Why Caribbean Cuisine Isn't Considered Fine Dining

Despite its complex flavors and labor-intensive dishes, when you think of fine dining, Caribbean cuisine isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Why is that?

There are plenty of Caribbean restaurants and eateries in New York City, but none of them are considered fine dining establishments. If you’re looking for Caribbean food, most of what you’ll find likely isn’t going to break the bank. Take Eater’s list of "superior Caribbean food" for example, which includes a series of Caribbean eateries whose prices range from low to mid-tier. On the other hand, if you search for the best fine dining in NYC, you’ll come across Eater’s list of “splurge-worthy restaurants” including French, Japanese, and Italian among others, but no Caribbean.

As someone of Jamaican descent, I grew up with the flavors of the islands. Caribbean cuisine is full of life, flavor, and vibrancy. Dishes include oxtail, jerk chicken, and ackee and saltfish featuring distinct spices like allspice, thyme, and scotch bonnet peppers. Many of these dishes are labor intensive and require a day’s worth of effort to get the flavors just right. So why isn’t Caribbean cuisine worthy of an expensive price? Why have other cuisines that originated with immigrants, like the ones on Eater’s list, been able to excel within the culinary world while Caribbean has not?

What is Fine Dining?

What comes to mind when you think of fine dining? I asked this question to my family and friends and heard iterations of the same things: exceptional service, small plates, tiny portions, quality hospitality, and a particular dress code. Fine dining is fancy, expensive, and sophisticated.

“I think of fine dining as pretentious, unseasoned, and white. I’m not really interested in eating it,” my friend Anna Magnuson says. As Anna notes, there is certainly an air of exclusivity that comes with fine dining, crafted intentionally to signify an elite form of culinary excellence. But who and what is left out matters.

While taste is subjective and varies from person to person, as showcased in a study by Kwon et al., the way food looks, smells, the ingredients it's made of, how it's prepared, and its monetary value shape one’s food preferences.

When asked about what cuisines they associated with fine dining, again the answer was unanimous - French, possibly Italian, but overall European. Skill set and how difficult the dish is to prepare were also contributing factors. As NYU Professor Krishnendu Ray analyzes in The Restaurants Book: Ethnographies of Where we Eat, fine dining is indeed historically rooted in French haute cuisine. This standard has greatly influenced which cuisines are regarded as fine dining today. Those that mimic or have similar techniques to French cuisine have the upper hand while others are overlooked.

Professor Ray’s research also reveals that American, French, and Italian cuisines consistently rank quite highly while others such as Mexican, Creole, and Indian remain at the bottom across the board. Caribbean isn’t even on the list, due in part to the opportunities chefs of color lack. “A typical route is from the successful pizzeria or diner to a white-tablecloth restaurant,” Professor Ray states. Caribbeans don’t have that pathway.

In the culinary world, most minorities work in the back of the kitchen. Non-white chefs tend to be devalued, discriminated against, and excluded from higher positions. Those that are head chefs and owners are seen as anomalies, the ones that were able to make it big, or tokens representative for their entire race. This lack of opportunity and representation explains why Caribbean food has been relegated as cheap and not requiring much skill.

It could also reflect the economic standing of the country itself. Kaniel, a friend who grew up in Montego Bay comments, “I can’t think of any developing nation [whose cuisine] is considered fine dining.” Going back to Eater’s list of splurge-worthy restaurants, nearly all of them derive from developed nations, (the exceptions being India, Mexico, and Vietnam). The more capital a country has, it appears the better their food is received.

What Defines Authenticity?

The term authentic is often used to describe restaurants that aim to provide a traditional version of said dish or cuisine; its preparation is classic and original in form. Authentic is typically associated with smaller family run businesses alongside phrases like hole in the wall or mom and pop, not fine dining restaurants. While it gives the customer an idea of the food and experience they can expect, it comes at a cost. The language itself shapes one’s perception of the food and limits what it can be.

Caribbean Immigration in NYC

Within the last century, many Caribbeans have immigrated to New York City in search of greater opportunities and new beginnings. According to records from Baruch College, there are over 817,000 Caribbean immigrants in NYC, representing 28% of the total immigrant population. Caribbeans settled in distinct parts of the city, creating their own communities out of a desire to establish a sense of familiarity in their new surroundings. This isn’t unique to Caribbeans but mimics patterns of separation between white and minority groups across the US. Today, large Caribbean populations can be found in Harlem, Queens, and a section of Brooklyn known as Little Caribbean consisting of Crown Heights, Flatbush, and East Flatbush.

