Tribal member returns to his roots with family food truck

 

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Working in a food truck is a bit like returning home for Tribal member Fabian Quenelle, who, along with his brothers, grew up helping his mom prepare and sell fry bread at Tribal events.

“I’ve been in a food stand since I could walk,” he said. “My mom used to do fry bread at the park’s powwow. I started getting back to it five or six years ago.”

Now he and his wife, Ree Amber Quenelle, are hoping to make their food truck, Commod Bod, a full-time endeavor.

Quenelle said he’s always loved food and cooking.

“My mom and my dad … both used to cook all the time,” he said. From them, he and his brothers learned all the basics.

“Cooking, cleaning, hunting – all those things that you can always take care of yourself in the end,” he said.

Quenelle finds the work a joy.

“I just like doing it,” he said. “Being able to serve the food to people. I did 13 years in commercial kitchens, from dishwasher all the way to sous chef. Then I did construction for a lot of years and came back to work for the Tribe. I still had a passion for food and figured it was a way I can give back and feed that passion.”

Nearly two years ago, Quenelle and his wife obtained a food truck, simplifying the process, as they no longer had to rely on a venue to provide cooking space. They’ve made it a family affair.

Commod Bod was set up and serving food at Spirit Mountain Casino during the Tribe’s 42^nd Restoration Celebration Powwow Saturday, Nov. 22. (Photo by Michelle Alaimo)

Now they’re planning to take it full-time and are considering a spot in Oregon City but haven’t made a final decision.

“We’re both very excited to see what it looks like in 2026 when we take that step to be able to do that,” Quenelle said.

He said they enjoy cooking First Foods, but that those are mostly popular during powwows.

“Doing it outside of powwow, it’s not a hit,” he said.

They also serve “what I like to call our second foods – fry bread, Indian tacos … spaghetti, stews … things that can stretch and feed a lot of people,” Quenelle said.

In addition to being a welcome source of income, the food booth business has also been something of a lifesaver.

Quenelle said he went through a period of being “heavily affected by drugs and alcohol,” a lifestyle that working in commercial kitchens facilitated.

“I decided I was going to get clean and sober and get back to those ceremonies,” he said. “Getting back into the culture; I’d been disconnected for a long time. … At New Year’s, I’ll be eight years clean and sober.”

Ree Amber Quenelle prepares to put fry bread dough in the fryer in her food truck, Commod Bod, when it was set up at Spirit Mountain Casino Saturday, Nov. 22. (Photo by Michelle Alaimo)

As part of that process, Quenelle realized he wanted to return to treasured childhood memories of his mother’s fry bread booth.

“It’s something that definitely brought me back and continues to,” he said. “I always get reminded of where I come from. Last year, I was able to invite my brother into the stand. I’m the youngest of five brothers.”

For him, and he suspects, his brother, “the family interactions, the smiles, the laughter, the smells,” bring back those childhood years of helping out.

Two years ago, he said, “my cousin presented their food truck to us, and was like, ‘Hey, do you want to buy it?’”

They thought it through, Quenelle said, and “it was something we didn’t have to think long and hard about. It was a direction we knew we wanted.”

The Quenelles’ grown children, who range in age from 19 to 26, sometimes work in the truck as well, along with nieces and nephews.

“We see it as a way to spread that generational wealth,” he said. “We will grow it to a point where we can offer jobs to our kids… It’s a way to create space and give back. We’ve created a business for employment – not just, ‘I’m helping out for the family’ but ‘now I can put this on my resume.’”

He said he’s not sure his kids, not having grown up in the business, love it the same way. “It’s a job to them,” he said, “and … it’s actually a fair rate” of pay. However, “my grandkids have already mentioned they can’t wait to be old enough to help us. They help out cooking at home, so when they see us in the food truck, they can’t wait to be of an age they can get in and help us.”

For more information about the food truck, visit the Commod Bod Facebook page.