mak-’amham/Cafe Ohlone promotes specific Ohlone Indian culinary traditions that have been carried on by our family for countless generations, taught to us by our elders, who in turn, learned from their elders — unbroken knowledge that stretches back into the ancient.

In order to curate offerings that are truly Ohlone and representative of the values our traditional cuisine upholds we learn of specific food traditions that are practiced by elders in our family, as well as restoring older food traditions that are preserved in ethnographic documentation recorded by our Ohlone people in 1920s and 1930s. Through these methods, we are able to continue Ohlone gastronomical traditions and keep these values and foods in our daily lives, our homes, in our hearts.

Through this process, we promote Ohlone culinary traditions and culture. We also celebrate introduced foods that were embraced by our Ohlone people generations ago and, through a process of Ohlonization, became part of our culinary culture on their own right.

All of our food stays as close as possible to the standards of our old ways of eating.

Essentially, the food we share at Cafe Ohlone is specific to the East Bay — both culinary traditions before contact, and traditions that our family embraced during colonization. To do this, we gather with sustainability in mind here in our beautiful East Bay homeland. Due to a lack of land under our Ohlone stewardship as the result of the American government currently not recognizing the Ohlone people, as well as encroaching urbanization in our homelands, we also secure sustainable methods for traditional meats and other ingredients that are not as readily attainable so that we can create beautiful Ohlone foods that are prepared with our food ethos in mind.

Our food is specific to us, and our food dispels stereotypes. Our culinary traditions better connect us to those we love, and to our beautiful land. By eating, cherishing and respecting these traditional foods and fully embracing our Ohlone culture, we honor our identity and the powerful people that we descend from.