- 16 hours ago
A chat with NOLA-based chefs about their culinary beginnings, their Caribbean roots, and the connections between their culture and traditional New Orleans cuisine.
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00:01Coming out to Essence's Wine and Food Festival.
00:05My name is Camp Kent, also known as Mr. Happy Hour.
00:08Again, this is the final segment, and we're so excited to have you.
00:11I see TDs in the crowd.
00:13My mom's also here today, so we appreciate that.
00:16So, right now, we have the pleasure of bringing up some of New Orleans' finest chefs.
00:22We'll be focusing on the Caribbean style.
00:25So, we have Chef Nina Compton of Cuiper Lapuin.
00:28She also has Babs and Nina's Crino College, which is inside of the Harris Casino,
00:35or I guess it's now Caesars Casino.
00:37We'll also be joined by Chef Charlie Pierre, owner of Free Time,
00:43and then the owner and Chef Queen Trini.
00:46We also will have our moderator will be Essence's own, Miss Barku Tubman-Zuolo.
00:53She's the chief diasporic engagement officer.
00:58Thank you, guys.
00:59That's a lot of words.
01:04Hello.
01:11Let's see. I'm going to put my phone down.
01:16Hi, guys.
01:17Welcome, everybody.
01:22This panel is Yes Chef.
01:24Cook's bringing the Caribbean to Nola.
01:27So, I'm actually, I know he introduced us, but it's pretty loud sometimes.
01:31I want to make sure people understand who you are.
01:34So, we're going to start with you, Lisa.
01:36Tell us your other names or what we should call you, but tell us about your restaurants and what you do here in New Orleans.
01:45Okay.
01:46My name is Lisa Nelson, better known as Queen Trinilisa.
01:49Hey.
01:50Hey.
01:51My restaurant is in Mid-City, and I bring Trinidad culture to New Orleans.
01:58My slogan is more doubles, less troubles.
02:01If you ever had a doubles, you really need to come over and try.
02:04I love that.
02:06So, my husband is half Trinidadian, and he loves doubles.
02:11That's our kids right there.
02:13So, they got some Trinidadian in them, too.
02:15They wanted me to say that, so I kind of had to do that.
02:18So, just so you know.
02:20Okay.
02:21And then we're going to go to Charlie.
02:22Charlie, tell us about you.
02:24Hi.
02:25My name is Charlie Pierre.
02:26I am the head chef and owner of Free Thai in New Orleans, and we cook Haitian cuisine.
02:31And it's a little bit of, you know, my recreations, but also a lot of traditional styles of cuisine.
02:37I love that.
02:38And then we have Miss Nina Compton.
02:40So, I got to tell you a story before I hand it to Nina.
02:43Nina came to the back, and I was like, oh, okay, tell me, like, you know, so you have a restaurant in New Orleans?
02:48She was like, I have three.
02:49I was like, I'm sorry.
02:50Okay.
02:51Apologies.
02:52So, Nina, you're from St. Lucia.
02:55Yes.
02:56Tell us about your restaurant.
02:57So, my restaurant, my first restaurant is Compella Pan, which is right down the street on Trapatulas in the old 77 Hotel.
03:04My second restaurant is Bab Nola in the 9th Ward next to Noki.
03:09And then I have Nina's Creole Cottage that is in the Caesars Casino.
03:15So, it's really a mixture of my Caribbean heritage, being from St. Lucia, and also some of the Louisiana cooking is thrown in there as well.
03:25So, I'm going to ask, you know, all three of you, how long you've been in New Orleans and what made you want to bring your culture to this big cultural center that is New Orleans already?
03:40I'll start with you, Nina.
03:42So, I had never been to New Orleans until I filmed Top Chef.
03:47My husband and I, when we got engaged and we were thinking about our honeymoon, we thought about coming here for our honeymoon.
03:53But, I'm like, you know, it's the middle of summertime.
03:55It's going to be too hot.
03:56It's going to be too crazy.
03:57So, let's just go to a beach location.
04:00So, we filmed here and I came back to, I was living in Miami at the time, and I told my husband, I'm like, we need to find a way to move to New Orleans.
