10th annual ‘A Taste of Africa’ dinner event celebrates black history
Cook and caterer Olafemi Mandley has come a long way since she held her first dinner in celebration of Black History Month a decade ago.
For that inaugural event in 2009 at Community College of Allegheny County’s South Campus in West Mifflin, the menu celebrating the foods African and AfricanAmerican people have eaten historically was fairly low key. Set up as a buffet, the college students and their professors who paid just a few dollars to attend noshed on fairly simple dishes like peanut chicken, fried plantains and yams.
It was so popular, she did it for three years running, while also holding small dinner parties for friends in her own home and starting a catering business in West Mifflin.
“I love food and love to talk about food,” she says, “and students and faculty got really engaged.”
This year, Ms. Mandley is going a bit more upscale, both in the food and the entertainment. The menu for the 10th anniversary of “The Taste of Africa” dinner on Feb. 19 will boast 10 courses featuring mostly locally sourced and organic ingredients, during which Ms. Mandley and Hill District residents Amir Rashidd, Dessie Bey and Frankie Harris tell stories about the food that celebrate their heritage, and help diners understand the importance of the African oral tradition.
Many of the stories, she says, will center on the importance of food and sex, “because if we stop either one, we cease to exist.” To that end, she’s calling the dinner “Soul of Food an Enchanted Evening.”
All three storytellers are heavy hitters in Pittsburgh’s arts scene. A mainstay of the Hill District art scene since 1960s, Mr. Rashidd has been telling stories for more than 40 years. Ms. Bey is a writer who has authored three volumes of poetry and is a cofounder of the Langston Hughes Poetry Society of Pittsburgh. Frankie Harris is a merchandiser and artist who runs The Power of One, a special event planning service, and also is a member of Ujamaa Collective, an organization devoted to promoting the works of female African-American entrepreneurs and arts.
Tickets cost $125 and include complimentary cocktails. It’s being held at Casa Brasil in Highland Park and will be limited to 24 diners.
Next Tuesday’s menu will feature a menu representative of black history through the centuries. Hors d’oeuvres include Ms. Mandley’s spin on liver pate — crispy, beer-brined chicken livers with garlic aioli, crispy dandelion greens and french-fried shallots. Diners also will get to sample braised kale with sweet potato and pickled lemons, “fishwife” soup, a leafy green vegetable known as callolou, salted cod salad and beef ribs. A refreshing watermelon, rosemary and ginger sorbet will cleanse the palate before the sweets course. The “Drunken Virgin” cake will be the most provocative of the four desserts.
Soul of Food an Enchanted Evening is from 6:30-9 p.m. on Feb. 19 at Casa Brasil, 5904 Bryant St., Highland Park. Details: 412901-0845 or go to eventbright.com (search “Soul of Food”).
Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412263-1419 or on Twitter @gtmckay.