Nico Albert

Nico Albert Williams (Cherokee Nation) is a chef, caterer and student of traditional Indigenous cuisines based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She began her culinary education growing up in California and Arizona, spending time in her mother's garden and in the kitchen preparing family meals. After relocating to Northeastern Oklahoma, Nico embraced her return to the post-removal homeland of her mother's people as a calling and opportunity to reestablish a relationship with her Cherokee community, first and foremost through the language of food. Her journey to learn traditional Cherokee ways, dishes and the wild and cultivated ingredients involved in their preparation grew to encompass the Indigenous cuisines of tribes from all parts of Turtle Island and led to her involvement in Indigenous food revitalization and food sovereignty.

Nico is the Executive Chef behind the catering services offered by Burning Cedar Sovereign Kitchen. Her work centers on the revitalization of ancestral Indigenous foodways to promote healing and wellness in the Native American community. Her efforts to steadily expand her knowledge of traditional ingredients and techniques continue through research and collaboration with Indigenous chefs and traditionalists from all Nations. Nico is the recipient of the 2021 Greater Tulsa Indian Affairs Commission Dream Keeper's Award for Leadership in Business, the 2022 Cherokee Phoenix Seven Feathers Award for Culture. She has contributed as food stylist and personal chef on major motion pictures such as Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and Erica Tremblay's Fancy Dance (2023), and her work has been featured regionally and nationally by Food Network Magazine, USA Today, Hulu, BBC, Cherokee Nation's OsiyoTV, Smithsonian Institute, King Arthur Baking Co, Atlas Obscura, PBS, Gilcrease Museum, and Philbrook Museum among others.