Dr. Lois Ellen Frank is a Santa Fe, New Mexico based Native American Chef, a foods historian, culinary anthropologist, James Beard Award-winning cookbook author, photographer and organic gardener. She is the owner of Red Mesa Cuisine, LLC a Native American catering company specializing in ancestral Native American cuisine with a modern twist. Dr. Frank spent over 25 years documenting the foods and life ways of Native Americans in the Southwest, which won her the James Beard Award for her cookbook entitled, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations. Dr. Frank is an adjunct professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).

Chef Whitewater was awarded the James Lewis Award and was the first Native American chef ever to receive this award in the culinary and hospitality industry. During Chef Whitewater’s professional cooking experiences, he has remained active in many of his Navajo traditional ways at his home in Pinon, Arizona returning each year for ceremonial obligations. Presently, Whitewater teaches cooking classes, at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, on Native American Foods of the Southwest with chef Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D. (Kiowa). Their cooking classes feature recipes from the James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, Ten Speed Press.