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Growing up in Kingston gave a Jamaican chef the foundation to pursue a culinary career in New York City. What he learned in his family’s kitchens is what goes into the best Jamaican food. “Food was our love language. It’s how we showed how much we cared by cooking a beautiful pot of food. It taught me about patience, love and family,” says Andre Fowles.
The award-winning chef demonstrates his adoration of Jamaican cuisine in almost every dish he makes. His grandmother and mother passed on invaluable knowledge about Jamaican cooking techniques and flavors, as he prepared family meals with them.
“I can close my eyes today and remember my grandmother sitting down over a big bowl of oxtails. She used her knife to carefully clean the oxtail, removing all sinew and excess fat. She would wash the oxtails with vinegar and lime juice. She didn’t cut any corners. She took her time, while she listened to reggae music on her radio,” Chef Fowles recalls.
Evolution of My Jamaican Table
Life in a Kingston tenement yard came with challenges for single mom Patsy Davis and her four children. Fowles and his maternal grandmother, Mama Cherry, helped his mom by fixing family meals.
“So, it was a lot of struggles along the way, but food was something they always took the time to put a lot of love and attention into,” says Fowles. “Sunday dinners were like a ritual. They would get up early on Saturdays to go to the market to buy the best, freshest produce and protein they could find. They would take that back to the house and start to prepare Sunday meals, which were always such a treat.”
Jamaican cooking took place every day on the island where Fowles rarely ate out and could not call for meal delivery from fabulous restaurants like he can today in New York City. “It really instilled core family values, meaning we would spend a generous amount of time preparing all these meals, especially my grandmother,” the chef recounts.
Inspired by Mama Cherry’s love of cooking, Fowles pursued his passion for food, graduating from Jamaica’s HEART Trust Academy and New York City’s Culinary Institute of America. His professional training shifted his focus away from Jamaican food.
“Once you go to culinary school and learn the basics, you start to work at these great restaurants with great chefs. You learn their tendencies and their styles,” admits Chef Fowles. “You want to mimic them because you are so in awe. You want to cook like them and do everything like them because they are proven. Along the way, you try to find your own style.”
By the time Fowles became a consulting chef for Miss Lily’s, a highly-rated Jamaican restaurant with locations in New York City, Negril and Dubai, he had discovered his true calling. Artisan’s March 10 release of the chef’s debut cookbook lets home cooks and other food lovers in on the exciting treasures to be discovered in Jamaican cuisine.
“It’s going to be an adventurous ride. I was very intentional about the book, meaning I wanted a little bit of a lot of things to excite a lot of people,” says the Jamaican-born chef.
“My Jamaican Table: Vibrant Recipes from a Sun-Drenched Island” is a wonderful experience for anyone who wants to explore the flavors of the chef’s homeland. “If you are Jamaican and grew up eating Jamaican food, there’s something in it for you. This book is not just about oxtails, rice and peas and jerk chicken. You have a curried crab fried rice or a fish-and-chips-inspired escovitch sandwich. You have all these modern riffs on certain things we like to eat. For the non-Jamaicans, you get to learn about the traditional dishes as well,” Fowles instructs.
From the stunning photos to the range of recipes, Chef Fowles wrote an eclectic cookbook with something for everyone, from the busy parent to the party planner. “We have everything from appetizers to pescatarian dishes to meat dishes and vegetarian dishes. We have cocktails and alcohol free drinks in the book. If you are at home, want to entertain some friends, and want to tap into a Jamaican theme, pick up the book and make coconut shrimp and rum punch. It’s a beautiful book to look at, and it’s functional,” he says.
Celebrating Jamaican Food and People
“My Jamaican Table” introduces readers to the Jamaican food Fowles prepares for pop-ups, festivals and special events. The more than 100 recipes deliver classic and modern ideas for dishes with Jamaican flavors.
“There are so many ways you can spin these ingredients and recipes and inject flavors into other concepts and dishes. That’s why I titled the cookbook “My Jamaican Table.” It’s what I love to eat and grew up with. Some people like to add different ingredients to recipes to make them fun and interesting. That’s what I wanted to share,” Fowles confirms.
The cookbook does much more than teach people how to cook Jamaican food. The international chef consultant shares how he gets creative with the global ingredients he explored cooking around the world.
“If I’m going to do a pan-seared scallop, maybe instead of doing a buerre blanc sauce, which is very French, I’ll use a coconut curry sauce with pickled ginger. These are ingredients and flavors from Jamaica and the Caribbean, but elevated with other beautiful ingredients.”
