🥔 Food People, Parent Picks: Nephi's Favorite Things
Nephi Craig on the three-spice rule, a 27-year-old butcher block, and why nearly everything in your pantry is already Indigenous.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
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Earlier this week in our Order Up! conversation, Nephi Craig talked about surviving nearly two decades of addiction and building Café Gozhóó, a restaurant and training kitchen for people in recovery, all in the same week his memoir, Our Knives Will Save Us: Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef, came out [Bookshop, Amazon]. It’s worth checking out that interview, especially as an intro to picking up a copy of his book. Head on over.
Today we’re getting practical. The three spices he won’t run out of, the weeknight dinner his kids actually ask for, the knife he’d give as a gift — these are the things that keep his kitchen running, as a chef and a single dad of three.
An Indigenous ingredient more home cooks should know about?
Here’s the thing: most home cooks are already cooking with Indigenous ingredients and don’t know it. I’d say almost 75% of the ingredients you’ve used your whole life are Indigenous cultivars. Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cacao, chiles, beans, squash. Start there.
Three pantry or fridge staples you always keep on hand?
Salt, pepper, chili flakes. That’s it. Don’t under-season your food.
A kitchen tool you actually use almost every day?
My old wooden butcher block. I’ve had it 24, maybe 27 years. It’s big and heavy, and I use it every single day. It’s my favorite tool at home.
A go-to, realistic weeknight dinner you’ve been making a lot?
Baked chicken, steamed veggies, and steamed rice. Simple, and the kids love it.
One store-bought shortcut you’re not ashamed to use?
Store-bought bone broth. I’ve used it to fortify my pho broth at home — once. Okay, three times. Who has hours to simmer bone broth on a weeknight?
A snack your younger kids are into right now?
Berries, always. Since they were small, I’ve thought of buying their snacks like buying medicine. I’ll get the organic version when I can. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, for the polyphenols. When I pick the kids up from school, I’ve packed berries or fresh fruit for them every day.
A favorite cookbook you turn to, or like to gift?
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia [Bookshop, Amazon]. It’s an old classic I dug back out. Since 2020 I’ve been deep into noodle soups, especially pho, so I keep going back to it for dipping sauces and broths. We’re actually doing a ramen night this week, four different kinds.
As a single dad, how do you think about meal prep? Cook as you go, or batch cook on Sundays?
A little of both. If I make the baked chicken, broccoli, and rice, I’ll cook extra rice for the next day or two. I cook from scratch and keep it simple, and I add new foods in slowly instead of forcing them.
My kids are adventurous eaters. They love pho, and they won’t eat it without basil. I’ll catch them picking out the greens and remind them: we can’t have pho without basil or cilantro. Something quick and nutritious, so I get more time with them. That’s always the goal.
A favorite food gift to give, or a shout-out you want to make?
A good knife. An eight-inch classic chef’s knife, or a Japanese-style Santoku, something someone will take care of and cherish for decades. And if you can’t swing a good knife, give them a pepper mill.