Chef Andrew George Jr. is an accomplished chef, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief, and BC Restaurant Hall-of-Famer, among his long list of achievements. He grew up in the small town of Telkwa and never thought of becoming a chef, until one summer he was cooking up a storm for his workmates.

What started as cooking around the fire has turned into a lifetime of culinary achievements, yet Chef George has always stayed true to his roots. His connection to his culture is shown through his food and his commitment to uplifting Indigenous people in skilled trades.

What was it like to be inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame?

It flooded back a lot of memories of the whole journey, right back to growing up in Telkwa, out in the territories, hunting, fishing, trapping, gathering. I also thought about how I lived two different lives: a non-native way of living, and growing up in the feast hall, which is connected to our territories and our customs. So, when you look at that, there are two different educations.

I’ve been groomed by a line of hereditary chiefs that encouraged me to move forward and go see the world. I traveled a lot as a chef, but I also brought my customs with me, like sitting in a teepee in Frankfurt, Germany and reading a letter from my younger sister at the World Culinary Olympics in ’92. So that's what came through my mind when I got inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Do you have any words of advice for aspiring chefs?

If I had a message to the younger Andrew, stuff that happened in the past, let it go. Don't hang on to it, because if you hang on to it, you're gonna get angry and it's gonna eat at you, and it's gonna affect your health, and you'll never get anywhere. There's nothing you can do about that but learn from it, just make sure it doesn't ever happen again. 

Do you know why the rear-view mirror in the car is so small? You just have to glance at that rearview mirror every now and then just to look what's behind it, but you always look forward because if you continue looking at the rearview mirror, you're going to run off the road.

The other part that got me to where I am is our elders. They play a very key role and I've always migrated to the elders ever since I was a little boy because they have the experience of life; they have a very calm way of directing you and pointing you in the right direction. Some of my best advisors in life may have had a grade three or four education and that's the plain truth of it, that's our hereditary chiefs.

My message to the youth is to move forward in a good way, get a good education, and take care of your health. Don't depend on anybody 'cause if you depend on somebody, it isn't gonna happen, and how you do that is to get an education.

In your experience, how does food bring people together? 

Through our customs and the feast hall, food was very central to everything, it brought us all together, it nourished everybody, it brought stories from the territories. No different at Christmas, in a modern world, it brings our families together. To me it's all about enjoying each other's company and reaching out and helping each other. It doesn’t have to be Christmas to be giving or receiving in our culture. It was every day that everybody received and gave things in our culture and the feast hall. It was about giving, giving and giving. To me that's forgotten today in the modern world, where everybody's all about technology. Simple things are the best things.

Can you share any memorable moments where a shared meal created a deep connection?

When we butchered up a moose, I tied it up and boy, my uncles were proud. I did a moose prime rib, and my uncle was just like, “Man, it's like I bought that at Super Value!” He was really proud, so that's probably one of my proudest moments.

If you could design the perfect Christmas menu, what would it include?

I would go back to tradition, turkey, and my mom’s moose steaks from the hip.
She would tenderize it with a whole bunch of vegetables and tomatoes, and you would serve that on rice. That was delicious.

Do you have any special rituals or traditions in your kitchen during the holiday season?

When I had my own restaurant,  I'd work with all my suppliers, and we put together a meal for the local homeless and the shelters. That being said, in the kitchen it's an absolute blast when you're doing banquets of 300 to 500. I just love to have fun with the staff. We dance a lot, we joke a lot, we have a good time, but we produce -- and that's the fun of the kitchen.