Reva Marie Ackroyd joined The Stop as a Relief Chef in 2017, and since then, she’s become known for her hard work, her calm demeanor, and of course, her famous bannock. A member of the Skatin First Nations on the west coast, Reva grew up cooking bannock with her grandmother. “I’m the third youngest of 15, so I’m used to working in bulk,” explains Reva. “My grandmother taught me how to oven bake it, deep fry it, open fire it, and barbecue it.”
Reva’s batches have grown a lot in recent years—instead of a family of 15, she’s now cooking for hundreds of people a day at The Stop’s 1884 Davenport and Wychwood Open Door locations—but she’s still injecting the same amount of care into her batches. “I’ve had several people come up and ask me for the recipe,” she says.
Reva was a former client of our Food Bank, and she chalks up her Chef role at The Stop to being at the right place at the right time. “I got an email that you were hiring while I was waiting for a hamper, and I happened to have my resume on me that day!” says Reva. “I find that being able to work with the volunteers is very pleasant. You all come together as a team, you can talk out your problems, and it works.”
Bannock is a popular Indigenous dish whose origins come from Canada’s ongoing legacy of colonization. For more information on its history and contemporary use, read this excellent article from The Walrus.
Reva’s Bannock Recipe
Ingredients:
- Flour (all–purpose) 4 cup
- Salt 2 tbsp
- Sugar 4 tbsp
- Baking powder 1/4 cup
- Lard or oil 1/3 cup
- Water (about ¾ cup)
Directions:
- Preheat oven at 350°
- Put dry ingredients into a bowl and sift together
- Cut the lard or oil into the dry ingredients until it becomes pea–size balls
- Add water gradually until the texture resembles biscuit dough
- Knead with oil on hands
- Lay flat on flour, press and knead to desired thickness
- Add to greased pan and poke with fork
- Bake until golden brown
- After taken out of oven, brush a layer of butter on top, let cool 10 minutes, then cut in squares