This year, Palm Bay will see its first celebration of Emancipation Day, a commemoration of the day in 1833 that Caribbean nations and territories were freed from British imperial slavery.
Guyana was one of those nations, and now a renowned Guyanese chef is sharing that Caribbean history and culture to Central Florida through food.
Hollis Barclay, Founder and Executive Chef of Caribbean CEO Kitchen, is a brand-new resident of Palm Bay, after years of running her own restaurant in New York and publishing a book called “From Coal Pot to Corporate CEO: A Culinary Journey Through the Caribbean.”
Her July 31 event is “Freedom's Table: An Emancipation Day Culinary Experience” at Taste of the Tropics in Palm Bay. She says Guyanese dishes will accompany music, storytelling, and a proclamation from Palm Bay’s mayor, all highlighting the importance of Emancipation Day throughout the Caribbean community.
Emancipation Day is observed on Aug. 1 in many Caribbean nations, including Guyana, Bermuda, Jamaica, Bahamas, Grenada, Belize, and Trinidad and Tobago, among others. Additionally, it was recognized as a national holiday by Canada in 2021.
“History should be remembered, but it should also be experienced,” said Barclay. “So through Freedom’s Table, we allow persons to learn about our culture, celebrate and appreciate Caribbean culture, and this is done through food.”
Barclay will be serving up enhanced versions of traditional Guyanese dishes based around ingredients plentiful in Guyana. Ingredients like fish, crabs, cassava, coconut, and banana leaves were abundant and affordable food staples that were once vital to the survival of enslaved people.
“So, for example, part of our storytelling is fish,” Barclay explained. “Our ancestors used a lot of salt fish, which was a very poor man's dish. But it's how they survived, right? By smoking the fish and making it last in the horrible sun in Guyana. So that's part of our story – how we use what the land had to offer us to survive.”
Now, these ingredients help inform a rich cuisine with multicultural roots.
“Well, the Amerindians were there, and then you have the Indians, the indentured slaves from India,” she explained. “You have the Africans who were brought from Africa on a slave trade. You have the Chinese who were also indentured, brought later on, so a mixture of African, Chinese, Amerindians, Indian, who all make up this very big diaspora.”
Barclay noted that one of her personal favorite Guyanese recipes, curry chicken, blends cooking techniques and spices that were once unique to India with a pepper called wiri wiri only found in Guyana.
And yes, the pepper is very hot. “You’d be blowing on the chicken, saying, ‘This is really good, but it’s hot,’” laughed Barclay.
But she urged diners not to worry. “I've learned over time to taper that taste to whoever I'm cooking for, to the audience,” she said.
