Using food to express her identity, woman from KCK wins Gordon Ramsay cooking competition
From folding tamales at Christmases in Kansas City, Kansas, to eating at powwows, Pyet Stephanie DeSpain has used food to express her identity since she was 7 years old.
DeSpain’s passion for fusing her heritage took her to Gordon Ramsay’s competition “Next Level Chef” on Fox.
On the March 2 finale, DeSpain, 30, won.
“To put a Native American, indigenous woman as your next level chef, I feel like I’m a part of history,” she told the audience following the victory.
In addition to mentorship from the celebrity chef, DeSpain earned $250,000.
Members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in Kansas heaped praise on DeSpain for “reinventing herself and her dishes by channeling her Native American heritage into her food,” according to a news release from the tribe.
During a recent visit to her hometown of Kansas City, Kansas, she told The Star that sharing the win with her family was the ultimate prize.
Moving to Kansas City, Kansas
DeSpain was born in 1993 on the Osage Nation reservation in Oklahoma.
Her mother, Delfina Segura, raised DeSpain and her three older brothers on the reservation to keep them tied to their indigenous roots, something Segura had grappled with.
“Seeing her struggle as a single mom and as a minority single mom, it was kind of heartbreaking,” DeSpain said.
Despite the challenges, Segura, 54, pushed DeSpain to not let anything hold her back.
“She’s my biggest life coach and the strongest person I know,” DeSpain said.
When DeSpain was 6, the family moved 245 miles north to Kansas City, Kansas.
The 1999 relocation allowed DeSpain to connect with her father’s side of the family, who are Mexican American.
On Christmas, her dad would have all seven of his siblings and their children over for dinner.
“If you were old enough to pick up a knife or a potato peel you were doing it,” DeSpain said.
Meat, spices and vegetables were passed between family members in an assembly line with each person contributing their own special skill. She felt that her presence was supporting an age-old tradition.
She also watched her uncles and grandmother, who all owned restaurants in the Kansas City, Kansas, area, express their love and passion through cooking.
That passion appeared again when she attended social gatherings with tribal citizens of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.
DeSpain would weave through the crowd watching dancers perform at the powwows before finding the kitchens where women diced and chopped and cooked outdoors on stoves.
Preparing and eating food feel sacred at the ceremonies, with elders eating first and children following.
Early adulthood
Even as a teenager, DeSpain set her sights on having a successful career. At Harmon High School, she attended training seminars like “Latinos of Tomorrow” and “KC BizFest,” organized by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
When she was a senior, she met Carlos Gomez, who is president of the chamber. The two still keep in touch and he remembers her as an aspiring entrepreneur.
“She was always active in that group and so motivated,” said Gomez, who helps run the seminars.
At Kansas State University, DeSpain earned a Fulbright scholarship and pursued a business degree, graduating in 2014.
While watching television on her brother’s couch in 2016, she saw a commercial for L’Ecole Culinaire, a culinary school in the Country Club Plaza area. She scheduled a tour and upon entering the kitchen, she was entranced.
The stainless steel countertops were luminous, she recalled. Rows and rows of dry ingredients lined the cupboard alongside spices she had never seen before.
She signed up for classes later that day and found herself back in school three weeks later.
“It was in those classes that I really found who I am and who I want to be,” DeSpain said.
On to Hollywood
After 18 months, DeSpain graduated culinary school and moved to Hollywood in 2017 where she became a private chef.
For two and a half years, she prepared 17 meals a week designed to meet the nutritional needs of high paying clients, delivering them to their doorsteps, which often meant sitting in hours of traffic.
“I was thinking ‘Hey this is great, I’m so happy to have a successful business,’” she said. “But at the same time I was just wearing myself down and I didn’t have anyone helping me.”
She felt less and less passionate.
“I still want to cook for people, but this isn’t the type of food I want to cook,” she said recalling how she felt.
For her birthday in February 2020, she hosted a dinner with friends. She did not want them to bring gifts, she said, only hungry mouths.
And that day DeSpain cooked what she wanted to make.
She started with a Navajo stew mixed with peppers, corn and a side of rye bread.
Then a harvest salad with apples, butternut squash and a maple vinaigrette.
Finally a braised lamb lathered in barbecue sauce for nearly five hours and served with sweet potato.
Instantly, she was transported back to Christmas Eve with her father in Kansas City, Kansas, cooking alongside her grandmother and uncles, and to the nights spent watching the Potawatomi Nation women cook at gatherings in Kansas.
“I realized then that I wanted to put myself on the plate and help others understand these beautiful traditions that I had grown up with, of indigenous Native American and Mexican American culture,” DeSpain said.
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“Next Level Chef”
Throughout 2021, DeSpain focused on cooking food that captured the same passion for self-expression her family had passed down through generations.
By April, she was featured on Buzzfeed’s Tasty videos, garnering 4.7 million views for her Wojapi sauce. The Native American sauce mixes raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and cinnamon, boiling it down to a thick creamy liquid, accompanied by fry bread.
Producers of Fox’s “Next Level Chef” reached out to DeSpain after noticing her following on social media. She spent three or four days going through the show’s application process and follow-up interviews before being flown to Las Vegas in September to start filming.
In early October, DeSpain found herself in the final round of competition.
DeSpain’s mother flew to Las Vegas to cheer her daughter on.
Waiting just off camera, Segura watched as Gordon Ramsay announced DeSpain as the “Next Level Chef.”
Nyesha Arrington, a nationally renowned chef and DeSpain’s mentor on the show, said in reaction to her win:
“I understand the strife that it takes for women of color to succeed. There’s no doubt this is just the start for her.”
All the years of being supported by her mother — from Oklahoma to KCK to K-State and then to culinary school and California — rushed through DeSpain’s mind as she jumped up and down, tears streaming down her face.
“We’ve talked about all my dreams and aspirations in life … Talking about what us and Native people have been through and the importance of our culture … At that moment she didn’t have to say anything,” DeSpain said.
“It just felt like we won, not just her and I, but everything we represent.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
