Chef Holly Holt is cooking and feeding the community

By Laura Mushumanski

(ANNews) – Chef Holly Holt is a proud Okanagan Syilx woman (snpink’tn Indian Band) and an award winning Chef in Treaty 6 Territory, Edmonton AB. She comes from a big food family. Her maternal grandmother was always experimenting with different foods and that led to a life-long passion turned career for Holly that has stretched into cooking and feeding for community.

At the age of 23, Holt went to culinary school, sharing “I just wanted to learn about food.” At the school, she soon realized that it was mainly focused on French Cuisine and that there was a lack of diversity in food culture and ways of sharing food cross culturally in a respectful way. This became the start of Holt’s journey to fill the gap in an area that she saw was lacking.

Over the last five years, cooking has really started to take off for Holt. She began creating dishes that were not only nutritious but also always easy to prepare and accessible with others in mind. At first, Holly was making freezer meals to help her father who, at the time, was having medical issues. Prepping healthy meals for her loved one expanded into prepping for people wanting healthy lunches. As founder of She Cooks Inc. Holly started to offer healthy lunch bowls, which led to becoming a part of the Yellowhead Tribal Council as a cook for their healthy lunch program for staff.

As Holt shared increasing amounts of nutritious food, she started noticing how much this was impacting community. “This started to open me up to my purpose – cooking and feeding the community,” she shared. While utilizing foods from the land as an inspiration as much as she can, Holt has been able to expand her creative flare in cooking to not only bring nutrients to all that enjoy her meals, but also the vibrant and robust colors and smells that are on the plate.

Reflecting on her journey thus far, Holt recalls that she used to be terrified that she’d do stuff wrong and was scared to experiment with food. Over time she built her confidence as she kept doing what she loves –  cooking. To date, Holt continues to trust her own instincts, and do things in her own way, stemming from teachings she’s learned along her journey that have ultimately improved her cooking. And as she gained insight into patience and what that means, she is beginning to understand the depths of protocol, and the impact it has on food even when using good water. “All those things really put me on a good path, and as a result it shows up in my food, with the secret ingredient being love.”

Readers can find out what Holly is cooking by accessing her social media channels on Facebook and Instagram.

Laura Mushumanski is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter.