At Branch Line in Watertown, Indigenous Food Week celebrates Native American Heritage Month
Butternut squash soup, corn cakes, and cranberry chutney — these dishes will be on a special menu for a week at the restaurant Branch Line in Watertown. It’s the restaurant’s Indigenous Food Week in celebration of Native American Heritage Month. The dishes alone are only part of the story: The food will be prepared using recipes from Mashpee Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett, whose cooking showcases her culinary heritage. The Wampanoag have lived in what is now Massachusetts for 12,000 years and shared their harvest with the Pilgrims in 1620. Pocknett, who won this year’s James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Northeast, crafts Indigenous cuisine at her restaurant Sly Fox Den Too in Charlestown, R.I. This is her second year working with Branch Line’s kitchen and staff. It was the Pigsgusset Initiative, a working group of Watertown Citizens for Peace, Justice and the Environment, that sparked the collaboration between the award-winning chef and the restaurant. “Indigenous Food Week is one step we are taking to address the erasure of Indigenous peoples here,” says Mishy Lesser, cofounder of the Pigsgusset Initiative and learning director of the Upstander Project. Each evening, there is a scheduled family-friendly time from 4:30-5:30 p.m., where kids will receive sheets of paper to color with Native American motifs. Branch Line’s Indigenous Food Week with special menu items runs from Nov. 16-21. 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, 617-420-1900, branchlinearsenal.com. Reservations are recommended.
ANN TRIEGER KURLAND