04:10And I kept on saying, I'm like, we need to figure this out.
04:12And we got a phone call to the restaurant in November of 2014.
04:19And I moved in February of 2015.
04:22Wow.
04:23We opened Compella Pen in June of 2015.
04:26So, it's, um, thank you.
04:30It's, uh, it's been a beautiful, you know, transition being here for almost 10 years.
04:35And I think that what made me want to move here were the people.
04:40I really wanted to move here because of the people and the culture.
04:43Yes.
04:44So, I'm from, I'm from, I'm originally from West Africa, Liberia.
04:48And every time I come to New Orleans, it reminds me so much of home.
04:51And I know she's sitting there under her hat, but y'all know the city mayor is up in this room with us, just so you know.
04:58Mayor Cantrell.
04:59Oh, there she is.
05:03Hello.
05:04So, and that's just who she is.
05:06So, that's what you get from New Orleans.
05:07Everything is so, like, it's so hospitable.
05:10So, like, what made you come to New Orleans and say, this is where I want to bring what I'm super passionate about?
05:17Well, ever since a kid, I've been infatuated with New Orleans.
05:19So, I was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
05:22But I am, uh, you know, Haitian descendant, first generation Haitian American.
05:27And I first came here in 20, uh, sorry, 2008 on a chef's conference.
05:32I was just in college, in a little college in New Hampshire called Southern New Hampshire University.
05:36And I came down here to a chef's conference with my elder chefs who was winning an award here.
05:41So, being here, I met people like Emeril, Susan Spicer.
05:44And I just, I mean, I didn't even go too far outside of Treme or even, you know, Marini.
05:50But I fell in love.
05:51I remember calling my mom on the last night, like, I don't want to move back.
05:54I'm not moving back.
05:55Uh, she told me, you better come back and finish your degree.
05:58So, I did that.
05:59And then, but even then, I was coming back every year just to get a little bit more and more, like, you know, understanding what the city is.
06:06And finally, in 2015, I was able to move here.
06:09And I, six months later, I opened up my little space called Free Thai.
06:13And that was just a little stall in the St. Rock Market.
06:16And we were just pushing out a lot of Haitian food out of that space.
06:19And, you know, over the years, I grew and understood what it was to be Haitian, what it means to be an African, you know, American cook and, you know, in the South, in New Orleans.
06:28And, yeah, I've just been taking the culture and loving it.
06:31I mean, being in New Orleans itself is such a beautiful thing because it's the closest place to being a Caribbean without being in the Caribbean.
06:38And I really love that.
06:39Oh, my God, I believe you.
06:40I believe you.
06:41I actually feel that, actually.
06:43So, Lisa, Queen Trini Lisa, tell us, like, how did you get here?
06:50Why New Orleans for you?
06:52So, this year will be my 18th year in New Orleans.
06:55Wow.
06:56And we came for construction after Katrina.
06:59I like to say I didn't plan to be a chef or to go down this culinary experience.
07:06But I had a corner store in the 9th Ward.
07:09And I have five kids.
07:10So, I needed a way to get the kids to eat healthy food because they will eat all the snacks and all the hoboards and everything.
07:16So, I started cooking my Trinidadian cuisine, I mean, food for my kids.
07:22And the customers will come in and they will just, like, sniff around the corner store.
07:27And I'm looking at them like, you know, what's the big deal?
07:31Is this regular, my regular Trinidad food?
07:34But anyway, they started asking for taste and kept coming back and coming back and encouraging me to cook and cook.
07:41So, just from trying to feed my children, I became Queen Trini Lisa because of the need of people wanting to know more of Caribbean food.
07:52I love that. I absolutely love that.
07:56I have a question because we're talking about St. Lucia, we're talking about Haiti, we're talking about Trinidad.
08:04What are some of your traditional cuisines that you do bring and mesh with the culture of New Orleans?
08:12Like, what is St. Lucia? I know you guys have, like, the green fig, you know, the green plantain is some of what you have.
08:19Like, so what is that so we can know what we're getting into when we come to your spots?
08:23So, a lot of people may not know this, but St. Lucia was seven times British and seven times French.
08:30So, we have a lot of very classic French dishes that we have on the menu.
08:35We do Boudin Noir, which is a blood sausage, which you find traditionally in France, but you also see the influences of Indian and also African.
08:47So, you see a lot of, like, salt fish that we use, bread fruits, a lot of yams, a lot of, you know, heavily spiced things or cured pigtails or salted pork.
08:59And all those things were brought from the travels.
09:02So, you see salt fish all throughout the Caribbean because many centuries ago, that's how they preserved the fish to bring it over.
09:10And then we also have a lot of Indian influences as well.
09:13So, just like Trinidad, you see a lot of curries and spices and coconut milk that you'll see speckled through the Caribbean.
09:20And what I love about the Caribbean is that I think a lot of people think it's just Jamaica or Cuba.
09:27Each island is so different and it has so many different influences.
09:31So, when you think about Martinique, Martinique is very French.
09:35When you think about Barbados, you think about Anguilla, you think about Bermuda, those are British islands as well.
09:43But then you see the Spanish influences, the French, the Portuguese, the Dutch.
09:48So, each island's cuisine is so different.
09:51Yes, because people always think that Africa is a country also.
09:54That's right.
09:55And we're like, no, no, it's not.
09:56The Caribbean is equally just so diverse.
09:59Yes.
10:00And beautiful.
10:01You know what, and so all of those things, I mean, there's so much similarity.
10:04And again, New Orleans is like, that place is like, it's where you come, you really can find home here.
10:09If you're from Africa, if you're from the Caribbean, if you're probably from India, you can come here.
10:13And that's like, what is so special about New Orleans.
10:16What is Haitian cuisine that you're bringing?
10:19Like, what can we find at your place that you were bringing?
10:22I mean, the root of Haitian cuisine really comes from who was on the island of Hispaniola, you know, previously,
10:29before Haiti and Dominican Republic.
10:32And that included the original Taino folks.
10:34That included the Spanish.
10:35That included the French.
10:36And, of course, the West Africans who were enslaved who came over.
10:40So, from all those peoples messed together comes Haitian cuisine.
10:43So, you see a lot of French notes in Haitian cuisine.
10:46You see a lot of West African kind of influences and also Spanish influences.
10:51And that's why we kind of relate a lot to kind of Latin cuisine as well.
10:55So, if you eat Cuban food or Puerto Rican food, you see a lot of similarities between their food and our food.
11:01But it's also the same thing about their food in New Orleans as well.
11:04Because New Orleans has the same type of influence with the French and the Spanish as well as enslaved folks.
11:09So, there's so many parallels between the Haitian cuisine and New Orleans cuisine.
11:14Like, creole sauces, gumbos, even art and architecture.
11:18It's so many kind of similarities between the two.
11:21Yeah.
11:22Love that.
11:23So, let's learn about Trini cuisine.
11:26There's doubles.
11:27There's roti.
11:28What do we have?
11:29Like, what?
11:30Well, more doubles, less troubles, I like to start saying.
11:33But Trinidad is heavily influenced by the East Indian culture and the African culture and also the Asian.
11:40And there's a little bit of everything for everybody there.
11:43You know, at Queen Chinelisa, I do jerk barbecue chicken and we do the oxtail with the coconut milk and the rice and peas.
11:55I love me some oxtails.
11:56Yeah.
11:57So, just please send me some.
11:59I'm just saying.
12:00Yeah.
12:01So, just come over and try, you know, Queen Chinelisa and you're definitely going to get a taste of the Caribbean now.
12:10So, you started cooking for your children because they were eating all of the very unhealthy foods that we can find.
12:18My children eat very unhealthy foods, too.
12:21You see their faces?
12:23They're like...
12:24Because they snack a lot.
12:26So, how was it when you were trying to, like, switch it up for them?
12:30Like, were you mixing a little bit of Trini with, you know, with the unhealthy and you just decided that after eight...
12:40Like, when did you...
12:41Like, how old were your kids when you decided...
12:43Because you changed careers.
