Autumn Table with Andrea Stanley and Nanibaah Talley

On Saturday, November 1, Forge Project will host a shared meal and community space to mark the turning of the season. Recognizing the role of cooking in creating connection to culture, Chefs Andrea Stanley and Nanibaah Talley will share a collaborative meal (served at 1PM) showcasing soulful southwestern ancestral foods with Latin flavors, celebrating heritage, kinship and community with participants at our Outdoor Kitchen. 

Andrea Stanley (Diné/Haakumeh/Honduran) initiated Anda’s Kitchen last Autumn as a community offering to showcase the foods of her cultural heritage. She began cooking around 8 years old with her La Ceiba born father and spent most of her childhood visiting her maternal family on the Navajo Nation in the communities of Teesto and Tonalea. 

She is a mother/doula living and working in O’Odam Jeved (Phoenix, AZ). Known by her family as a city slicker, as a first gen Catracha and off reservation raised, she lovingly embraces the grit and flavors of southwestern indigenous foods and Latin/Caribbean flavors.

Andrea has over 13 years of work experience in land restoration, indigenous food sovereignty, and birthwork as full spectrum doula. This impacts her passion to creatively actualize community based indigenous liberation rooted in kinship, land reciprocity, and collaborative pop up kitchen experiences. 

Cooking has always been a big connection to her culture and she is very excited to share Diné/Honduran fusion for Forge Project’s Autumn Table.

Deanna "Nanibaah" Talley was raised in Northern Navajo Nation around her traditional Diné foods. This sparked her journey as a culinary artist. Nanibaah started cooking from a young age, often helping her mother and grandmothers for community events and ceremonies around the Four Corners territory. Rooted in community cooking, she found a love for her ancestral foods; blue corn, roasted piñons, squash, beans, and handmade tortillas. 

Her initial introduction to modern ancestral foods started at Juniper Coffee and Eatery under the guidance of Diné Chef Berttina Cadman, in Farmington, NM in 2020. It's here Nanibaah started to see the elevation of ancestral foods into fine dining potentials. She would later work again for Cadman with Waterbird Catering, furthering her culinary versatility and skills. 

She currently works at The Frybread Lounge under Chef Danella Belin of Nella’s Creations, on O'odham Jeved, the only native owned restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ. She is also a musician (singer/songwriter) and hair braiding artist that has showcased her work across the country in museums, fashion shows, and stadiums.