Caribbean immigrants brought with them the unique flavors of the islands, representative of their diverse backgrounds with Indian, Chinese, and African influences. Caribbean shops, like the iconic Culpeppers in Crown Heights, have become reliable staples where members of the community can find a taste of home with items such as bun (similar to fruitcake and often served with cheese) and gizzada (a pastry filled with caramelized coconut and ginger).

“If they’re treated like second class citizens, their food will be too.”

While Caribbeans moved in search of escaping the hardships they faced in their home countries due to unstable governments or exploitation by more developed nations, for many, their educational backgrounds relegated them to being low income. Fewer Caribbean adults have finished school than US adults (9% compared to 23% respectively), and on average, 17% of Caribbeans in the US live in poverty.

If you live in NYC or have ever visited before, you know it’s extremely expensive. While there is immense wealth, that wealth is not equally distributed but instead held by an elite few (most likely the same people who eat at fine dining restaurants and determine what’s categorized as such). Lack of capital also makes it challenging for Caribbeans to acquire property. For those wanting to open a restaurant, the financial burden is great. Most Caribbeans don’t have generational wealth to fall back on and have to start from scratch, putting them at a disadvantage compared to whites and other immigrant groups.

In addition to financial hardship, Caribbean immigrants have also experienced discrimination faced by Black and Brown minority groups in the US in ways that other immigrant groups have not. Their skin color determines their worth. So if they’re treated like second class citizens, their food will be too.

Sisters Cuisine in East Harlem, for example, originated as a family business and was established by Marlyn Rogers in 1995. The small restaurant has bright pink walls and decorative Caribbean influenced artwork with a notable sign that reads “Immigrants. We get the job done.” In more recent years, it’s been taken over by her son, Chef RanDE Rogers, now owner and executive chef. “No one in my family came from a restaurant background. One of my mother’s sisters was a really good cook, and they just thought they could do it better. The restaurant was struggling when I was in college, and when I graduated, I was asked to come in and help right the ship. So I took over front of house, our digital presence, I taught myself all the dishes and ended up taking over as head owner.” While there was conflict and challenges along the way, ultimately he revitalized the business, and Sisters’ success reigns on today.

How Caribbean Food is Viewed

Those unfamiliar with Caribbean food may associate it with cheap, inexpensive, fast-casual fare, but it is so much more than that. My mom, Angela Foster, is a first-generation Jamaican-American and grew up eating traditional Jamaican dishes prepared by my grandmother, Doris Gunter, who migrated to the US from Clarendon, Jamaica in the 60s. She settled in Harlem and cooked dishes she was familiar with such as rice and peas, curry chicken, ackee and saltfish, codfish fritters, and cornmeal porridge. When asked how she views Caribbean food, my mom says, “I would call it a comfort food for me. I think it’s complex because it has different spices. It’s filling, it’s earthy, and it reminds me of my childhood.”

My cousin, Wayne Wright, also grew up in Clarendon and migrated to the US when he was younger. He grew up with mango and breadfruit trees in the backyard, eating ackee and saltfish with roast breadfruit for breakfast - the national dish of Jamaica. Clarendon has a large Indian population, and he recalls participating in many Hindu celebrations where they would prepare curry goat from slaughter to plate.

Wayne describes Caribbean food as flavorful and full of spice. “The way we season is a lot more purposeful. If you’re making shrimp scampi, it's just garlic, salt, and some butter or breadcrumbs. Not a lot of things go into it. If you’re making oxtail, you’re putting thyme, scallions, onions, pimento seeds, carrots, all these things add a large amount of flavor. You season it from the night before so the flavor can soak in. You’re not just sprinkling some seasoning on it and putting it in the pan. That’s not how we cook.”

Jasmine Gerald, owner of Jasmine’s Caribbean Cuisine in Midtown, echoes that the flavors and preparation of Caribbean food draw people in. “It’s mouthwatering and exciting. The taste is not just on top of the food, it’s penetrated to the bone. Some of my customers say, ‘I could chew up the bone and still taste the flavor.’ You will always remember the taste. You will always be wanting the flavor. The smell, the aroma of the food, it just calls you.”

