Food festival in Miami Beach celebrates Creole cuisine
A celebration of Creole cuisine and culture is coming to Miami Beach on Saturday.
The third annual Creole Food Festival will showcase chefs and a variety of Creole cuisine, including from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin and South America and the American South.
Fabrice J. Armand, cofounder of the familyfriendly festival, says part of the event’s mission is to educate people about the diversity of Creole cuisine.
“Most of the time people think of Haiti or New Orleans when they think of Creole food, but there’s so much more,” he says. “Think of Cape Verde, think about Honduras. There’s a big Creole tradiAtlanta, tion in Charleston, South Carolina. There’s Senegal and Mali and other West African countries. There’s Martinique and St. Lucia.”
The event — versions are also held in New York, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans — also aims to create a platform for chefs of color.
“Chefs of color have to work twice as hard for recognition,” Armand says. “We make it easy for them to concentrate on cooking and show what they can do.”
Several award-winning chefs will appear at this year’s festival, which will be held on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. The chefs include Todd Richards, who has just published his second cookbook “Roots, Heart, Soul” with Amy Condon and Food Network star Jouvens Jean.
Also appearing is Miami native Catherine Hinds, who worked as a private chef for tennis star Serena Williams and the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro and is founder of Copycat Foods.
Port-au-Prince native
Alain Lemaire, who has also appeared on the Food Network and in 2018 was one of eight Haitian chefs to cook the first all-Haitian dinner at the James Beard Foundation House in New York, will also be serving up Haitian specialties.
The event will also feature many kinds of music.
“You’ll listen to Afro beats, Brazilian music, zouk, old-school Southern music,” Armand says. “We’re celebrating culture. Miami is the perfect backdrop for that, because Miami has so many different cultures.”
But even a place like Miami can use a reminder of the beauty of diversity, he says.
“Although it’s diverse, here people stick to what they know, the communities they are used to,” he says. “The festival brings everybody together. Bringing everyone together can help open people’s eyes so they look at each other differently.”