A tale of Caribbean cuisine The debate of cultural appropriation

BY NOEL CUNNINGHAM

Cultural appropriation is back on the table. In recent years a lot of restaurants and chefs came under fire for cultural appropriation for their interpretation of other culture’s dishes. Caribbean food seems to be the latest cultural commodity available for plunder. I’m not sure if these people realize that Caribbean food is not just what goes on the plate, but how it goes on the plate.

This topic has been on my list to cover and I kept pushing it back even before the IKEA rice and peas backlash in September of this year, which I got caught up in and was flagged by social media users and called a sellout. Luckily some people were on my side because they understood where I was coming from.

From a marketing standpoint, IKEA was correct because they never said Jamaican rice and peas, they said jerk chicken and rice and peas. Jamaica is not the only island with rice and peas. However, because they said jerk chicken and rice and peas we are expecting the real Jamaican duo. When I first saw the post I thought it was laughable, I even shared it on my Facebook page and said they tried. I took to my Twitter after IKEA apologized and said IKEA owes no one an apology because they never said Jamaican rice and peas. Before the day ended my Instagram was blowing up. When I checked, the infamous Shade Room reposted my tweet on their Instagram. I had to run for cover and private my Instagram and avoid Twitter for a few days lol. One thing I know is that we as Caribbean people don’t play with our food.

Back in August 2018 celebrity British chef, Jamie Oliver was accused of cultural appropriation for his ‘jerk rice’. People have also questioned the ingredients in Jamie’s rice. There are many variations of jerk marinade, but most contain allspice, scotch bonnet pepper, thyme, ginger, lime juice, garlic, and onions. Jamie’s “punchy jerk rice” mixes garlic, ginger and jalapenos “to create a jerk marinade with attitude.”

A few weeks ago celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelson, who is the head of Red Rooster in Harlem, New York and food presenter on BuzzFeed Tasty made a Haitian dish and he also felt the heat from a few Haitians, including Fabricio del Toro the founder of Creole Foodfest. Fabricio took to his Instagram and posted “I love Marcus Samuelson as a chef but there are many talented Haitian chefs that could and should have been taped for this segment,” He tagged 12 of Haiti’s top chefs. Then further went on by saying “and many more that I do not know. There is a story behind our food and culture. Although anyone can recreate it, our Haitians chefs deserve the respect and opportunity to tell it.” I strongly agree.

Okay, so just last week I got a notification from the Wendy Williams show on YouTube and I saw ‘stew chicken’ in the thumbnail I thought this must be a Jamaican Chef in Wendy’s Kitchen let me watch since others called it chicken stew or braised chicken. It was Chef Lazarus Lynch from the Food Network who has Jamaican family but he is not Jamaican. He was demonstrating some recipes from his new book Son of a Southern Chef which includes the stew chicken, rice and peas and cornbread. I must say first of all the only cornbread we Jamaicans eat or know is from Miss Birdie or Jack’s Bakery at Red Hills Road. However, he got mixed reactions from the commenters on Youtube and Facebook with most people left disgruntled with his interpretation of Jamaican stew chicken with rice and peas. One user over Youtube said “As a born and raised Jamaican this ain’t how we season meat for brown stewed chicken.” another added, “It’s good that he paid homage to his Caribbean heritage.” While on Facebook a user-added, “that’s an Insult to us Jamaicans….who the heck came up with that recipe”.

Where is the line drawn for cultural appropriation vs paying homage to culture since food is a universal language and a common ground for everyone to experience? I believe that cultural appropriation is when it’s done with malicious intent or you steal something from one culture and try to own it. A genuine interest in other cultures is not to be discounted, The sharing of ideas, traditions, and material items is what makes life interesting and helps diversify the world. It is the intention that remains most important and something everyone can remain conscious of as we learn from others.