Chef Kaitlyn White-Keyes has a dream to combine her love of food — sticky sweets are a specialty — with a facility to help those recovering from addiction in Yellowknife and area.
Food brings people together, says the formally trained chef, which could also prove to be the ice-breaker needed among people in recovery.
Chef Kaitlyn Whitekeyes at the Yellowknife Farmers Market in 2023. (Photo courtesy Chef WhiteKeyes)
A graduate of who studied culinary arts at the Northern Institute of Technology in Edmonton, White-Keyes is currently channeling her entrepreneurial and culinary energies into Yellowknife’s newest option for sustainable confectionery delights, Ever Sweet Company.
Whitekeyes started a non-profit called the Northern Territory Addictions Facility Fund, to which she contributes a portion of every sale by Ever Sweet Company.
CKLB asked the 30-year-old mother of three about the role food can play in helping to process the effects of colonialism.
“I used to call it a treatment centre, but it’s not a treatment centre that we need. It’s a healing centre,” she replied.
“And even if that means something that somewhere where people can just come together or if it means somewhere where people can cook together. I think that these things are really how we move past some of the communal trauma we have.”
As a Métis woman, WhiteKeyes was sensitive to the need to let people in the Indigenous recovery community know what her ideas are and get some feedback about her plans.
She heard back that government alone isn’t the answer and more solutions need to come from the community at large — and from those in recovery.
Facilities steeped in Indigenous values and teachings with caring follow-up programs are desperately needed here.
WhiteKeyes said she hopes to attract some like-minded folks as she works at the summer Farmers Market and other events.
“I am really hoping that the pebbles that I throw really make the waves that I need this summer coming because I even have the location I want.”
But for now, that location will remain a secret, until the deal is more a reality.
As she lets her ultimate dream simmer on the back burner, this summer you can find Chef WhiteKeyes at the ever-popular Yellowknife Farmers Market, which will run every Tuesday from June 4 until September 10 at Somba K’e Civic Plaza by City Hall.
She had applied for the two-year seasonal contract to run the historical Wildcat Café this summer, but narrowly lost out to another local chef.
The Wildcat is a City of Yellowknife heritage building — one of the oldest surviving wooden structures — that first opened in 1937 by owners Willie Wylie and Smokey Stout.
WhiteKeyes had planned on bringing to the Wildcat was to reinvent and reinvigorate it as a meeting place.
She wanted to provide “accessible Indigenous cuisine at low prices” that made it welcoming for the public and not just a tourist destination.
Instead of being upset and set-back by the City’s decision — she had even previously worked at the rustic restaurant in Old Town — WhiteKeyes issued a release to the media entitled: “Local Indigenous Entrepreneur won’t be opening the doors at the Wildcat Café.”
It read: “Chef WhiteKeyes is planning community-minded events in Yellowknife this season, despite losing the bid to operate the iconic cafe. She will be offering inclusive and innovative ways to connect folks and foods.
“Chef will continue to offer free tea to Elders and host events that foster inter-generational connections and Northern food sovereignty.
Chef WhiteKeyes and Movember cookies. (Photo courtesy Chef WhiteKeyes)
She plans to hold workshops with a special focus on northern Boreal Forest abundance, and “friendly food competitions” to help sharpen the confidence of Yellowknife’s vibrant culinary community.
One item sorely needed now for the area’s budding chefs is a frequently available commercial kitchen for rent with refrigerated storage.
“That’s quite a big challenge in the North, because we don’t have a readily available commercial kitchen that you can rent that is actually affordable,” she said.
“But then, thankfully, we have a very active social media network in Yellowknife. It’s actually uncommon in other cities, how much we use Facebook.
“And we have a Facebook underground food scene where like you can you can just pop on to these food sites and say, ‘Hey, I have this sale ongoing for this amount of time. Here’s my link.’
“And yeah, the community really shows up.”
