Revitalizing Native Foods

Heidi Lucero | Chia Café Collective

By: Catherine Fox
Chocolate chia pudding in a small bowl topped with pine nuts, mint, and chocolate chips

NHM Online Presents ChocoLAte: From Beans to Bliss, a video series celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of chocolate.

Heidi Lucero is a Professor of American Indian Studies at California State University Long Beach. Her research focuses on California archaeology and cultural anthropology. Heidi sat down with NHM to discuss her love of chocolate and its use in Native dishes. 

Watch the video below to learn more about Heidi Lucero and her connection to cultural sustainability through her love of Native foods.

 
HEIDI LUCERO

Heidi Lucero is a member of the Acjachemen tribe from Orange County and the Mutsun Ohlone tribe from the inland Monterey Bay Area. As Chairwoman of the Juaneño Tribal Council, Heidi is a culture bearer who works with the Chia Café Collective to revitalize Native foods and share Indigenous knowledge through recipes and cooking demonstrations. 

Born and raised in the Long Beach/Harbor City area, Heidi grew up with a love of spicy hot chocolate made with fresh whole milk on the stove by her grandmother. Recently, she has combined that love of chocolate with Native ingredients to put a modern twist on traditional foods.

Food is community…[it] brings people together.

Heidi Lucero 
Woman standing in a garden
Juaneno Band of Mission Indians Acjachemen Nation Chairwoman, Heidi Lucero visits NHM's Native Plant Garden.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

I really wanted to include something that other communities were also revitalizing and who doesn't love chocolate?

Heidi Lucero 
Small purple flowers blooming on a Salvia sage plant
Salvia columbariae, commonly called chia, chia sage, or golden chia, is an annual plant native to California.
Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5

CHIA CAFE COLLECTIVE

The Chia Café Collective brings together Indigenous peoples across Southern California to share their traditions and connections to the land. In addition to Native plant cultivation, Native food workshops, and classes, the Collective published a collection of Indigenous recipes in its cookbook, Cooking the Native Way.

As part of the Chia Café Collective, Heidi contributed her own recipe to the cookbook: a creamy cacao chia pudding. Native to the coastal regions and southern Sierras, chia is a traditional food for Indigenous tribes in Southern California. To make her delicious pudding, Heidi combined this superfood with cream cheese, cocoa powder, almond milk, coconut cream, vanilla extract, and agave syrup. After mixing and chilling, the chia seeds swell and absorb all chocolatey goodness, perfect in every rich and decadent bite.

The book, Cooking the Native Way, was really developed between a group of Native people and artists that were trying to revitalize all aspects of Native food. And I think that's what brought me to decide to use cacao… [it’s] not just something that we all love to eat, but it's something that is a Native art.

Heidi Lucero 
Cookbook open to the recipe page for chia cacao pudding
The Chia Café Collective’s cookbook, Cooking the Native Way, includes essays highlighting the diverse ingredients, flavors, and health benefits of Native dishes.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

I want people to sense that it's not only something that is tasty and yummy and delicious, but it has so many nutritional values as well, and so healthy for you.

Heidi Lucero 
Small bowls of ingredients on a table, including cream cheese, cacao, chocolate chips, chia, milk, pine nuts, mint, and honey
A mixture of sweet and savory ingredients makes Heidi’s creamy chia cacao pudding a mouthwatering treat.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

THE ARTISTRY OF CHOCOLATE

Heidi notes that making “cacao out of a bean is an art form,” one that we often overlook when buying chocolate off the shelf. She is proud to contribute her knowledge and practice toward recipes that can be shared with wide audiences interested in learning the history and artistry of preparing Native foods and preserving those traditions for future generations.

That's why I chose cacao, so that it could highlight some of the history of this very, very special plant and product that we get from it.

Heidi Lucero 
Woman with tattooed hands holding a small bowl of chocolate chia pudding
Heidi and the Chia Café Collective have succeeded in combining the science, health, history, and culture of Native foods into an art form that can be shared and enjoyed by everyone.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

EXPLORE MORE FROM HEIDI LUCERO

Interested in learning more about Chia Café Collective? Click here to check out their recipes and upcoming events! You can also hear more from Heidi Lucero and her work, as presented in our Becoming Los Angeles exhibition and Voices of L.A. Nature.

SPILL THE CACAO BEANS ON YOUR CHOCOLATE FAVORITES

Have you tried Chia Café Collective’s recipes? Do you know another L.A. chocolatier who lovingly connects with their community?  We want to hear from you! Join the conversation on social media and tag us @NHMLA with #chocoLAte.

Following the success of Kneaded: L.A. Bread Stories and L.A. at Play: Dolls & Figurines, we're celebrating the history, heritage, and communities of Los Angeles through the lens of different cultural traditions. This year, ChocoLAte: From Beans to Bliss seeks to inspire, captivate, and tap into the deep-rooted love for chocolate that flows through the veins of this vibrant city.