No Wheat, No Sugar: Wyoming Students Master a James Beard Winner’s Indigenous Menu

At Central Wyoming College in Riverton, culinary students recently faced an unusual challenge: prepare a delicious, satisfying lunch using only ingredients native to North America. No wheat. No sugar. No beef, pork, or chicken. The menu, inspired by James Beard Award-winning Indigenous chef Sean Sherman, was served at the college’s 2026 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference—and it turned heads.

Sherman, owner of an Indigenous restaurant in Minnesota and author of the cookbook “Turtle Island,” helped students develop the North American-centric menu. Dishes included huckleberry-braised bison skewers with wild rice and juniper pilaf, bison meatball soup (a recipe from the Wind River Food Sovereignty Project), roasted mushroom and bean medley, corn-wild rice cake, and jicama-sweetcorn slaw. Dessert was a crumbly sunflower cookie with plum jam, paired with honey-sweetened chokecherry tea.

Ivan Posey, an enrolled member of the Wind River Reservation, cleaned his plate. “It’s probably a healthy and historical benefit,” he said. “Not only to Indigenous people, but to any people. But it takes time and work in this day and age of fast food.”

Sherman grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, working in restaurants from age 13 as a dishwasher. After mastering French, Italian, and other global cuisines, he realized he knew nothing about his own Lakota food heritage. There was no “Joy of Native American Cooking” to guide him. So he started from scratch, researching wild plants, processing methods, and pre-colonial fats, salts, and sugars. He launched The Sioux Chef with $3,000 in savings and a poor credit score. Today, his nonprofit promotes Indigenous food operations, healthier tribal options, and educational resources.

For CWC culinary student Ryan Bradshaw, Sherman’s menu was a revelation. “It’s flavors I’ve never worked with, colors I haven’t seen before, different aromatics,” he said. “It feels like it came straight from the Plains itself.” Bradshaw, who plans to study molecular gastronomy in Spain, found Sherman’s journey inspiring.

CWC’s hospitality director Justin Stone says the partnership will continue. The program is working with Jackson Hole’s Native Voices to prepare Indigenous dishes for gallery events. “This is arguably the oldest food on this continent,” Stone says. “Sean has brought Indigenous food into the modern era and made people understand how delicious and easy it can be.” For students and diners alike, that message came through loud and clear—one sunflower cookie at a time.