leave (just for a little longer!),
and in honor of Women’s History Month, I want to share an inspiring
conversation one of my colleagues had with Amy Foote, Director and Executive
Chef of Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Medical Campus in
Anchorage, Alaska. Just for some context, the ANTHC provides
comprehensive medical and health services to Alaska Native and American Indian
patients through programming that strives to meet their unique needs.
Through her work, Chef Amy uses food as medicine to help
patients heal, often tapping into the culinary heritage of her patients to
ensure they’re having all of their needs met. Food, after all, is so much more
than a dietary requirement. Food can be medicine to the body and soul.
I’ll let my colleague Kristin Gole, WAC Content Strategist,
tell you a little more about Chef Amy and the incredible work that she
does.
***
When I first (virtually) met with Chef Amy Foote, a photo of
her holding something floral and interestingly-patterned appeared on the zoom
screen. I told her they reminded me of the cherry blossoms that were starting
to bloom outside of my window in New Jersey. She enthusiastically painted an
animated description of the herring eggs she was holding in the picture, which
had been harvested on a spruce branch, then explained how she used the eggs to
feed the patients she serves at the Alaska Native Medical Center in the Tribal
Health Consortium Campus. It was clear we were from different worlds, but her
excitement drew me in immediately.
Chef Amy and her team serve over 5000 meals a day, but
unlike other hospital food programs, she takes into account the healing
properties of food — a lesson Alaska continues to teach her over and over. Her
work bridges tradition and innovation in search of the larger impact food and
food systems have on our lives.
You’re originally from Montana. What brought you to Alaska?
I worked summers in Alaska since I was 15, in Prince William
Sound. After spending time back in Montana, I kept asking myself, how do I get
back to Alaska? Alaska is really polarizing for people. It either moves in and
sets up camp in your heart, or it doesn’t. For me it always called me back.
I totally hear you on that one. What did that call sound like for you?
For me, it’s almost a spiritual connection, magical. There’s
this surreal awe that happens living here. We just had the most amazing
northern lights. They were so close to my house, it felt like you could touch
them. I can come around the corner driving home and see a moose giving birth.
I can pull up in my driveway and have a grizzly bear in my
yard. There are magical extremes that play off of each other. We have
restricted times and then vast blasts of beauty.
There are things in Alaska you can only experience in
Alaska. The ability to be really, truly alone in the wilderness. You can feel
that stillness. Having that connectivity for my kids was really important to
me. I wanted my kids to be self-sufficient, to be able to learn that everything
you need is around you. Alaska is one of the few places that you can still do
that. You walk out and you have your food source and your medicine source right
there. Both of my boys stack firewood, harvest moose, catch fish. My youngest
is a plant nerd in the making.
Tell me a little bit about your understanding of food as healing.
Healing through food comes in many forms. The act of growing
and foraging is healing. Interacting with the land, the act of sharing and
giving, is an act of healing between each other. The act of eating gives
comfort, nourishment and wellness. The act of honoring the ingredients and
utilization is healing. Using food for healing is actually a secret and
rewarding gift of working here.
Specifically in your line of work, how do you go about using food to heal?
People usually have this stigma for hospital foods, but we
get to actually heal people. We had a patient that was here for months. They
had lots of long term healing to do after a plane crash. People get tired of
eating the same thing, so I went and sat with the patient. We talked about the
foods that sounded good, the foods they would consume, even their own family
recipes.
One of the big things we bring in when we can is seal [an
ingredient respected and long used by native Alaskans], so I made them seal
soup. They were amazed! They asked, “Where did you get seal?? How do you know
how to cook seal??”
Just watching this patient take this first spoon of seal
soup and the relaxation that occurred after that — there goes your stress, there
goes your anxiety, after months of being in a hospital. If you can make someone
take a deep breath, it’s a huge part of healing. The medicine has its place,
but if you are anxious, food can add that comfort, which provides that calmness
that can allow you to heal.
There’s also a nutritional aspect. To be able to offer the
foods that are tied genetically to our patients that their ancestors ate — like
seal, like caribou, like moose — that’s another aspect of healing we get to
provide. We serve a lot of salmon. Salmon is tied to all of the regions of
Alaska, and we’re feeding people from all over the state.
Well, we love salmon here at WAC too! Tell me about your relationship with salmon.
Salmon is what Alaskans live and die by. It’s how we feed
ourselves, how we feed our children, how we feed our sled dogs. We even use it
as a textile, like salmon leather!
A lot of fishing happens in Alaska, and one of the things I
frequently hear about is the frustration of discarded litter, of carcasses and
eggs after a fishing trip. But all of those are nutrient dense and completely
edible foods. So last year we started a program and began to collect donations
of heads, spines, eggs (what’s called spoon meat). We turned it into fish head
soup. There’s a lot of collagen in it. It’s really great healing, and that’s
what you want in a hospital.
It’s women’s history month, so I have to ask, what is it like being a female in a male-dominated industry?
After over 30 years, it has been an evolution. In my earlier
years, I was frequently the only woman in the kitchen. This required working
twice as hard, proving myself each and every moment of each and every
day.
Eventually, there was a point where I felt like I’d proven
myself enough. I got tired of proving myself to people and I wanted to take
those lessons and help others learn and grow and blossom. I went into more of a
teaching, mentoring role.
I’m a builder. I’m known for pushing people out of their
comfort zones and challenging them to do things they didn’t know they could do;
like presenting, teaching, being in front of a crowd, carving at a station. I
have folks I’ve hired that were unhoused and on the street. I hired them and
mentored them into sous chef roles. I believe in constant learning, giving
back, offering opportunities for growth and honoring my own teachers. I also
strive to create a culture of family where we all support each other toward our
common success.
What lessons have you learned from female mentors or elders?
Elders are the keepers of the past to help guide us to the
future. I have learned many powerful lessons from female elders. Most resonant
in me is to ethically harvest, take only what you need and can honor by using
every bit of. Support your elders who can no longer harvest and learn from those
who can. Observe quietly and learn all you can. Do everything with reciprocity,
intention, respect and love.
What do you want people in the Lower 48 to know about seafood from Alaska?
People need to look at their box of wild Alaskan fish as a
box of gold.
Knowing the survival it took for that fish to grow, the
voyage to even get out to sea and survive — I want everyone to have awareness
and passion for continuing to protect what allows us to have that beautiful
fish, whether that’s looking at the water regulatory practices, the land, to
making sure that fish can continue to come back every year. That’s really
important to me. I also want people to know that fishing is the livelihood of a
very awesome community of people.
And from a chef’s perspective: please don't overcook it!
Wild Alaskan salmon is less fatty than a farm raised Atlantic salmon. I
sometimes hear, “Oh it’s so dry,” but it’s not if you don’t overcook it! Honor
that ingredient!
***
Thank you to Amy for talking with the WAC team!
Before I sign off today, with Ramadan beginning this week, I
am reminded of a wonderful New York Times article published last year about
how the
diverse Muslim community in Anchorage observes this period of fasting.
I highly recommend this read — in fact, I just reread it myself.
For those of you who observe Ramadan, I wish you a happy and
generous Ramadan. And Happy Women’s Month to all!
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: Chef Amy Foote in her chef jacket, alongside
a couple of the culinary creations that she’s developed to help nourish
patients at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Medical Campus.
Have a great week, everyone, and thank you for your support!
Blessed be… and happy cooking!
Chef Michael R