“The way we season is a lot more purposeful. You’re not just sprinkling some seasoning on it and putting it in the pan. That’s not how we cook.”

Kaniel grew up in Montego Bay and moved to the US with his family when he was a teenager. Both of his parents went to culinary school and were great cooks, owning their own restaurant there. “When I think about Caribbean food, it's kind of like a fellowship food. My mother doesn't just cook food for us. She cooks for churches, for the community, and that tradition didn't really change once we got here.”

Chef RanDE describes Caribbean food as powerful. His family is of Guyanese descent and is also accustomed to cooking large batches of food. “I come from a big family and that’s just sort of a custom in our culture to do big pot cooking out back over a fire. And so we've always been doing big batch cooking [at Sisters], always fresh and daily.” He also mentions the importance of technique stating, “I think our curries are really slammin. You’ve gotta bloom it good, which is frying the curry powder in a certain type of way to bring out the sharpness in the flavor profile. Otherwise it can come out really flat which is what I see a lot.”

American palates less familiar with Caribbean flavors have a very different outlook. In Kwon et al.’s study on why Caribbean food is not a popular cuisine, they found that cooking style swayed participants from wanting to try Caribbean food again or eat it more frequently, arguing that it can be boiled, deep-fried, or too sweet. However, lots of American foods are deep-fried or super sweet so it's got to be more than that.

Maybe the Caribbean food most Americans are familiar with isn’t true Caribbean food at all. The Caribbean islands are a popular vacation destination for people of all backgrounds, and in those instances, tourists may try the food while vacationing at one of the resorts there. But often, the food served isn’t traditional. Karen Wilkes illustrates in “Eating paradise: food as coloniality and leisure,” resorts such as Sandals present a very specific type of Caribbean cuisine - one that is recognizable in some sense to foreigners. In fact, some of the Jamaican dishes offered at the resort were actually French-inspired dishes.

Making other cuisines more palatable to American tastes is not unfamiliar, as seen with Chinese food. But if the food Americans try is not truly Caribbean, they likely won’t seek it out themselves or even know what dishes to look for when their vacations are over.

The Criteria for Caribbean People

Your average American might not know exactly what to look for when it comes to Caribbean cuisine. But what do Caribbeans look for? For my mom, “A good Caribbean restaurant should have the staples - rice and peas, ackee and saltfish, and roti. The dishes should have some heat to them and use ginger, scallion, onion, and allspice.”

Kaniel shares similar sentiments saying, “If I want to know if a Caribbean restaurant is going to be good, I start with the rice. And if the rice is dry, I’ll order dumplings or yams, something I know they can’t mess up.” The flavor is also important to him because while Caribbean food should have some heat, the right type of heat is key. “You can just tell when someone uses a scotch bonnet pepper versus a poblano pepper because of the flavor. The flavor of it supersedes.”

Price also plays a role, as the expectation is that traditional Caribbean food will be relatively cheap, even among Caribbeans. Kaniel jokes, “If I see jerk chicken for anything more than $20, the portion has to be immense, or it has to be smoked in the back outside in someone’s drum that they shipped from Jamaica themselves.”

Wayne pushes back on that a bit, arguing that he wishes there were more upscale Caribbean restaurants he could frequent. “I'm always disappointed that there aren’t that many nicer places to go. I love Jamaican food. I would love to be able to go sit down in an elegant Jamaican restaurant and eat a nice meal, but there's not always someplace to go to. So now I just pick on the quality of the food.”

So Where Can You Find Caribbean Food?

In NYC, there are a plethora of options all over the city for inexpensive Caribbean food including small mom and pop shops, corner stores, and street carts where you can get an entire platter of food for around $10. Many of these places are concentrated in areas that have a high Caribbean population. Most are not sit-down restaurants but instead offer more fast-casual fare in to-go containers with little room if any to dine in.

Take for example Peppa’s Jerk Chicken in Crown Heights where you can get a stew chicken meal with rice and peas and steamed cabbage for $10. While the food itself is labor-intensive, the prices do not reflect the time and effort that goes into making them but rather are reflective of what the majority of the population they serve can afford.

Sisters Cuisine has become a staple in East Harlem, serving delicious, home cooked dishes with a blend of Guyanese, Trinidadian, and Jamaican influences to the community for years. At Sisters, you can get curried chicken with a choice of two sides (all of which are vegan including callaloo, coconut rice and peas, and steamed cabbage) for $16. Their oxtail with curried chickpeas, potatoes, and flaky roti, cooked fresh per order, goes for $22.