Chef Fowles made “My Jamaican Table” better than a basic cooking manual by weaving Jamaican people into the stories he wrote about the island and his personal memories. “What I did with each recipe is to connect a story and try to paint a clear picture of why I created this dish,” Fowles states. “In the book, I shed light on the history of the cuisine, which means I spoke about the migration of people and ingredients to Jamaica.”
The island nation’s indigenous tribes were colonized by the Spanish and British, who brought African slaves to Jamaica between the 1500s and 1800s, primarily to labor on plantations.
According to the World Culture Encyclopedia, Jamaica’s motto, “Out of Many, One People,” reflects the Caribbean island’s multicultural diversity. While most Jamaicans have African ancestry, immigrants of East Indian, Chinese, European and Lebanese descent also settled there.
Fowles wants people who delve into his cookbook to understand how the impact of slavery, hard times and migration are embedded in the roots of Jamaican cooking and the resiliency of the people. He wrote it as a tribute to his grandmother and what she taught him.
“The book gives you a better idea of why we cook certain things and why we have certain ingredients in Jamaica,” he says. “When it comes to food, Jamaicans are very creative. We can turn nothing into something. We use that resilience of ‘Okay, we don’t have much today, but we can turn these chicken or cow’s feet into something delicious and feed our families.’”
“My Jamaican Table” features recipes that show cooks how to add island flavors to various cuisines or to use leftovers for multiple meals. “There is a crispy jerk pork belly recipe in the book. If you have any leftovers, you can turn them into a jerk pork chow mein. We have oxtail gnocchi, which uses leftover braised oxtail. It’s taking these ingredients that are typically used one way, but flipping them over and using them in different ways that make the dishes very elegant,” Fowles adds.
The cookbook also includes recipes for pepper shrimp, Jamaican beef patties, chili-garlic shrimp tacos, Jamaican pepper pot soup, oxtail and butter beans, curry lobster, coconut rice, crispy okra, sweet potato salad, cabbage slaw, coconut banana pancakes and coco bread.
Jamaican Cooking for a Rock Legend
“My Jamaican Table” also gives other chefs and home cooks an insider’s look at some of the flavors served at the home of a rock legend. Chef Fowles became Bruce Springsteen’s private chef about five years ago. One day, the superstar singer-songwriter and band leader asked Fowles to prepare a Jamaican feast.
“I did curries, rice and peas, plantains, roti and jerk. I cooked so much food,” says Fowles. “They have a huge family farm-style table in their kitchen. I remember it was 15 to 18 people that came over, and everyone ate family-style. Slowly, they cleaned their plates and came up for seconds and thirds. It was all gone. It still makes me shiver when I talk about it.”
What happened after the dinner is also a memory that will stay with Fowles forever. “Bruce came into the kitchen, and he gave me a hug. He said, ‘Andre, I’ve been around for a very long time. I’ve eaten at many restaurants, and I’ve traveled the world. I can tell you that’s one of the most memorable meals of my life.’ He told me he could taste the soul in my food,” the chef reflects.
Springsteen had never experienced Jamaican food before, but he told Fowles the meal gave him insight into who he is as a person and a chef. “It was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever gotten in my life. It showed me it doesn’t matter who you are, the color of your skin or ethnicity. It doesn’t matter once you cook beautiful food with lots of attention, care and flavor,” says the chef.
Get the Recipe From My Jamaican Table: Jerk Smash Burgers with Bacon Jam
The Jamaican native was doing pop-ups, catering and traveling for restaurant consultations when COVID hit, and he met Springsteen. The decision to become his private chef opened channels of support Fowles never expected.
“It’s really cool to say that he is a friend of mine. Obviously, I’m his chef, but because of who he is as a person, there is no barrier. He wants to know what is going on. We can sit and have a good conversation. He really does want to see the best for me,” Fowles reveals.
When the Caribbean chef told Springsteen and his wife, Patti Scialfa, that he wanted to write a cookbook, they encouraged him. The world-famous singer and founder of The E Street Band told Fowles he would write the foreword.
In the” My Jamaican Table” foreword, Springsteen says, “Andre isn’t just a chef. He’s an artist. There’s a sense of history, place, and heart in everything he puts on a plate. The flavors hit you like the opening chords of a song you didn’t know you needed to hear, but once you do, you can’t imagine your life without it. This book is going to change the way you think about Caribbean cooking.”
