This year’s protests against racial discrimination brought renewed focus on Black-owned businesses, including Black-owned restaurants, and others helmed by minority chefs.
Marcus Samuelsson, the Ethiopian-Swedish chef at Red Rooster in New York City’s Harlem, has written a guide to the culinary landscape of the African diaspora, which blends cooking traditions and ingredients from Africa, the Caribbean, and the American South. His new book, The Rise, which he co-authored with Osayi Endolyn, focuses on an area of specialty foods that had already been gaining considerable mainstream attention, and perhaps spotlights some emerging opportunities for the specialty food industry.
Samuelsson takes readers through the backgrounds of several Black chefs, restaurateurs, authors, and others involved in the food industry, beginning with their childhoods and early culinary influences. He describes how their careers progressed and how they came to carve out their own unique niches in the world of specialty food. He then offers recipes dedicated to them that often incorporate the ingredients and flavors of their own backgrounds and heritages.
For example, in a profile of Eduardo Jordan, executive chef of Salare, JuneBaby, and Lucinda Grain Bar in Seattle, Samuelsson offers a recipe for Lagos Plantains with Yaji (Suya Spice) Dip, reflecting Jordan’s travels in Nigeria, where yaji is popular. The spice mix is made with dried peppers and peanuts, and in this case is used to flavor plantains, an ingredient popular in both African and Caribbean cuisine.
The yaji, also known as suya spice, is among several ingredients highlighted in the book that could be poised to gain more mainstream awareness, according to Samuelsson.
Another is ackee, a unique-tasting fruit that is popular in Jamaica and is used in a recipe dedicated to Eric Gestel, the executive chef at Le Bernadin in New York City. The Seared Scallops with White Soy Butter and Bok Choy reflect Gestel’s upbringing in Martinique and his culinary education in Paris.
Samuelsson describes Nina Compton, the chef-owner of Compère Lapin in New Orleans, as the “next generation of royalty” in Black cooking, following in the footsteps of pioneers such as Sylvia Woods and Leah Chase.
“Her moment is now and she’s crushing it,” Samuelsson writes of Compton, whose restaurant is inspired by her native Saint Lucia.
Her contributions to the recipe collection include Cassava Dumplings with Callaloo Puree, a West Indian-influenced dish made with callaloo greens.
Among the other people Samuelsson profiles whose careers revolve around the Black culinary experience is Shakirah Simley, who is director of the Office for Racial Equity for the city and county of San Francisco and previously had been the community program manager at Bi-Rite Market in that city. The profile of Harlem-raised Simley comes with a recipe for Tomato and Peach Salad with Okra, Radishes, and Benne Seed Dressing. Benne seeds, used in multiple recipes in the book, were brought from West Africa to the Carolinas during slavery and used in stews and soups.
Benne seeds are also found in dukkah, an Egyptian and Middle Eastern spice blend that has been gaining traction on menus.
Other recipe ingredients found throughout the book include:
• Wat, an Ethiopian and Eritrean stew or curry that can be combined with a variety of meats or eaten with pasta or rice.
• Baobab, which is a citrus-like fruit that Samuelsson offers in a recipe for Baobab-Buttermilk and Broiled Peach Popsicles.
• Cassava flour, which Samuelsson described as having huge upside potential in American cooking.
• Mangú and fufu, two varieties of seasoned, mashed plantains (or cassava) from the Dominican Republic and West Africa, respectively, which Samuelsson says represent a “huge missed opportunity” for fine dining restaurants in the U.S.
• Ancient grains including teff, farro, and fonio, the latter of which Samuelsson compares to “a fine couscous.”
• Sea moss, a type of seaweed that has long been a part of Caribbean diets and has gained a following among health-conscious and vegan consumers in the U.S.
The book closes with a full list of these and other ingredients and recipes relating to the African diaspora, and Samuelsson encourages consumers to seek out these items to try themselves at home.
“Chefs and restaurants, and the writers who tell their stories, can inspire us with what to eat and what those foods mean,” he writes. “But you taking the next step of buying those ingredients for your home preparation conveys to the economic market that this food matters to you and you want to see more of it.”
Related: At-Home Dining, Global Flavor Trends Continue Into 2021; Findlay Kitchen Incubator Launches Curated Monthly Boxes.
from Industry Operations https://ift.tt/3kv9512
No comments: