Where to Try Indigenous Dishes Across California

When the Slow Food Foundation needed a host for the new U.S. edition of the Terra Madre Festival, the organization (whose motto is “good, clean, and fair food for all”) selected California. The state grows the vast majority of the United States’ produce and is home to more Michelin-starred—not to mention Michelin Green-starred—restaurants than any other state in the country. These accolades for quality and sustainability are all part of an ethos with deep roots, so we sat down with Monterey Bay chef Christina Lonewolf, who cooks what she calls “Indigenous Californio cuisine,” for her insights and culinary recommendations. (Listen to this recent episode of our Unpacked podcast for more from Lonewolf.)

Photo by Coel Mayer

Native people in California have been making the most of the land’s natural bounty for some 12,000 years, farming and foraging a broad spectrum of seasonal ingredients. From the tart, earthy elderberries of the Sierra Nevada to the sweet, buttery abalone of Monterey Bay, food is fundamentally sacred to the Indigenous people here, as is the responsibility to protect the land, plants, and animals that provide it.

With more than 100 federally recognized tribes that continue to call the state home, Indigenous foodways are diverse and constantly changing with the seasons, evolving into something new. Today, as the slow food movement’s values become increasingly widespread in fine-dining restaurants worldwide, a new generation of Indigenous people is reimagining their heritage and taking the state’s culinary offerings to remarkable new heights.

In the culinary hub of Monterey Bay

Though California’s culinary capital may be difficult to pin down, few places represent the state’s gastronomic diversity quite like Monterey Bay. The region’s thriving ecosystems and protected natural cove have long made it a sustainable source of sustenance and a strategic hub—first for the Ohlone tribes, who foraged and bartered in and around the Bay for millennia, then for the colonizers who valued it as a critical port well before California achieved statehood.

Between the abundance of ingredients and the influx of cultural influences, the region has become synonymous with good eating, from the elegant bistros of Carmel-by-the-Sea to the historic inns that cling to the rugged cliffs of Big Sur.

Today, Lonewolf is one of several Native people in California authoring a new chapter in this ancient culinary history. She honors the regenerative and nutritious foodways that sustained her ancestors while channeling the creative, multicultural approaches she honed at some of California’s most acclaimed fine-dining restaurants.

At Chieftess Monterey Bay

Photo by Coel Mayer

Growing up in a Mexican American household in the Salinas Valley, Lonewolf first fell in love with food when visiting her grandmother’s home in Salinas. There, her grandmother would make tortillas by hand and trade homegrown produce with her neighbors. After working as a teenage server at a greasy spoon, the chef worked her way up through the industry ranks at some of California’s most iconic kitchens.

Following a bartending gig at the Lodge at Pebble Beach, she served as an apprentice chef at Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn. At Sierra Mar, Lonewolf began to see how effectively food could represent place, with the kitchen turning out dishes like rye bread baked with local seaweed and topped with smoked mussel purée and pickled sea grapes. She considered it quintessential Big Sur. “It sat on this beautiful rock,” she says, “and it was like the ocean came to you.”

Her time at Sierra Mar led to stints at two of Monterey’s most acclaimed restaurants, Cella and Stokes Adobe. After discovering her Indigenous heritage during the COVID-19 lockdown, Lonewolf saw an opportunity to learn more about—and celebrate—her newfound ancestry. “There was a lot of Italian food, a lot of Portuguese, and Japanese, but really nothing from the origins, from the people,” she said. Lonewolf began reaching out to local tribes, like the Esalen of Big Sur, to learn to forage and immerse herself in the ways of the past.

She became a private chef, calling herself Chieftess Monterey Bay and embracing pre- and post-colonial approaches to cooking with a style she calls “Indigenous Californio cuisine.” Offering cooking classes, ceremonial banquets, and pop-up dinners, Lonewolf now aims to “re-Americanize” familiar dishes with native, often traditional ingredients—many of which have become unfamiliar to the common American palate. Think bison burgers with elderberry aioli and miner’s lettuce, and acorn-flour ravioli stuffed with foraged ingredients like black sage from Big Sur and porcini mushrooms from Pacific Grove.

Ultimately, Lonewolf trusts that people are eager to embrace this new yet ancient approach to eating. “I think people are now…[increasingly] aware of the mass production of food that’s been happening in America for a long time,” she says. “It looks beautiful in the grocery store…yet it has none of the nutrients that it originally had from its wild state.” She’s hardly alone in her vision.

