Apache Chef Nephi Craig's new book, 'Our Knives Will Save Us'
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Nov. 7, 2026
A judge changed his life. Instead of going to jail, he went to culinary school. He was facing a felony charge, and instead of going to jail, he was given probation on the condition he work or go to school.
Nephi Craig chose culinary school and the quest for the profound revelations within Indigenous foods, tomato, cocoa, and amaranth, were among them. This took him around the world.
And it took him home again. Whiteriver was calling him home.
Now he's the executive chef of Cafe GozHoo in his White Mountain Apache homeland, where he is helping others in recovery.
He's not just a great chef, but a great writer, the kind that pulls you in, invites you to have a cup of camp coffee, listen to some old songs and maybe have a story or two.
It begins with an Apache grandma in a camp dress while he's selling a chef knife, one from Japan, just to keep going. White Mountain isn't easy street.
Food was a weapon for those who came to take. Europeans burned the fields, made slaves of the people and slaughtered the buffalo, he writes.
This is his story and he tells it well.
Foraging for the wild grasses, hunting for game and farming provided the foods of the people before the empty flour, sugar and orange cheese arrived, during the days of commodities and boarding schools.
His book serves up appetizers.
Like this nugget. The tiny potato of the Four Corners. It could be a life-saving food of the future, packed with nutrients and prolific. Four Corners potato starch on stone tools was dated 10000 BC. It turns out, these tiny potatoes are just as ancient as those in South America, he writes.
Meanwhile, in high-end restaurants, French cuisine was king. But in those high-end restaurants where Craig began, when he was only 18 years old, something was missing.
And that was the identity and the histories of the foods that chefs were serving up.
There was often "little thought given to where they came from or what memories they carry," he says.
The deep dive, he says, changed his life.
Trained at Scottsdale Community College, he went on to learn of "our relationship with chiles" and new doors opened for him. His presentations on plates became new stars of ancient foods. His presentations gave a new presence to Indigenous foods and took him to London, Germany, Brazil and Japan.
Now success has a different face.
It's a giant squash from the farm down the road, jars of beans and chilies on the shelves and the corn and wild tea hanging from the ceiling to dry, he says.
Remembering his great journey with food, he writes, "Without tomatoes, there would be no ratatouille, a French peasant food turned risto classic."
His message is the people have lost the roots of their foods.
Years later, making baby food at home, he tells of filling the tiny jars with acorn squash, butternut squash with roasted quinoa and purple potatoes.
Craig's book is autobiography and tells of of addiction and recovery, medicine ways and his own rough journey home.
He writes of his father, Navajo singer and songwriter Vincent Craig. His father's idea of a gourmet dish was beans and weenies warmed up on the car's motor, and they loved it on their camping trips. Vincent's final days in hospice, with Nephi there by his side, are potent and heart breaking
Nephi tells of a generation finding its way home.
Of the squash soup for his own babies, he says, "I was activating my babies taste buds."
There are no recipes here but the recipes for life and survival.
Reporter's Note
Reading Nephi Craig's words takes me back. As a reporter and food editor for Navajo Times Today in the 80s and later while a reporter for national Indian country news, I shared recipes of Apache Acorn Soup, and somewhere I have a photo of the great singer and songwriter Vincent Craig, and his children, including Nephi when he was young at the Apache Fair. The great comedian Vincent passed far too young. In the language of food, Nephi's writing takes me home again, to the Navajo Nation where I lived and loved the people and land for 17 years and still do. Thank you -- Brenda Norrell
'Our Knives Will Save Us,' by Nephi Craig, 'Dispatches from a White Mountain Apache Chef,' is published by Penguin Press in New York, 2026.
Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News
