Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.

A fire pit is one of many pieces of equipment in the Mitsitam Cafe that gives customers a close-up view of the preparation of Native American foods. A fully equipped, back-of-the-house, basement kitchen supports production of dishes from five tribal regions.

By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 4/1/2006

In 1989, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) was established through an act of Congress as an institution of living cultures dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history and arts of the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Following the completion of two of the three facilities that comprise the NMAI, the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md., the third opened in September 2004 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This $219 million Smithsonian museum project is the first of its kind dedicated exclusively to Native Americans. "We are mindful of the powerful symbolic presence this museum represents for native peoples across the hemisphere," says W. Richard West Jr., the museum's founding director and a Southern Cheyenne.

To date, nearly 6 million guests have visited the 254,000-square-foot structure located on a 4.25-acre, landscaped site with wetlands. The five-story curvilinear building sits east of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and south of the U.S. Capitol. It is made of golden-colored, Kasota dolomitic limestone from Minnesota, which gives the appearance of a stratified stone mass that has been carved by wind and water. The building, also designed with materials such as granite, bronze, copper, maple, adzed cedar, adzed alder and imperial plaster, faces east toward the rising sun and 40 uncarved rocks and boulders, known as "grandfather rocks," to serve as reminders of the longevity of Native peoples' relationships to the environment. Water tumbles over large boulders at the northwest corner of the building, flows beside the entry path and ends in a quiet pool beside the museum's main entrance. The museum also features a prism window facing south to catch the sun's rays and reflect a light spectrum onto the interior of the 120-foot-high atrium named the Potomac.

In addition to the museum's breathtaking exhibits, another popular attraction is the ground-level, Mitsitam Cafe, which features seasonal menus with native foods from the Western Hemisphere, including South America, Northern Woodlands, Great Plains, Meso America and Northwest Coast. Mitsitam (Mit-seh-TOM), which means "let's eat" in the Piscataway and Delaware language, is a two-story, 365-seat, 6,000-square-foot dining space and 6,500-square-foot servery designed with granite and wood materials that overlook the water feature that winds along the northwest side of the building. The water is part of the offering area, a discreet and quiet circular area within the wetland environment, partially hidden by boulders, that provides a space for reflection and contemplation.

Unique to Mitsitam is a fire pit, a traditional site for activities such as Native ceremonies and cooking demonstrations. This equipment is situated in the Northwest Coast station, one of five arranged in a semicircle in the servery.

"We wanted the servery to look dramatic, and the fire pit was a central feature," says Ted Farrand, vice president, Cini•Little International. "As customers come into the dining area, they see a glass wall that is frosted to waist level. They look over this into the fire pit and inside the servery."

"The well-conceived design of the cafe allows customers to flow easily from station to station and to the cashiers," adds Larry Ponzi, regional director, Restaurant Associates, Washington, D.C., which manages Mitsitam. Though Restaurant Associates was selected after the cafe was designed by Cini•Little International, Ponzi and other associates selected the current signage for the stations and frequently changing menu items.

"Our goal from the beginning was to make Mitsitam an educational experience so it would be an extension of the museum, not something separate," Ponzi says. "We set out to provide native cuisine that would mirror the mission of the museum. We do this by serving specially selected products and also by demonstrating in full view how they're prepared."

"When developing menus, we do an enormous amount of research," explains Richard Hetzler, Restaurant Associate's executive chef at Mitsitam, who is intimately involved in menu development and all kitchen operations. "We decided to use ingredients indigenous to various regions and combine the flavors. The menu continues to evolve as we learn about what might have been 'authentic' and which ingredients work well together."

Each day, cooks prepare fresh food, much of it organically grown and sourced from Native Americans. For example, wild salmon and other seafood from tribes in the western states are flown in several times a week, while buffalo from the Intertribal Bison Cooperative are flown in frozen twice a week.

In the 4,500-square-foot basement kitchen that provides support for the servery's stations, staff place all product deliveries into dedicated coolers, for meat and seafood and produce, plus a freezer and dry storage. With daily customer counts averaging between 1,000 and 2,000 and cafe turnover totaling up to nine times on weekends, the kitchen's equipment allows staff to prepare a wide array of foods for distribution to various stations for assembly and finishing.

One-third of the kitchen is a refrigerated, cold prep room, kept at 45°F. to 49°F. to ensure safe food handling. Drop-down cords allow staff to plug in tabletop equipment on the assembly tables as needed. Drop-down electrical cords are also used for hot mobile carts in other areas of the kitchen. A double-door staging refrigerator separates the cold room from the rest of the kitchen and provides access from both the cold and regular-temperature sides of the kitchen.

In the cold room, in addition to garde manger prep, staff work with dough sheeters and rollers to make pastry dough and fry bread. "The dough sheeter is my favorite piece of equipment," Hetzler says. "You get a nice, even thickness in the dough and the process takes a quarter of the time you'd spend rolling out by hand. It may not seem like much, but when you're making tarts and fry bread for a thousand people, this equipment is a life-saver."

Staff take cold-prepped items to the hot cooking line for further preparation in a convection steamer, one of two five-gallon steam-jacketed kettles, a 45-gallon kettle, a 35-gallon kettle, a 55-gallon tilting kettle and a steam table for holding soups. Up to 30 gallons of soup may be made on any given day, then broken down into smaller units and placed in a blast chiller. On the day soup is needed in the servery, staff warm it and transport it hot to a designated station. Among the many soup varieties include Dungeness crab, pumpkin, free-range stew, smoked pork and quinoa, and tomato and corn stew.

"A blast chiller is a must in today's kitchens," Hetzler says. "If you're in an operation that is doing this much volume, this piece of equipment is an integral part of what you do and helps to guard against foodborne illness."

