🐻 Order Up! A Conversation with Chef Elena Terry, Indigenous Chef, Mom, & Founder of Wild Bearies

The founder of Wild Bearies on ancestral foods, grace in imperfection, and why healing starts at the table

We’re honored to bring you this interview with Chef Elena Terry, part of our series this November during Native American Heritage Month. A time to honor the history, cultures, and contributions of Indigenous peoples across the United States, this is a reminder that Native communities and Native foods are not just part of our past, but a vibrant, living part of our present.

At One Potato, we believe food tells the story of who we are and where we come from. That’s why, throughout this month, we’re honoring Native chefs who are preserving tradition, reclaiming identity, and bringing Indigenous foodways to the table. Read our interviews with Chef Jeremy Thunderbird, Chef Shane M. Chartrand, and the Founder of Tocabe, Ben Jacobs.

Small Bites:

This Native American Heritage Month, discover the incredible ingredients and stories behind Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace—cofounded by Ben Jacobs of the Osage Nation. Each item you buy supports Native farmers and keeps food traditions thriving.

👉 Get 15% off your order with code ONEPOTATO

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Chef Elena Terry

Chef Elena Terry on Family, Healing, and Honoring Indigenous Foods

For Chef Elena Terry, food isn’t just nourishment, it’s memory, medicine, and a path home. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the executive chef and founder of Wild Bearies, a nonprofit devoted to healing and connection through Indigenous foods, Elena has built a life around reclaiming what was nearly lost. Chef Elena was raised between Chicagoland and Wisconsin Dells, which is the ancestral Ho-Chunk homelands that have since become the “waterpark capital of the world”; she knows firsthand what it means to hold on to your roots in a place that can make it hard to see them.

Through Wild Bearies, Elena merges her culinary background with community education, working with organizations from the Smithsonian to the James Beard Foundation to reintroduce ancestral foods and the teachings that come with them. Her work, like her story, is grounded in resilience: walking away from hardship, choosing healing, and showing her children what it means to invest in yourself and your community.

In our conversation, Elena shared the deep lessons she learned from her grandparents—walking through the woods, gathering berries, learning the language of the plants—and how she’s now passing those teachings to her own children. She spoke about food as medicine, the importance of giving ourselves grace, and what gives her hope for the next generation of eaters and growers.

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A message from our friends at Tocabe:

The Original American Ingredients — From Tocabe’s Kitchen to Yours
Before corn, beans, squash, and bison became staples of the American table, they were—and are—Native foods, cultivated and cared for by Indigenous communities for generations. Ben Jacobs, co-founder of Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace and member of the Osage Nation, is on a mission to bring those ingredients and their stories back to the center of the plate.

Through Tocabe, Ben and his team partner directly with Native growers to make it easy for families to cook with intention while supporting Indigenous food sovereignty.
Because the best meals nourish more than just your body—they nourish community.
✨ Explore Tocabe’s pantry and get 15% off with code ONEPOTATO

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Chef Elena Terry, founder of the nonprofit Wild Bearies

A Conversation with Chef Elena Terry

Introduce Yourself: I’m Elena Terry, executive chef and founder of Wild Bearies

Wild Bearies is spelled like the animal, not the fruit. I named it for my children, who are all, except one, members of the Bear Clan in our community. I’m a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and live in Wisconsin Dells, which is my ancestral homeland.

The Ho-Chunk people don’t have a reservation, but for as far back as our family can trace—for at least eight documented generations but in actuality, many many more—this is home. I was raised in a traditional Ho-Chunk household, so being here feels deeply rooted, even though it’s also the “water park capital of the world.” It’s not always easy to hold on to your identity in a place that’s so commercialized, but this is where our stories, food, and history live.