Andrew George, Jr.

Andrew George Jr. (born November 11, 1963) was in Smithers, British Columbia which is located in north central British Columbia. Andrew grew up in Telkwa, British Columbia.

Andrew is the third eldest of six children; Andrew’s family lived in a very small four room house with no indoor plumbing or running water. Life was simple, Andrew can always remember his parents taking the children out to the traditional territories of the Wet'suwet'en people. In the spring Andrews’s family would harvest trout and set trap lines. In the summer Andrews’s family would harvest salmon and smoke and can them for the winter, later in the summer they would get several different species of berries for home use or for Potlatch ceremony. In the fall they would hunt moose, deer and would dry, can or freeze them for the winter. In the winter Andrew would snare rabbits and assist his father on his trap line and go ice fishing.

Andrew started school at Telkwa Elementary School, and later went to Chandler Park Junior High and eventually to Smithers Senior Secondary School and graduated on June 18, 1982. During his final year of high school Andrew ran the Smithers 26 mile marathon for P.E. 12 and came in second place for runners under the age of 18.

In 1983 Andrew was accepted into Vancouver Vocational Institute for cook training in Core/Short order, Institutional and Camp cooking and finally the A la carte program. Andrew graduated in 1985 with a B average and achieved certificates in all three courses.

Andrew took his apprenticeship programs through British Columbia Institute of Technology (B.C.I.T.) completing in the fall of 1989 with certificates of qualifications in cooking and continued his chef training in various hotels and restaurants in the Greater Vancouver area.

During high school summer breaks Andrew would do camp cooking for the local mining companies. Andrew’s first job in the city was at the Vancouver Indian Friendship Centre in 1985, he was a part time short order cook for the weekend shift. Andrew’s first full time job was at the Quillicum Restaurant in Vancouver. This is where he learned how to cook on a wood burning grill and prepare other Native cuisine dishes. At the age of 23 Andrew became the head grill cook for the First Nations Restaurant at the Folk Life Pavilion at the World Exposition in Vancouver B.C. (Expo 86). After Expo 86 Andrew started continuing his Chef’s apprenticeship at Avenue Grill in Kerrisdale on Vancouver’s Westside and completed his training at Isadora’s Restaurant on Granville Island in 1989.

Andrew also worked at Dempsey’s Restaurant located at the Pacific Centre Mall in downtown Vancouver then moved to Whistler to work at the Chateau Whistler Resort and then back to Vancouver to the Four Season’s Hotel before opening his own business in Vancouver as Toody Ni Restaurant and Catering Company specializing in Northwest coast style native cuisine.In the fall of 1991 Andrew was honored to be chosen as a representative for the Aboriginal peoples of Western Canada with four other native chefs from the Nation to participate in the World Culinary Olympics to be held in Frankfurt Germany in October 1992. The team was known as the Native Canadian Haute Cuisine Team, the other members were:
* David Wolfman of Toronto
* Bertha Skye from Six nations in southern Ontario
* Arnold Olson from Saskatchewan
* Brian Sappier from New Brunswick
* Andrew George Jr. from British Columbia

Andrew and the rest of the team members trained in Toronto at the Sutton Place Hotel in 1991/92 for the World Culinary Olympics that had 13,000 chefs from over 54 countries to compete against they were the first Aboriginal team from anywhere in the world to contend at that level of competition.

In 1993 Andrew returned home to his mother’s home town of Burns Lake, British Columbia with the closure of his restaurant due to the health of Andrew’s late father whom had recently had a stroke.

It was there that Andrew decided to choose a different career path. From 1994 through 1998 Andrew accepted a position with the Ministry of Forests in Burns Lake. The position was the Aboriginal Liaison officer responsible for referral and consultation which included building relationships between the local First Nations and governments and industry as well as dealing with native issues pertaining to forest practices.

During this time Andrew also took on a part time contract in Montréal Quebec 1995 through 1997 with Oudeheeman/Medina foods to teach the native Culinary Arts Program at the I.T.H.Q. (Hotel and Hospitality College) for six weeks every six months. The students were from Native owned lodges from all across Canada that were interested in using native foods on their menus. The lodges also wanted to have their own local native chefs prepare meals with their local products.

In the fall of 1996 Andrew went back to Germany with Tom Jackson’s Indian Summer Festival sponsored by Canadian Tourism Commission and Tourism Canada where they did Concerts, Fashion shows, pow-wows and banquets for up to 500 people at each event in five different cities throughout Germany.

In 1997 Andrew co-authored a cookbook called FEAST - Canadian Native Cuisine for all Seasons. The book was designed around the Wet’suwet’en people and Andrew’s traditions. The book was published by Doubleday of Toronto and New York and was released in Canada and the United States. The book is widely used by chefs in large hotels and restaurants in Canada that want produce traditional native cuisine for their restaurants

On September 28, 1998 Andrew was seconded from the Ministry of Forests in Burns Lake B.C. to assist the Office of the Wet’suwet’en (Treaty Office) in Smithers B.C. in Forestry related matters such as referral and consultation, Higher level planning, capacity initiatives and relationship building with governments, industry and local stakeholders and held the position of Lands and Resources Manager for eight years until 2005.

During his time at the office of the Wet’suwet’en Andrew had sat on various boards such as.
* Aboriginal Tourism British Columbia, (A.T.B.C.).
* Burns Lake Community Forest board (Blcomfor)
* Morice Forest District Lands and Resources Management Planning process (L.R.M.P.).
* Bulkley Valley Community Forests Board (Bvcomfor)
* Regional instructor for Simon Fraser University (S.F.U.) on Community Economics.

Andrew had the privilege to lecture on many campuses across Canada whether it was resource based or Hospitality based.- Atlantic Centre of Excellence (Chef)- McMaster University (Traditional use/Archeology)- College of New Caledonia (Economics)- University of Northern British Columbia, (Land use planning/Traditional use)- Simon Fraser University (Community economics from first nation’s perspective)- Northwest Community College (Traditional use and Chef)

Andrew has done presentations to senior secondary, middle and elementary schools and local interest groups locally and across the country on careers as a Chef, Traditional use/system of the Wet’suwet’en people.Since Andrew’s return home he has learned a lot about his people and his culture and fully participate in the Wet’suwet’en Batlats (Potlatch) system, and even became a hereditary Chief (wing chief) in 1998 with a traditional name of Skit’den which in Andrew’s language means ‘the wise man’.

Andrew’s main objectives is to represent his people in the best of his abilities in the Chef and hospitality field to showcase his people and his skills as a chef and secondly to assist his people to have a strong open dialogue with the governments, industry and stakeholders on how traditional resources are used and managed.

Books

* George Jr., Andrew (1997) ISBN 0-385-25580-2