"Food safety was an emphasis throughout the facility," Farrand adds. "In some projects, the blast chiller is value-engineered out. But, this should be the last piece to be cut."

Other features that encourage food safety are walk-in coolers with oversized doors that allow staff to put in and take out products quickly. "An entire floor cart or skid can be moved into the walk-ins, greatly reducing the time the products are in a room-temperature environment," Farrand says.

On the front side of the kitchen, staff work with two combi ovens to heat tamales, meat for the Meso America station, vegetables such as roasted sweet potatoes served with butter, acorn squash and potato puree finished with fresh horseradish root. Four convection ovens braise and slowly cook meats, salmon and Indian and chestnut puddings.

Adjacent to the ovens, cooks use a four-burner range for sauce production, some stocks, beans and other vegetables used in smaller quantities, and Indian pudding. Nearby, a four-foot-long radiant grill cooks buffalo, legs of venison and other items requiring a charred smokiness, including corn. A three-foot-long flat top sears and renders fat off duck breast and arapas (cornmeal cake), which are flash-cooked in the ovens. Staff use the salamander for browning and adding golden color to salmon and Indian puddings.

Next to the range is a double deep fryer used primarily for fritters and fry bread for catered events. The range helps relieve pressure on the upstairs grill area. Staff also use hot-holding cabinets for slow-cooking meat and beans and to hold soups if the bain maries are occupied.

Upstairs, every surface in the servery is curved, which coordinates with the theme of the building design. "Fitting equipment into curved counters is of course more expensive and challenging for counter manufacturers," Farrand says. "The curved shapes and the counter fronts and soffits in earthtones and bronze all contribute to the tranquil environment."

At all the stations, ample refrigeration plays a key role in efficient production. Not only are the ingredients themselves within an arm's reach, but they are also available in ample supply, reducing the number of trips kitchen staff must make to restock stations.

South America is the first station on the left as customers enter. Two women make tamales from masa, a cooked corn mix prepared in the kitchen, and place them into holding units to keep them hot. A four-foot-long hot display shelf with a heat lamp above keeps soups and sandwiches like grilled sweet corn and cured pork arepa warm. Staff also serve ceviche, Peruvian potato salad and quinois salads at this station.

Further to the left, staff at the Northern Woodlands station use a 4.5-foot-long maple cutting board and other smaller boards to carve maple brine-roasted turkey and roasted venison, which is kept warm under retractable heat lamps. Other equipment includes two soup wells and a four-foot-long hot plate for holding maple and molasses baked beans and ash-roasted corn on the cob with maple butter. An ice well chills lobster (salad) rolls, wild rice and watercress salad, and bean and corn succotash.

At the back of this station is a deep fryer for making sweet plantains and puffed wild rice kernels for pumpkin soup garnishes. A three-foot-long flat-top grill sears arepa and salt-cured ham sandwiches and grilled oysters. A hot-holding unit keeps them at appropriate temperature for serving.

To the right as customers enter the cafe is the Great Plains station. Staff prepare items such as Indian tacos, buffalo chili, dried buffalo and corn stew, and pulled buffalo brisket sandwiches on four radiant heat cookers. Fry bread, developed by Native Americans on reservations from government flour, is a favorite at this station. Staff also use the fryer for spicy chile fries and chicken tenders. Items such as lettuce, tomatoes and other sandwich ingredients are held at this station in a roll-in refrigerator. The fry bread is an example of the overall theme of the museum, which presents historical features of Native Americans as well as current day life.

This station also holds four induction cookers for soups and chili and a hot plate with an overhead heat lamp above. A three-foot ice well keeps salads, such as smoked calabasa squash and Indian taco, at proper temperature.

"We added a four-foot hot plate and heat lamp, and extended the counter out four feet so the six-foot grill and hot plate could be closer to one another," says Hetzler.

At the Meso America station, a roll-in refrigerator carries salsas, guacamole, sour cream and various ingredients for sandwiches and other menu items for tortillas, paninis, enchiladas and burritos. Staff use a three-foot flat-top grill, a four-foot hot plate, a three-foot ice well and two built-in radiant induction cookers to make and/or hold everything from carne asada steak with a chimichurri sauce on grilled bread with arugla and tomato, green chili rice, totopos (corn chips), and frijoles negro.

The Northwest Coast station is the site of the dramatic exhibition cooking action. The focal point is the fire pit, a gas and live fuel (hickory, cherry and mesquite firewood) burning pit where customers watch the preparation of buffalo flank steak and cedar-planked juniper salmon. "A hood system with separate exhaust capacity and its own fan allows staff to burn live fuels," Farrand explains. "There was a lot of concern about odors. Exhaust goes to the top of the building, up five stories, and then out. This is in contrast to some other facilities at the mall where exhaust is sent out through sidewalk grates."

At the front of the station there is a roll-in refrigerator, hot-holding plate with heat lamps and three-foot-long ice wells for salads and side dishes including celery root and potato puree, roasted rutabaga with honey, and in-house smoked salmon with wild greens and root vegetables with mustard seed vinaigrette.

In the center of the servery, a canoe-shaped station presents a variety of fresh fruit tarts, pies and other desserts, coffee and tea.

"I like the variety of equipment in the servery and kitchen," says Hetzler. "Normally, when we come into a kitchen that has already been designed, we have to develop a future wish list. In this arrangement, we have almost everything we could have thought of."

During its 18-month life, according to Ponzi, Mitsitam has earned a reputation as not only an intriguing restaurant for museum visitors with unique features like the fire pit, but also as a destination spot for local office workers looking for fresh, natural, wholesome foods.

In the future, Mitsitam's regular and catering business are expected to grow. This is what the designers anticipated and why they selected a wide range of E&S that would hold up under pressure.