Gather, Heal and Grow: Chef Nico Albert Williams Visits Warren Wilson
Sophie Aguilar | Nov. 25, 2025
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, chef Nico Albert Williams visited Warren Wilson College (WWC) to lead a presentation and cooking demonstration. Williams is the founder of Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Burning Cedar is a non-profit organization and urban Indigenous community space. It is 100% Native women-led and is dedicated to restoring wellness through Indigenous ways of learning and knowing. The goals of Burning Cedar are to gather an intertribal communal space, heal through community connection, traditional foodways and ancestral knowledge, grow a garden of traditional plants, restore biodiversity and reconnect with the land.
Turtle Island, the name commonly used by the Indigenous community, is the name of the continent that is known as North America. The continent got this name because it looks like it is being carried on the shell of a grandmother turtle.
Indigenous foods are all seasonal and are tied closely to the land on which they are native. Some Indigenous foods include a variety of squashes, beans and nuts. The food is more nutritionally dense compared to food that has been modified for commercial consumption. The knowledge of foraging, hunting, fishing and gardening has been passed down for generations. On Turtle Island, there are fishery management sites that trace back 10,000-14,000 years.
Williams strongly believes that food is our medicine. Food can heal the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual parts of people. Food is also a way to connect with not only people, but the land on which it and the people reside.
“We are not more important than the plants, we are not more important than the animals,” Williams said.
Williams held a cooking demonstration where she prepared crepes made from chestnut flour with a roasted squash filling and a maple chestnut syrup. This meal was picked because chestnuts and squash are both prominent Indigenous foods. Chestnuts specifically have a strong tie to Indigenous culture, having provided an abundant food source that was later taken advantage of by non-Indigenous people.
“Colonization happened to chestnuts similar to how it happened to the Cherokee,” Williams said.
Williams and the Burning Cedar community are working to share a better understanding of Indigenous culture. Food is a universal element that can be shared and bonded over by all.