Thursday, May 19, 2022
  • Login
Upgrade
The Southern African Times
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Global
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Culture
    • Food and Drink
    • Entertainment
  • SAT Jobs
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Global
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Culture
    • Food and Drink
    • Entertainment
  • SAT Jobs
No Result
View All Result
The Southern African Times
No Result
View All Result
Home Food

Alexander Smalls raises awareness of the diversity of African cuisines

by SAT Reporter
March 29, 2022
in Entertainment, Fashion, Lifestyle
0
Alexander Smalls raises awareness of the diversity of African cuisines
0
VIEWS

The continent’s culinary heritage will be ready for consumption at Alkebulan food hall

Alexander Smalls has long been a proponent of elevating Black people’s voices. At first he did that literally, as an opera singer. He was a pretty successful one, having won a Grammy and a Tony for his performance in Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, but he said he still hit a glass ceiling beyond which a Black opera singer wasn’t going to progress.

To really be successful, he said, “I had to not only own a seat at the table; I had to own the table.”

He couldn’t own an opera house, but he could own a restaurant. And he did just that with the opening in the early 1990s of Café Beulah in what was then the up-and-coming area of Park Avenue South in New York City, just north of Union Square, which was in the process of being revitalized by restaurateur Danny Meyer, chef Douglas Rodriguez and others.

Café Beulah was something the city had not likely seen before, which was a fine-ding African-American kitchen.

As an opera singer, Smalls had traveled the world. “I recognized that the African-Americanculinary conversation was not part of the [broader culinary] conversation,” he said. “People didn’t think of our food as a cuisine. It was ‘soul food.’ It was ‘heart attack food.’ It was castaway food. It was sneaky indulgent food, but it wasn’t respected.”

So he took the traditional recipes of his mother and grandmothers, added his own flair, and, as he had seen chefs of other cuisines do, “re-dressed, re-plated, put into a classical landscape with lots of beautiful china and flowers and things like that, that essentially carried more of a curated museum kind of feeling,” he said.

He ended up opening three restaurants like that before taking a break from foodservice. He traveled the world and learned that African slaves in South America and Asia also had profound influences on the cuisines there, which led to the opening in Harlem of The Cecil, an Afro-Asian concept that he left in 2017.

His latest project carries that culinary conversation further. Alkebulan is an ancient name for Africa, and also the name of a food hall in Dubai that Smalls curated, with 11 restaurants that opened in October 2021, originally as a temporary project that was part of Expo 2020 Dubai. But now it’s there permanently, and planning for new versions of it are underway for London and New York City.

The Alkebulan in London will focus on the countries colonized by the British empire. The one in New York will highlight the influence of the slave trade on American cuisine, from Gullah Geechee and Low Country cuisines to the culinary heritage of Louisiana to the many iterations of barbecue. Of course the continent of Africa will be on display, too, with foods ranging from South African Braai — that country’s approach to outdoor grilling — to East African seafood and goat, to the rich stews and jollof rice of West Africa.

The sites for those food halls haven’t been located yet, but Smalls expects the New York one to be in Harlem, where he has lived since 1998.

“Harlem is the Mecca city for me when it comes to the African diaspora,” Smalls said. “It’s the community that feeds me and inspires me. Being able to bring something like Alkebulan to this community — nothing excites me more than that.”

 

Tags: Market StoriesPremiumUnited StatedVaccine
Previous Post

Libya grants AG Energy permission to build 200 MW solar park

Next Post

Netflix commits over R900 million to South Africa’s film and TV industry

SAT Reporter

Related Posts

Lifestyle

Tamy Moyo the Evolving Journey Across Memory and Medium

by SAT Reporter
April 8, 2022
10 Instagrammable Spots in South Africa
Travel

10 Instagrammable Spots in South Africa

by SAT Reporter
April 5, 2022
South African Muscain Black Coffee wins first Grammy
Lifestyle

South African Muscain Black Coffee wins first Grammy

by SAT Reporter
April 4, 2022
Tina Masawi: A case of underrated Zimbabwean talent
Entertainment

Tina Masawi: A case of underrated Zimbabwean talent

by SAT Reporter
March 29, 2022
Lifestyle

Economists See Few Monetary Policy Changes With Powell Leading Fed

by SAT Reporter
March 29, 2022
Next Post
Netflix commits over R900 million to South Africa’s film and TV industry

Netflix commits over R900 million to South Africa’s film and TV industry

Premium Content

Feature: Egyptian farmers expand wheat production to help country boost food security

Feature: Egyptian farmers expand wheat production to help country boost food security

March 17, 2022
Zimbabweans march against U.S.-imposed sanctions

Zimbabweans march against U.S.-imposed sanctions

October 26, 2021

President says one person infected 533 with coronavirus at Ghana fish factory

May 12, 2020

Browse by Category

  • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • African Start ups
  • Algeria
  • Analysis
  • Angola
  • Asia
  • BOTSWANA
  • Botswana
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Business
  • Business
  • Cameroon
  • Central Africa
  • China
  • Climate Change
  • Climate Changev
  • Congo Republic
  • COVID 19
  • Culture
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Eastern Africa
  • Egypt
  • Entertainment
  • Environment
  • Ethiopia
  • Europe
  • Fashion
  • Finance
  • Food
  • Food and Drink
  • Foods
  • Ghana
  • Global
  • Guinea
  • Health
  • Immigration
  • in Southern Africa
  • International news
  • Just In
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Libya
  • Life Style
  • Lifestyle
  • Malawi
  • Malawi
  • Mali
  • Markets
  • Middle East
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nigeria
  • North Africa
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Rwanda
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • South Africa
  • South Sudan
  • Sports
  • Startup Africa
  • STOCK EXCHANGE
  • Tanzania
  • Tech
  • Togo
  • Travel
  • Travel
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Uncategorized
  • West Africa
  • World
  • World
  • ZAMBIA
  • Zambia
  • ZIMBABWE
  • Zimbabwe

Browse by Tags

African business news Africa New Africa News african footballer African investments African manufacturing industry African news Business Classic Content coronavirus Cyclone Idai Egypt Explore Bali Finance Foods football France Hopewell Mauwa kwacha Life Style mali news Market Stories MthuliNcube news Odion Ighalo Oilandgas Pandemic Premium reserve bank of Zambia Russia soccer South Africa Southern African News sports Stay Home United Stated Vaccine Wheat Work From Home Wuhan Zambia Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Harare Manufacturing Africa Employment creationn Zimbabwe job creation

WHO WE ARE

The Southern African Times is a regional bloc digital newspaper that covers Southern African and the world news. The paper also gives a nuanced analysis on news and covers a wide range of reporting which include sports, entertainment, foreign affairs, arts and culture.

Facebook Twitter Youtube Instagram Rss

Copyright © 2022 The Southern African Times | Powered by The Southern African Times

Privacy Policy

Terms and Conditions

  • Home
  • Southern Africa
  • Global
  • Business
    • African Start ups
    • African Continental Free Trade Area
  • Tech
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Culture
    • Food and Drink
    • Entertainment
  • SAT Jobs

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?