At chef Lonewolf’s recommended Monterey Bay spots

Courtesy of Visit California/Max Whittaker

It’s an ideology shared by many across Monterey Bay, including devoted artisanal producers with whom Lonewolf has collaborated, such as Carmel Valley Creamery (where she also loves taking friends), Fireline Farms, Monterey Bay Seaweeds, and Rustique Winery. You can enjoy the fruits of these partnerships at her pop-ups at events, ranging from Carmel’s Soirée by the Sea to Big Sur’s Loma Vista Gardens.

For Lonewolf, food has the power to bring people together and to heal. As a guest of the Big Sur Food & Wine Festival earlier this year, with chef Isabel Escorcia, Lonewolf co-hosted the Chieftess’ Table, a ceremonial banquet featuring a female chef, all-female sommeliers, and an opening blessing with an Esalen elder. Lonewolf describes cooking with intention like that—from foraging to relationships with farmers—as healing. “There’s romance involved,” she says. “There’s connection, there’s love, all involved in this food.”

Among Lonewolf’s personal favorite places to eat is Stokes Adobe in downtown Monterey, which she helped reopen in 2021. She recommends its beautiful décor and drinks by beverage director Matthew Eggleston, describing one named Jade Cove after a Big Sur beach. The chef also suggests the cocktail program at another restaurant (also a former employer) down the street, Cella. There, bartender Joshua Perry dreams up creative options made with true craft, topping drinks with everything from local seaweed to more irreverent garnishes like a single Fruit Loop or mini strawberry Pop-Tart.

Courtesy of Visit California/Max Whittaker

Elsewhere in the area, Lonewolf loves to take friends to the hot-spring tubs overlooking the ocean at the Esalen Institute, where you can often see sea otters playing below. More scenic views await on 17-Mile Drive, which connects Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach. She suggests walking trails in Pacific Grove off 17-Mile Drive to see shards of abalone shells—evidence of Indigenous people fishing. For more hiking and history, a favorite is Point Lobos, where you can see whaling cabins with cauldrons used to boil down the fat and follow the Point Lobos Loop Trail (about six miles), which Lonewolf likes to do.

For kids (the chef has a toddler-aged son), if Lonewolf’s not at the river in Carmel Valley, she’ll head to Hacienda. The farm supply store also has a country market, train rides, a corn pit, activities, and more.

She suggests starting a day in Monterey Bay at Alta Bakery in its back garden with coffee or a matcha latte. Another top spot for baked goods is Ad Astra Bakery, founded by chef Ron Mendoza, formerly of French Laundry. Lonewolf highlights his pastries, like salmon tartines and cinnamon rolls, and “super killer” bread.

At Café Ohlone in Berkeley and Wahpepah’s Kitchen in Oakland

Courtesy of Visit California/Max Whittaker

For Lonewolf, Indigenous food experiences also help diners shift their perspectives, like seeing ingredients like acorns as more than food sources for animals but as a staple for Natives. And there are plenty of other opportunities throughout California to discover Indigenous foodways.

Located on campus at the University of California, Berkeley, Café Ohlone—and affiliated pop-ups like ‘ammatka and ‘ottoytak—aim to serve and preserve the cuisine of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Menus use traditional ingredients like venison, salmon, and native berries under the guidance of the Ohlone leaders and academics, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino. Nearby in Oakland, Kickapoo Nation member Crystal Wahpepah helms Wahpepah’s Kitchen, offering a range of Indigenous comfort foods, from sweet potato–hibiscus taquitos to bison fry bread tacos, all in a welcoming, casual setting.

At Séka Hills in Capay Valley and Camins 2 Dreams in Santa Barbara

Further inland in Sacramento’s Capay Valley, Séka Hills represents the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s commitment to sustainable agriculture. The tasting room pours estate-grown olive oils and wines while educating visitors about the tribe’s 10,000-year history in the region. Further south along the Santa Barbara Coast, Lompoc’s Camins 2 Dreams is another Indigenous-owned winery led, in part, by Tara Gomez, a member of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians.

Ultimately, these culinary experiences connect travelers more deeply to place and to people. As Lonewolf says, “Food always brings everybody together. We all love to eat.”

To discover more Indigenous experiences in the Golden State that extend far beyond the kitchen, check out Visit Native California. The helpful resource shares insights into the traditions, personalities, and stories that continue to shape this state, all while helping to ensure that the money you spend on travel in the region benefits these communities directly.