In the driver’s seat Chef wants her Indigenous-inspired menu to keep on trucking while she puts down permanent restaurant roots By: Eva Wasney Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Monday, Aug. 9, 2021

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This article was published 08/08/2021 (1138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tara Hall is just getting started.

The 40-year-old chef is the owner of Winnipeg’s Aboriginal Fusion food truck and she has her sights set on opening a restaurant — sans wheels — focused on the foods she grew up eating.

The elevator pitch is “traditional Aboriginal foods with a fine-dining twist,” Hall says. “We don’t have enough of that here.”

She was born in Vancouver and grew up with her great-grandparents and grandpa on Pinaymootang First Nation in the Interlake. Hall watched her elders and aunties closely in the kitchen and learned to make staples, such as bannock, fried pickerel and saskatoon berry jam, at a young age.

“Since I was five years old, all I remember eating was pickerel and potatoes and saskatoons,” she says, adding that those food memories are what inspired her current menu. “Everywhere up north and on any reserve those are big things — bannock and fish, the traditional food that if you have a feast, you bring those to the table.”

Hall has been on the road with Aboriginal Fusion since last summer and her bison burgers, fish and chips, bannock tacos and saskatoon milkshakes and cheesecakes have drawn a following. While many food-truck operators have struggled with the lack of summer festivals amid the pandemic, Hall posted up in the parking lots of grocery stores, churches and car dealerships, waiting for the crowds to come to her.

It’s safe to say the tactic has been successful.

“I have a good handful of customers that literally come to my truck every day for the same thing,” she says.

For Hall, learning to cook was a necessity. She spent time in foster care and was made to look after her three younger brothers when they were reunited with their mother, who was often absent.

“No one else was going to… feed us, so I’d have to do it when no one was around,” she says.

The tradition continued when Hall moved into her own place, only to have her brothers follow close behind. “I had a huge house full of people and I was the only one that would cook.”

It was a big responsibility, but family always encouraged her cooking. Everything from lasagna to pancakes and scrambled eggs received rave reviews from her siblings, particularly her brother Daniel, who was killed in 2012.

“He was always like, ‘You’re such a good cook, sis; you could win those TV (cooking competitions),’” she says.

Another major supporter was her husband’s aunt. Before she died, Hall promised her that she would enroll in culinary school at Red River College. She did, but had no real intention of following through. Hall had already spent years working on food trucks at the Red River Ex and as a caterer for church events.

“I didn’t really want to go to school for it because I already had so much experience… and I was older; I knew it was going to be a bunch of young kids,” she says. “But it was actually really good — the teachers were awesome, the students were awesome. I learned so much.”

Hall did her practicum at Joey Polo Park and worked at Prairie 360 before striking out on her own with a food truck. Serving her own brand of home-cooked, nostalgic food to the public feels “unreal” sometimes.

“I like seeing the pictures customers post (on social media) and how much they recommend it, how much they love it,” she says. Still, her biggest cheerleaders are at home: namely her seven children and her husband of 10 years/grill cook.

“The inspiration now is my husband and my kids; they’re always pushing me hard… and my husband has the most faith in me and everything I do.”

It’s clear Hall has a solid base of support — from family and the public — now all she needs to fulfil her restaurant dream is the right bricks-and-mortar location.

Aboriginal Fusion is back on the road this Wednesday after a short hiatus for summer holidays. Visit Facebook for a full menu, daily locations and updates on Hall’s future endeavours.

eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @evawasney