There are also fast-casual chains, such as the infamous Golden Krust, where you can get a patty and coco bread for $3, or a curried goat meal including rice and peas, steamed vegetables, and plantains for $10. In NYC, there are over 20 Golden Krust locations, most of which are located in low-income neighborhoods or those with high Caribbean or Black populations. Golden Krust recently came out with a patty made with Beyond Meat to appeal to the growing trend of plant-based foods. However, it appears they’re only available at select locations due to the low demand.

Upscale Caribbean restaurants do exist, but they are few and far between nor are they situated in predominantly Caribbean neighborhoods. Take Imani in Fort Greene which sells curry shrimp with roti, jasmine rice, and habanero pepper for $26. Imani’s menu also features fusion dishes, taking a spin on traditional flavors, such as jerk corn (a play on elote), jerk ramen, and ackee and saltfish spring rolls. There’s also Omar’s Kitchen and Rum Bar in the Lower East Side that offers a nouveau take on Caribbean cuisine with entrees such as chicken and waffles in Red Stripe (a classic Jamaican beer) batter for $22 and plantain gnocchi for $18.

Kokomo in Williamsburg too offers classic and fusion dishes like their Wah Gwaan Flatbread made with sautéed ackee, grilled shrimp, and scotch bonnet cilantro sauce for $23. Negril BK in Park Slope also aims to provide guests with an upscale dining experience offering dishes such as coco curry salmon with pumpkin rice and market vegetables for $31.

Jasmine’s Caribbean Cuisine located in Times Square on Restaurant Row offers dishes inspired by many of the Caribbean islands such as Antigua and Dominica, where owner Jasmine’s family originates from, featuring best sellers such as oxtail, coconut salmon, and jerk wings, as well as plant-based options such as their vegan stew peas. Their coconut salmon with rice and peas goes for $26.

Miss Lily’s, with locations in the East Village and Soho, also offers classic dishes such as jerk chicken as well as fusion dishes such as jerk ramen and jerk caesar salad. Their jerk chicken with rice and peas and cucumber escovitch mango chutney costs $25.

The vibe at many of these upscale restaurants is fun, and the decor is vibrant with bright colors, reggae music, and a lively atmosphere to transport patrons to the islands. Many have a large brunch menu and cocktail selection as well. The dishes offered, their price points, and the neighborhoods in which they are situated speak to a more affluent crowd. They’re bringing the cuisine to a new market, however it raises the question: are some Caribbean people unable to participate in the elevation of their own cuisine because they can’t afford these prices?

Questions of Cultural Appropriation

Many Caribbean dishes or seasonings have been appropriated from jerk fries, to jerk pizza, to jerk burritos. Rather than replicating traditional flavors or using the terminology in its original sense, certain elements are co-opted in an attempt to gain more exposure. Kaniel claims, “That type of appropriation doesn’t bother me if the money is going back to the country, to a company like Grace Foods for example.”

Still, power is trumped in who is telling the narrative and determining how the food is being marketed. If these dishes are being prepared by a Jamaican themselves, it doesn’t pose an issue because they are playing around with the flavors of their own culture. But if it’s someone from another culture or a white chef, it becomes problematic because that opportunity to tell the story of their cuisine and introduce it to a new audience is being snatched from the person who should be able to do it themselves.

Comparing Other Immigrant Cuisines

I initially wondered if Caribbean cuisine’s lack of culinary recognition had to do with the fact that it derived from immigrants. That idea quickly got squashed once I realized that the majority of fine dining cuisines also come from immigrants. At Babbo (Italian), a simple pappardelle bolognese costs $28. At Nobu (Japanese), black cod with miso goes for $46. The prix-fixe tasting menu at Le Bernadin (French) starts at $190. At Momofuku Ko (Japanese), it starts at $280.

“While it’s true that one’s taste greatly influences their spending habits and palate, race plays a huge factor. Implicit biases about Black people shape the value of their food. ”

Which cuisines have been deemed prestigious reflects the historical and societal inequities present in NYC. These inequities can even be observed on the same block. Freda’s, a Caribbean restaurant based on the Upper West Side, one of NYC’s wealthiest neighborhoods, sells an entree of jerk chicken with rice and peas plus two sides for $12.50. On the opposite side of the street, Kikoo Sushi, a Japanese restaurant, features a surf and turf roll filled with kobe beef and shrimp tempura for $20, significantly less food for nearly double the price.