12:45You were not a chef.
12:46No, I wasn't.
12:47Like, you just decided that this was something you wanted to do because people said it.
12:50I had to have a way for them to eat something healthy.
12:53So, the rule was you come to the corner store after school and you eat what I cook and then maybe you'll get a snack or so.
13:00So, it was really, I bribed them, really.
13:02And then the customers came over and smelled the difference in the food and always wanted to try it.
13:06So, I started, you know, letting them try it.
13:08And they will come in, hey, did you cook today?
13:11You know?
13:12So, I just kept it going and it led to Queen Chinilisa and I'm very proud to be here to talk about it.
13:19Love it.
13:20So, what are some of the parallels between Caribbean dishes and classic New Orleans dishes?
13:25Ooh, that's a tricky one.
13:27I like to start with the jambalaya.
13:29When I first had jambalaya, it reminded me of Palau back home.
13:33It's like a one-pot meal with everything in it.
13:35So, when I first came to New Orleans 18 years ago, I was like, this tastes just like jambalaya, you know?
13:40So, that was a connection for me.
13:42I feel like it's a really easy answer for Haitians because like I said before, we have a lot of similarities.
13:49We make a form of jambalaya.
13:50We make a form of gumbo.
13:51We have the same exact Creole sauces.
13:54We make red beans.
13:55We make white beans.
13:56We make black beans.
13:57Wow.
13:58So, there's so many different things.
13:59We cook with gizzards too.
14:01I mean, yeah, the list goes on and on and on.
14:04So, there's so many things.
14:05And like I said, it's just the, you know, what the history of Haiti was and what the history of New Orleans was and how they worked together.
14:13Yep.
14:14And also with that, Charlie, a lot of people may not know that Haiti, a lot of people from Haiti moved here during the revolution.
14:22So, that was a very impactful part of bringing some of that cuisine and influence to New Orleans as well is that Haiti has an instrumental part in that.
14:32Nice.
14:33And so, is there, so, you know, most of the time, you know, different cultures will have like their groups.
14:41So, do you all get together as, you know, because you all seem to know each other very well.
14:45We do.
14:46So, is there like the Caribbean connection where you all just know each other or is it just because of the food?
14:52No, I think we're all linked to the Caribbean, but we're all friends and we all support each other.
14:58And it doesn't, the group is bigger.
15:02You know, we have Serene from Dakar.
15:05We have Prince from Addis Nola.
15:07We have Kaitlyn from Laniap.
15:09So, we're all connected because we want to support each other and let people know.
15:15We just did the Freedom, Afro Freedom Fest for Juneteenth with Chef Serene.
15:20And that is such a beautiful event.
15:22So, if you guys are around next year, you have to go.
15:25And it really, it's about the community.
15:28And we're here to support each other.
15:30And, you know, Lisa will call me up and say, hey, I need some advice.
15:33Or Charlie will say, hey, I need advice.
15:36We're all here to support each other because together we're stronger.
15:40I agree.
15:41Together we are stronger.
15:42Yes.
15:43Together we are stronger.
15:44Together we are stronger.
15:45That is so true.
15:46So, what is, have those parallels made it easy for you to serve, to be embraced in the Crescent City?
15:55Oh, yeah.
15:56It is, thank you everybody.
15:59Because honestly, when I first thought about opening this restaurant, I was very scared.
16:05And the amount of people that came to me and said, before we even opened our doors, they said, thank you for moving here.
16:13Thank you for opening a restaurant.
16:14I said, this is crazy.
16:16This is crazy.
16:17And opening night, we had flowers, we had cards, we had people that came and said, thank you.
16:24So for me, as a chef and as a business owner, I want to see more restaurants open.
16:30And we've been, we're almost 10 years old.
16:33And now we're seeing Haitian and Trinidadian and Senegalese and Ethiopian food.
16:38So the more of us that they are, the more restaurants will come and we'll see more ownership.
16:44And that's what I want to see is black owned businesses thrive.
16:47You have Larry Morrow, who is killing the game.
16:50Yes.
16:51Right?
16:52Yes.
16:53Come on, Larry.
