How Black entrepreneurs are shaping the local food industry: Jasmine Mangalaseril

Whether they're nurturing a new generation of farmers, continuing a legacy, creating new flavours or making it easier to find tastes of home, Waterloo-Wellington's Black food entrepreneurs are helping to shape our food scene.

Chef Kevin Thomas, owner of Big Jerk in Kitchener, continues his parents' traditions through his food truck and catering.

His parents, Jim and Lucinda Nicholas, were part of the Waterloo region food scene from the 1970s onwards, cooking Jamaican food for dignitaries like Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, provincial premiers, and Olympian Donovan Bailey.

After Jim's passing Thomas took to the stove.

"It'd be a shame to just close up shop," recalled Thomas. "He left a legacy with all his recipes."

Thomas uses his father's equipment to make Jamaican patties, but many Canadians shy away from dishes like oxtail and cow foot soup.

To help bring Jamaican flavours to the mainstream, Liam Cameron of Crazy Canuck, suggested tempering the jerk sauce's heat, combining it with chicken, cheese curds, and fries to create Jerk Chicken Poutine.

Jerk Chicken Tacos, another fan favourite, were suggested by Thomas's wife, Brenda, melding her Nicaraguan heritage with his Jamaican heritage.

"He'd be like, 'What? You can't do that with the jerk chicken!'" laughed Thomas as he mimicked his father's accent. "Being a businessman and entrepreneur, I'm sure he'd be happy to see that's how we [made that] shift."Here are three other Black-owned restaurants to check out: 

An article about vodka spurred Chef Malcolm Henry to make sweet potato-based hot sauces.

"I think if somebody can use potato to create vodka, why can't I use potato to do something, except for French fries, mashed potato, soup?" said Henry. "So, that's when I decided, I'm going to use [sweet potatoes] to create the hot sauce."

Henry bottles three hot sauces, including the award-winning The Burner (lime and peach flavours and Carolina reapers' searing heat) and two sweet potato-based salad dressings. One is poppy seed, the other is tarragon.

Henry opened a boutique gourmet food shop called MH Fine Foods in Cambridge. He said 90 per cent of his stock (pickles, jams, sauces, oils, as well as Ontario-blended teas and small batch coffees) is sourced from local or Canadian producers. "The reason why I'm doing this is because I want us as Canadians to support local stores that support the local market [and] keep the money here," said Henry.

Here are three other Black-owned food producers to check out: