The Rise

RECIPE GUIDE

DRINKS

Mar Cocktail/The Bowie

Sea Moss Delight Smoothie

APPETIZERS

Lagos Plantains with Yaji (Suya Spice) Dip

Oyster Cucumber Shooters

Crudités with a Carrot Double Dip

Corn and Crab Beignets with Yaji (Suya Spice) Aioli

SOUPS

Independence Soup

Chilled Watermelon and Red Pepper Soup with Pickled Berries

Chicken Neck Soup with Oyster Mushrooms

Leah Chase Gumbo

Chilled Corn and Tomato Soup

Pepper Broth with Beef Heart

SALADS

Tomato and Peach Salad with Okra, Radishes, and Benne Seed Dressing

Crispy Carolina Millet Salad with Cow Peas

Charred Okra Salad

Spicy Grilled Garden Egg Salad

Collard Green and Fresh Cheese Salad

Callaloo and Bitter Greens Salad with Smoked Fish and Egusi Seeds

FISH AND SEAFOOD

Spiced Catfish with Pumpkin Leche de Tigre

Seared Scallops with White Soy Butter and Bok Choy

Spice-Roasted Black Cod and Carrots with Benne Seed Dressing

Quick Salted Salmon with Carrot Broth and Mushrooms

Shellfish Stew with Black Rice

Gold Coconut Broken Rice with Tamarind-Glazed Halibut

Shrimp Fritters with Bitter Greens and Grapefruit

Citrus-Cured Shrimp with Injera Handrolls and Awaze

Banana Leaf Snapper with Chickpeas and Coconut Rice

Tuna and Scallop Aguachile

Salmon Rillettes with Injera

Chermoula Rainbow Trout with Slab Bacon

Marinated Croaker Collars with Citrus and Green Mango Salad

Grilled Piri Piri Shrimp with Papaya and Watermelon Salad

Crab Curry with Yams and Mustard Greens

Seafood Stew with Cassava Dumplings

Bake and Shark Island Fish Sandwiches

Okra and Creek Seafood Stew

Broken Rice Peanut Seafood Stew

Papa Ed’s Shrimp and Grits

Citrus Scallops with Hibiscus Tea

Grilled Snapper with Goober Pea Marinade and Moyo

Fish Cakes with Birmingham Greens Salad

Kelewele Crusted Catfish with Yucca Fries and Garden Egg Chow Chow

Spiced Butter-Poached Shrimp and Potatoes

POULTRY

Chicken Liver Mousse with Croissants

Coconut Fried Chicken with Sweet Hot Sauce and Platanos

Chicken and Shrimp Tamarind Broth with Rice Noodles

Chicken Kofta with Charred Okra Salad and Yogurt Sauce

Sunday Roast Chicken with Chickpeas and Couscous

Bird and Toast

Fried Chicken and Waffles with Piri Piri Glaze

Boston Bay Jerk Chicken with Roti

Smoked Duck with Sorghum-Glazed Alliums

MEAT

Steak Frites with Plantain Chips and Green Vinaigrette

Chorizo Hash with Cured Egg and Horseradish on Toast

Pork Griot with Roasted Pineapple and Pikliz

Steak Afrique with Sauce Yassa

Oxtail Pepperpot with Dumplings

Smoked Venison with Roti and Pine Nut Chutney

Big Ole Pork Chops with D.R. Mangú

Flaky Andouille and Callaloo Hand Pies with Red Pepper Sambal

Tamarind-Ginger Roasted Pork, Lettuce, Coconut-Spiced Rice

Country-Style Spare Ribs with Pickled Greens Slaw

Pork and Beans with Piri Piri Sauce

Steak Tartare with Berbere Spice Brown Butter

Good Vibes Curry Goat

Portland Parish Lamb Pie

Braised Goat Shoulder with Locust Bean and Chili Oil

Grilled Short Ribs in Piri Piri Marinade

Rodney’s Ribs with Baked Cowpeas

Short Ribs with Get Up Sauce and Green Beans

GRAINS, RICE, AND PASTA

Haitian Black Rice and Mushrooms

Rice and Peas

Island Jollof Rice

Hoja Santa Cheese and Chorizo Blue Corn Grit Cakes

Couscous and Roasted Figs with Lemon Ayib and Honey Vinaigrette

Crab and Chile Chitarra Pasta

Ayib and Sweet Potato Ravioli with Berbere Spice Brown Butter

Zaza’s Doro Wat Rigatoni

Next Day Grits

Farro in Jollof Sauce

Taro and Millet Croquettes

Fonio Stuffed Collards with Pepper Sambal and Sauce Moyo

VEGETABLES

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Garlic-Fermented Shrimp Butter

Pikliz

Cassava Dumplings with Callaloo Puree

Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with NOLA East Mayo

Brussels and Dry Shrimp

Bitter Greens

Mangú

Pickled Greens (Kimchi Style)

Roasted Carrots with Ayib and Awaze Vinaigrette

Beets with Sage Leaf and Dukkah Spice

Lamb Wat with Fries and Cauliflower Cheese Sauce

Steamed Cabbage

Bullock Fries

Bean Fritters

Mangú with Eggplant Escabeche

Lentil Dal with Seasonal Vegetable Sauté

Succotash

BREADS AND DOUGHS

Roti

Dumplings

Injera

Coco Bread Buns

Donna’s Pull-Apart Fresh Dinner Rolls

Hoecakes

Waffles

Grilled Chickpea Flatbread with Lentil Dal

Teff and Brown Butter Biscuits with Shaved Country Ham

Scott Family Hushpuppies with Peanut Succotash

SWEETS AND DESSERTS

Tigernut Custard Tart with Cinnamon Poached Pears

Baobab-Buttermilk and Broiled Peach Popsicles

Sweet Wild Berry Pie with C&C Crumble

Leftover Wine Spiced Chocolate Cake with Mulled Wine Raspberries

Auntie’s Layer Cake with Pecans and Mango

Spiced Lemon Chess Pie

Saffron Tapioca Pudding with Amaro Marinated Strawberries

Pots de Crème with Benne Seed Praline and Roasted Pineapple

Montego Bay Rum Cake

Ginger and Hibiscus Flower Granita

PANTRY: SAUCES, MARINADES, SPICES, CONDIMENTS

Aged Butter

Awaze

Ayib

Baked Cow Peas

Basic Tigernut Pie Crust

Benne Seed Dressing

Berbere Spice Brown Butter

Caramelized Honey Vinaigrette

Charred Okra Salad

Chermoula Spice Blend

Chicken Liver Mousse

Classic Croissants

Coco Bread Buns

Cured Egg Yolks

Dukkah Spice Blend

Fresh Cheese

Garden Egg Chow Chow

Get Up Sauce

Green Curry Paste

Harissa Charred Tomato Vinaigrette

Honey Butter

Honey Simple Syrup

Injera

Island XO Sauce

Kelewele Spice Blend

Kibbeh

Lentil Dal with Seasonal Vegetable Sauté

Locust Bean and Chili Oil

Peanut Succotash

Pecan Prune Butter

Pickled Green Tomatoes

Pickled Greens (Kimchi Style)

Pickled Peaches

Pine Nut Chutney with Honey

Piri Piri Marinade

Red Palm Oil Vinaigrette

Rice and Peas

Roasted Red Pepper Sambal

Roti

Sauce Moyo

Shiro

Shito

Sorghum Butter

Ssäm Sauce

Tamarind-Ginger Glaze

Toasted Pecan and Date Molasses Butter

Yaji (Suya Spice) Aioli

Yaji (Suya Spice) Blend

THE RISE: BREAKDOWN

AUTHOR’S NOTE

It’s the last week of February, and I’m in Miami setting up my new restaurant, Red Rooster Overtown. I’m talking to chefs, cooks, dishwashers, investors, all part of the frantic setup before we open.

Fast forward to a week later and this coronavirus is real.

Twenty-five years of work, from coming to the US as an immigrant in the mid-90s to growing up as a chef at Aquavit to opening Red Rooster in Harlem and expanding to Overtown, is falling apart.

It only took ten days.

My phone rings. I speak with my business partner in Miami. The opening is not going to happen. We let go of the staff we’ve been training for weeks. Marcus B&P in Newark, New Jersey, follows, and then Red Rooster in Harlem. I don’t want to shut down. I want to hold on.

The next day, everything is still. The first time in years.

I gather with my team and we pivot. Who can help us out of this—knowing that Covid-19 will live very differently in Harlem, Newark, and Overtown compared to the rest of America? One thing about being Black and an immigrant is that I never really trust the system—you learn to go through a lot of adversity on your own. I think about my father, a leader in a small Ethiopian village. How he led his people to build a well out of nothing. How every night they prayed and held themselves with dignity. Now is the time to pull from that side of me.

The first call is to José Andrés and World Central Kitchen. In two weeks, José’s team helps transform Red Rooster Harlem into a community kitchen to feed hundreds of people a day. The next question is who will stay in Harlem to help? Robert, our greeter, is in. Jamie, our server, says, “I can.” Nicolette, our hostess, says to count her in as well.

