When Shirley Pocknett was a little girl, family dinners meant scallops, clams, eels and a variety of local fish her father caught and brought home. “Whatever’s in the water,” said the chef and restaurateur, who also hunts venison and duck, “that’s what he brings to us.” These foods are native to the Northeast and are the foundation of the family’s tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag. They’re also the centerpiece of the menu at Pocknett’s restaurant, Sly Fox Den Too, which serves local cuisine in Charlestown, Rhode Island.
In 2023, Pocknet made history as the first Native woman to win a James Beard Award when she was named the Northeast’s Best Chef. She began her acceptance speech with a high-pitched shout-out. “I represent the entire Northeast tribe,” she said.
“I cook according to my story,” she said. “Based on the way I was raised.”
Pocknet’s cooking draws on heritage and family traditions. She learned to forage from her mother, spending summers venturing out with her five siblings and several cousins to collect strawberries, blueberries, and beach plums, the small stone fruits that grew in the sandy soil of the New England coast.
“We used to compete with our cousins to see who could get the most,” she said. She said the practice plays an important role in the natural ecosystems around us. “It shows people that we can still have these things as long as we take care of the places we live in.”
Pocknett’s ingredients and inspiration come from the eastern regions of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where the Mashpee Wampanoag people have lived for more than 12,000 years. “We eat from the land. We eat mushrooms. We drink sassafras tea,” Pocknet said.
At Sly Fox Den Too, the restaurant she runs with her two daughters, every dish celebrates Mashpee Wampanoag food and the labor and love of Pocknett family members. Smoked tender venison skewers echo the meats my father hunted. Sunny strawberry shortcake is reminiscent of the sweet, juicy berries she picked with her mother every summer.
Chef Sherry Pocknett’s lobster chowder.Photographer: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
Lobster chowder
The lobster chowder is creamy, richly aromatic with garlic and thyme, and studded with chunks of buttery lobster meat—some of which her brother catches every day. “Everything that comes out of the ocean is native food,” Pocknet said. She often prepares chowder at Sly Fox Den Too, “especially in the winter,” she said. The dish’s hearty potatoes and rich cream draw eager diners to the restaurant during New England’s coldest months.
Freshly caught lobster comes from the Shinnecock Lobster Factory.Photographer: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
Chef Sherry Pocknett prepares this lobster chowder in a black cauldron suspended from a wooden beam above an open fire.Photographer: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
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The chowder begins with a stock of diced fennel, onions, shallots, potatoes and six lobsters, but not the lobster tails and claw meat, which she saves for later. “I’m not throwing anything away,” Pocknet said. The lobster carapace infuses the stock with a rich salty and umami flavor. The ingredients are covered with water and then cooked in a covered pot for several hours.
lobster
Pocknet buys the restaurant’s lobster from her brother, a lobsterman who works off the coast of Cape Cod. She sautéed the meat from the lobster tails and claws, sprinkled them with cream and a splash of dry sherry, then added it all to a condensed soup that, after several hours of cooking with the lobster shells, had turned a delicate pink color.