16:54So when you look at that, we have to push together.
16:57I think the greatest thing about New Orleanians is that they're so inviting.
17:01You know, they really respect, and you know, you got to respect their culture, but they're really respectful of other people's culture.
17:06And they're willing to try it and give it a taste, especially when it's these similarities.
17:10Like, no matter where you're from, you love oxtails.
17:12Like, if you haven't had it, just know you love it.
17:15You love oxtails.
17:16And now the price is up.
17:17Yeah, even though that's why the price is up.
17:19But those are the things that we can relate over.
17:21So you say those words, you can bring people in.
17:23So Dennis, with that, you can help bridge the connection.
17:26Yeah, for sure.
17:27And I think, you know, they're very, New Orleans is very diverse in this culture.
17:32And like Charlie said, they're very welcoming.
17:34When I started cooking, I was like, well, what do you guys want with Trinidad culture when New Orleans is so full of its own?
17:41So, you know, knowing that it's the most anonymous Caribbean city, it's parallel where the connection, the palates are the same.
17:49They like the same spice tones, you know?
17:51So it's very familiar to me.
17:53Absolutely.
17:54People always say when they come, they're like, you can never have bad food in New Orleans.
17:58Like, they're like, anywhere you go, the food is good.
18:00I think what's really amazing is, you know, you all are talking about all the different restaurants.
18:05Larry Morrow is a partner who's in our magazine.
18:08He's in Essence magazine this month.
18:10Yes.
18:11Actually, New Orleans is like the cover star of Essence magazine this month.
18:15And of course, New Orleans is the star of the Essence Festival of Culture.
18:18But as you all continue to open the doors, there's still room for more, which is something that I love as also an entrepreneur.
18:27I think that is so important because that is really what drives the economy.
18:32That is what drives generational wealth.
18:34And of course, with New Orleans, the palates are the same and we can continue to like educate each other and learn from each other, but then eat good together.
18:43Yes.
18:44I love that.
18:45So thank you guys so much for coming.
18:46But before I let you go, I want to make sure people know how to connect with you.
18:50And I want to make sure you all get an opportunity when you get out of this convention center and you're exploring the city of New Orleans, go find Nina.
18:58Tell them one more time where they can find you on social media and all the restaurants that you have.
19:04So my IG is Nina.
19:06I'm sorry.
19:07At Nina Compton.
19:08My restaurants can fill a pen.
19:10Babs Nola and Nina's Creole Cottage.
19:12Thank you guys.
19:13How can they find you?
19:15My Instagrams are free tie F R I T A I Nola as well as Charlie with a L Y C H A R L Y the letter J then Pierre Charlie J Pierre.
19:26My restaurant is free tie, which is in the Treme.
19:29Go check it out.
19:30Uh, I am on the latest season of top chef.
19:32So if you haven't seen that, please go watch it.
19:34Uh, yeah, and that's, yeah, that's everything.
19:38Uh, my IG is, um, at Lisa underscore Trini dot com.
19:43I mean, I'm sorry, at Lisa underscore Trini.
19:47Um, I'm, I'm at 4200 the Hammer Court in mid city.
19:52And, um, right now my children are there holding it down.
19:56And, um, just happy to come for y'all to come visit us.
20:00Thank you so much.
20:01So top chef, top chef, make sure you watch.
20:04Um, thank you guys so much for sharing your love for your different cultures with us through your culinary different experiences.
20:12I am going to be coming for food.
20:15Can we door dash some of this stuff too?
20:17I don't do it.
20:18I don't do it.
20:19Yeah, you can door dash.
20:20She's like, no, you're gonna come and taste it.
20:21You're gonna come in.
20:22You're gonna come in.
20:23You're gonna come in.
20:24I'm, I'm a door dash.
20:25I don't be liking to leave.
20:26I got people holding me down.
20:29We want to thank the mayor and Lisa from NLCCF for coming to sit with us today.
20:34Thank you guys so much, Nina, Lisa, Charlie.
20:39Thank you all so much.
20:41Make sure you go tonight to the Superdome.
20:52Did we take?
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