I don’t know what to expect from our first days of service. Would there be nurses on the line? Firemen? Teachers? Or the folks who most of the time we ignore? The homeless. Folks from the nearby methadone center. They become our new regulars. The daily number rises to five hundred, and more.

Chicken one day, gumbo the next. Then rice and beans. Chile con carne after that.

We start a new routine I never learned in cooking school. Instead of yelling “Behind you! Hot pan!” we yell “Six feet apart! Please stay in line.” Robert coaches the line on social distancing. But how do you instruct someone who is high or mentally ill and appears unstable, next to a mother trying to get food for her family?

At the beginning of April, the folks who make up the food line shift again—the working class is now joining in. People start to arrive early. Jamie and Robert hold back portions for the elderly who can’t make the line, do an extra run to Ms. Johnson in 4B, to aunties and uncles who cannot stand for hours to receive a nourishing meal.

The worst calls have begun to come in. The virus is more than just numbers in the news. We lost my friend Chef Floyd Cardoz. Samuel Hargess Jr., from the iconic Paris Blues, is dead—a veteran of an incredible juke joint where the best musicians in the world have performed. Gary Samuels, who played in our band for nine years every single Sunday, is now gone. Kerby, another door greeter, and Reggie, a manager, have each lost a parent. Customers are also dying.

We reach twenty thousand meals served, with kitchens firing away in Harlem, Newark, and Overtown. I never thought of cooks and servers as first responders. In this moment in America, once again, the immigrants are helping. The guy at the deli. The lady delivering your package. These people are the first to not get health insurance. The first to be looked down upon or pushed aside. They are my heroes.

Through this, we are survivors. Our heritage has long shown how we continue to prevail even when the light seems dim and fades to black. A cultural experience of healing that we must all go through now.

But Covid-19 is not the only disease infecting America. The pandemic will eventually be overcome, though its effects will stay in the Black community for longer than elsewhere.

The bigger disease we must fight is the virus of systemic racism.

Alongside the rise of the coronavirus this year, we saw the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd by police. David McAtee, who ran YaYa’s BBQ Shack in Louisville, often served food at no cost to struggling members of his neighborhood and police officers, yet he was killed by the Kentucky National Guard in the aftermath of Black Lives Matter protests. In these and too many other violent tragedies we have seen the ugliest and worst of America.

We have also seen the bravest and best in response. Some of the most important work in fighting back against racism has happened during this pandemic. Although John Lewis passed during this time, his legacy has never been stronger. The changes we are a part of now are having a ripple effect—not only in America’s Black communities and communities of people of color, but in marginalized and Black communities throughout the world.

It will also have a tremendous impact on the food industry.

Food has always been part of the movement for racial justice. Change has often come from ordinary people doing extraordinary things through food, and changing our table. Take Georgia Gilmore, a mother of six in Alabama who fed and funded the Montgomery bus boycott for more than a year in the 1950s. Her cooking and efforts to organize the “Club from Nowhere” raised hundreds of dollars a week for the civil rights movement. Or Zephyr Wright, the chef for Lyndon B. Johnson, who was constantly in the President’s ear about injustice and how America needed to change, and who later was invited by the President to personally witness the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sometimes leaders are famous and widely documented. Sometimes they are not as well-known. The contributions of Black people in this country have always been underdocumented and undervalued. We can change that narrative. And we must.

We have to get rid of our biggest wound in America: racism. I hope that feeding each other, learning about our food and who makes it, is part of what will help us heal.

The Rise was created to highlight the incredible talent and journey of Black chefs, culinarians, and writers at work today, and to show how the stories we tell can help make a more equitable, just industry. I hope this work, and this moment, leads to us raising up Black winemakers, authors, and farmers. I hope it leads to us supporting the next generation of Black chefs and hospitality workers who will change our industry forever. And I hope that this movement becomes a part of a permanent and much broader social change.

So much beauty and achievement has come out of tough times throughout history, and it is inspiring to see communities across the globe coming together to care for one another. We also know that the road “back” from the current crisis will be harder for Black people because of the systemic challenges that disproportionately affect Black restaurateurs and creators of all kinds. That’s why it’s so important for everyone to help bring more equity to this industry. See the Resources section here for a few starting points to take this message and turn it into action in your own life.

We are the Black Food Community: Black chefs, Black servers, Black bartenders, Black food writers, Black culinary historians, Black recipe developers. Our food stems from challenged communities and challenged times. It comprises enslavement, poverty, and war, yet our food has soul, and has inspired and fed many. We will rise, we will shine, we are survivors.

Black Food Matters.

Marcus Samuelsson

July 2020