The underlying factor of Caribbean people’s race and socioeconomic status prevents them from being able to access the caliber that Japanese food has. While it's true that one’s taste greatly influences their spending habits and palate, race plays a huge factor. Implicit biases about Black people, how they act, their work ethic, and their education level shape the value of their food.

This stark contrast also illustrates how preconceived notions trump location and are more indicative of what one is willing to pay for a certain type of food. The existence of other immigrant cuisines that have succeeded illustrates that it is possible to achieve such rank, but it is the combination of Caribbean immigrants’ socioeconomic status, race, and the stereotypes associated with it that have resulted in it being associated with inexpensive food.

What are the Limitations?

Traditionally, presentation is not of the utmost importance for Caribbean fare. The visual appearance of a dish isn’t meticulously constructed. However, that’s not to say it can’t be, as shown by the upscale restaurants listed above. It just requires the budget, time, and labor to do so.

Jasmine adds, “It’s stuck in a box. Everything is like a Golden Crust. I mean I love Golden Crust and I ate it when I was young, but it’s totally different [from what we’re offering]. It's about sitting down and enjoying your food, enjoying a drink, the taste, the smell, the vibe of the whole restaurant. It's an experience.”

My mom also expresses, “I don't think there's any concept of different courses. It's typically a one dish type of thing.” Wayne mentions, “I think part of the issue is it might be too flavorful for people’s palates and what they’re accustomed to. Some people just don’t like stuff with too many spices and are more accustomed to bland, less seasoned foods. So you have to be adventurous and willing to try new things.”

Class and lack of access to capital again arose. “They pay their bills. They're not expanding or buying a bigger house or going on a big vacation. They’re just making it through. They'll be doing this until they can't do it anymore. It's unfortunate,” Wayne states.

In a recent talk for the Museum of Food and Drink, Dr. Jessica B. Harris stated, “Often we don’t define our food. Callaloo could be this or could be that. But if we define it, then we have a solid baseline of what it is and how it can be measured.” Perhaps this is key, for fine dining is all about measuring technique and skill set by a certain baseline in order to determine its value.

Having recipes passed down for generations but not documenting them could muddy the waters of what constitutes said dish and what makes it traditional in preparation. If there is nothing to measure by, it's also easier for variations to be created or appropriated. If you lack the baseline, you don’t have a rubric with which to compete.

What Needs to Change

For starters, add more Caribbean chefs to the mix. Invite them to renowned events, such as Food Network’s Food and Wine Festival, and provide them with a platform to showcase the flavors of Caribbean cuisine on an elevated scale. Profile Caribbean chefs and make information about Caribbean restaurants more accessible. Have more people of color in the room when making decisions of what’s featured on the list of top fine dining restaurants in NYC. If representation isn’t present on every level, ultimately white people will continue pushing more Euro-centric cuisines.

Jasmine stresses, “I don't feel that Caribbean cuisine gets the recognition it should. Caribbean food is a delicacy. Why is it that in different countries or different states you only have one or two Caribbean restaurants? We all need to be on the same platform, it shouldn't be unique.”

Improved marketing is needed as well in order to reach a larger audience. Since people eat with their eyes, campaigns need to be vibrant and aesthetically pleasing to get people unfamiliar with the dishes to want to try them. Restaurant owners could also play up the vacation and getaway theme to evoke a sense of escape and bring people back to their time spent in the Caribbean.

Social media campaigns could lean into the influencer culture and use big names to reach a wide audience. “I think it would really only work if you put a celebrity face behind it,” Kaniel says. “Or put a white person on the front,” Wayne comments. “I don’t think people go out to be this way, but they’re so programmed to be biased. Certain things are considered better because they’re European. It's like the moment they find out it's owned by a Black or Caribbean person, it tastes different.” In the US, these unconscious biases permeate all aspects of our thoughts and we have to actively unpack them if we are to level the playing field.

For those willing to try Caribbean cuisine, be wary of the spice in some dishes, although there are plenty of options that don’t bring a lot of heat. Support one of the Caribbean restaurants above for your next dinner date or family gathering, and if you’ve never had Caribbean food before, ask yourself why.

why caribbean cuisine isn’t considered fine dining

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