When chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph opened Canje in Austin, Texas, in 2021, he did something he had yet to do as a restaurant owner: he decided to tell his own story. That is, the story of growing up in Georgetown, Guyana, a South American country with deep ties to the Caribbean through food and culture.
Ten years earlier, when Bristol-Joseph moved to Austin, he couldn't find a Caribbean restaurant. So, for Canje's menu, she added pepperpot, a Guyanese dish of slow-cooked beef with spices like cinnamon and allspice, and heat from wiri wiri chiles.
The only problem was that it didn't have cassareep, a bitter cassava juice that the dish needed to have an authentic Guyanese flavour. So, he called his cousin there and “put me in touch with another cousin who makes it and they sent it to me in Austin,” Bristol-Joseph said. “I wanted to showcase Caribbean food in the most respectful and authentic way possible.”
About 46 percent of black immigrants in the United States — about 2 million people — come from the Caribbean, reports the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that tracks immigration patterns. They come from 13 countries, from the Bahamas to South America. Despite this diversity, the Caribbean and its cuisine are often talked about in very broad regional terms.
“The Caribbean is not a monolith,” said Brigid Ransome-Washington, author of “Coconut. Ginger. Shrimp. Rum: Carribean Flavors for Every Season.” But, she said, the food is too often translated as “simple, fruit-rich or tourist-friendly food.”
Bristol-Joseph is among a new group of chefs in the United States who are exploring Caribbean cuisine through the cuisine of individual locations. These chefs, many of whom are first-generation Caribbean Americans with experience in gourmet kitchens, are getting specific about each place's unique combinations of culinary influences — and how all of that is evolving even further.
For Haitian-American chef Gregory Gourdet, the best way to address the complexities of Caribbean history is through food. At Kann, in Portland, Oregon, Gourdet showcases the history of Haiti and his memories of visits to the island and to his grandmother's house in New Jersey, where he ate Haitian dishes for the first time. “With so few Haitian restaurants in this country, we had to start from the beginning and tell the whole story,” he said.
Kann's servers learn not only their menu of wood-fired Haitian cuisine, with ingredients influenced by Oregon's seasonal vegetables, but also the island's history. Then they can explain to diners the importance of dishes like griyo, stewed and fried pieces of pork, or diri ak djon djon, a rice dish made with black mushrooms grown in northern Haiti.
Chef Sebastián Martínez delves into Puerto Rican cuisine, in Puerto Rico. Since opening Celeste in San Juan in August 2022, he and his brother Diego have focused on ingredients from the island.
This often requires correcting diners' beliefs about what is and is not part of island cuisine.
“People have told me, 'There's no way yellowfin tuna comes from Puerto Rico,' and it poses a nice challenge to show what's here and what's been right under their noses all along.”
The brothers have established a network of local fishermen, farmers and artisans who supply them with ingredients such as rambutans, vinegar made from deep purple sea grapes and even pig ears.
“So many people and places have had an impact on the Caribbean, we want to show all these beautiful things,” Martínez said.
By: KORSHA WILSON
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7102666, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-02-06 20:48:03
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