Chef Fowles points out that Springsteen’s favorite Caribbean meal is curry lobster with coconut rice, and that those recipes are in “My Jamaican Table.” Other reviews of the cookbook agree with the famous musician’s opinions. Bon Appétit calls it a “tender love letter to Jamaica” that makes readers feel “Fowles’s radiant pride in his home country’s traditions and island culture.”
In his review, James Beard award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi says, “If there is one person to teach Jamaican cuisine to the masses, it’s chef Andre Fowles. His wealth of knowledge of the island is unmatched—think of this book as a flight to Jamaica perched in your pantry!”
Get the Recipe From My Jamaican Table: Plantain and Black Bean Salad
Growing Appreciation for Caribbean Cooking
Critical acclaim for restaurant concepts created by Chef Onwuachi and other masters of Caribbean cooking, such as NYC chef Paul Carmichael at Kabawa, has increased appreciation for the charms of island food. Chef Fowles contributed to that recognition with his appearances on Food Network’s 2016 “Chopped: Cooking Caribbean” and “Chopped: Champions: Kitchen Storm.” He also competed on “Chopped: Beat Bobby Flay Battle 2” in 2020. Fowles cooked Caribbean food and won three times.
“The connection of being from Jamaica and cooking at such a high level on one of the most competitive cooking shows in the country definitely set me apart,” Fowles acknowledges. “That definitely opened a lot of doors and instilled more confidence in me. Back then, it made me feel like what I was doing as a chef was the right thing to do because winning three times is difficult. Only a few chefs have done that.”
The New York Times, Thrillist, Bon Appétit and VICE have featured Fowles in their publications. His participation in James Beard House dinners, the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, the Family Reunion at Salamander Resort, and the Jamaica Observer Food Awards also earned him respect.
During his book tour, Fowles is cooking with Chef Onwuachi at Tatiana in NYC on March 13. Next, he’ll join another chef friend, Loni Murdock, at Isla in Washington, D.C. Both are on best-restaurant lists and receive high praise for their Caribbean food served in fine-dining settings.
“My Jamaican Table’s” author knows how to elevate Caribbean ingredients and flavor profiles in whatever he cooks. “I’m classically trained, I can do French, Italian, Mexican or any other cuisine. I shine and stand out when I cook my style, which is modern Caribbean cuisine. If I’m doing a multi-course meal, we may have a crudo dish, like tuna sashimi or tartare. I can inject Caribbean flavors into that with ingredients like passion fruit, mango or maybe a little bit of scotch bonnet we roasted in the oven,” says Fowles.
Get the Recipe From My Jamaican Table: Jerk Salmon with Herb Salsa
Giving Back to Jamaican People
The celebrated chef honors his Jamaican roots with his Caribbean cooking and philanthropic projects. Chef Fowles is opening a breakfast and soup eatery in Kingston, located across the street from where his granduncle has operated a porridge business for over 40 years.
“Jamaicans love a good porridge for breakfast. That is one of the go-to dishes that we do enjoy. It’s warm, delicious, filling and sweet,” Chef Fowles comments. “The story is that my late grandmother’s younger brother is now in his 70s. He only sells peanut porridge. The plan is to move his business across the street, scale it with more options and add soup to the menu.”
The chef has a recipe for porridge three ways in his new cookbook. He is also following his granduncle’s lead by investing in Jamaican people, especially children. Fowles explains his reason for launching One Pot Foundation last year.
“One of the things that has made my uncle so beloved is his giving back to the community. He helps kids who are going to school with no breakfast by giving away his porridge. The One Pot Foundation is built around feeding kids in Jamaica, giving back to the community and educating kids on nutrition.”
Chef Fowles plans to expand his Caribbean cooking brand through his cookbook and a new line of food products, possibly with a jerk sauce and a dried spice blend. Still, he dreams of achieving even greater goals in the future.
“The ultimate dream is to have a restaurant in New York that I can feel proud of, with a beautiful space, great service and amazing food, decor and cocktails,” Fowles declares. That’s what I want for sure, to cook the food I love to cook and have everyone come in to experience it.”
The celebrated chef hopes his culinary vision will lead to even greater recognition for the heart, rhythm and soul of Jamaica shining through his cooking. “I just want to see more spaces like Tatiana and Isla, so we have access to go and experience this cuisine. At its heart, Caribbean and Jamaican food is delicious when done well. The flavor is always going to be there, but as a chef you need restraint, technique and a lot of love to make it that much better.”
Stay up to date on the NYC chef’s cookbook, pop-ups and projects on Instagram @chefflowles.
