Proppa Suppa Earth Strong: Jamaican Supper Club NYC

Table I · SoHo, New York · Sunday, March 1, 2026

Two days before my birthday, I set a table for the people who have watched me cook my whole life. Family, old friends, chefs I once worked under, and private clients who trust me in their homes. Five courses, each one pulled from a different chapter of my story.

In Jamaica, we call your birthday your Earth Strong. It felt like the right name for the night this whole series was born.

Why a Supper Club

In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, my sisters and I closed our two restaurants. Vital in Montclair was our full-service spot with a juice bar, with a menu that was half vegan as a nod to Ital cooking. Freetown Café in downtown Newark poured Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee next to Jamaican pastries, sandwiches, and salads. Losing them was devastating.

Those two were only supposed to be the beginning. On paper, there was a whole family of restaurants. Wood and Water, a coastal seafood house with a rum bar. Along with traditional jerk pit, a fully Ital kitchen, and 14 Parishes, a white tablecloth room serving a fourteen-course tasting menu with one dish for every parish in Jamaica.

A few years after closing, the creative itch came back. Instead of chasing funding to open five restaurants all over again, I started writing those concepts into two cookbooks: JAmerican and 14 Parishes.

Testing recipes at home and photographing them only takes you so far, though. Cooking for a full room is a different animal. You find out what holds up at scale, what people actually crave, and what only looks good in a picture. So I built a dinner series to cook through the books in real time, with real guests, as a live case study. Maybe it becomes proof of concept for the next restaurant. Either way, it pushes me.

For the first one, I gave myself a deadline I couldn't dodge. My birthday is March 3rd, so I set the dinner for March 1st, invited the people closest to me to buy a seat, and wrote a menu full of nostalgia.

The Menu

Likkle Ting: Plantain Soup, Scallion Oil

This soup story dates back longer than almost anything on this menu. In culinary school back in 2005, Norman Van Aken stood out to me from every chef of that era. He was the first chef I saw cooking at a high level with the ingredients I grew up on. His cookbook New World Kitchen became one I kept close and returned to often.

Many years later, flipping through my old cookbooks looking for inspiration. Which is always worth doing, because things you skimmed past before suddenly catch your eye as your culinary skillset grows. This time it was his plantain soup. Pureed plantain, a little coconut milk, with a crisp plantain chip on top.

Post-pandemic, I've served it in more versions than I can count: pulled chicken, fully vegan, whatever the table called for. It became a staple of my private dinners, so it was the only way to open the first Proppa Suppa.

Cold Ting: Jerk-Cured Salmon "Lox," Watercress Salad

This dish takes me straight back to the James Beard House. Right around the time I learned to cure salmon, I started wondering what would happen if I cured it with the same spices we use for jerk. For my first James Beard dinner, I served it sliced thin and plated like a carpaccio.

For Proppa Suppa, I brought it back with a watercress salad and a piece of pickled okra. The okra brings the acidity and snap that a rich, fatty, spicy cure needs.

Warm Ting: Brown Stew Chicken Roulade, Rice Cake, Callaloo

This one started with a craving for my mother's Sunday plate: brown stew chicken, pumpkin rice, and callaloo. My first try at reimagining it paired the chicken with a pumpkin risotto, and it came out heavier than I wanted.

So I rebuilt it. Chicken thighs stuffed with callaloo, rolled, cooked sous vide, then browned and sliced. Underneath is rice and gungo peas, cooked the way I always do, then pressed and seared until the rice turns crispy. Brown stew sauce over the top.

On its own, I wasn't sure it could stand. As one course in a tasting menu, it became the anchor of the night. A few bites that hit every flavor of my mother's plate at once.

Main Ting: Curried Lamb Shepherd's Pie, Whipped Yams, Roasted Carrots, Okra Fries

I wanted to finish the savory side with something hearty, so this came out in little Dutch pots. The filling is my take on curry goat, made with lamb for anyone who gets squeamish about goat. Whipped yams with a gentle sweetness go on top, with roasted carrots on the side.

The okra fries are a callback to Vital. We served them with our wraps and burgers instead of french fries, dipped in plantain flour and fried crisp. Altogether it eats like steak and potatoes, island style.

Sweet Ting: Sweet Potato Pone, Peanut Porridge Ice Cream

Come Thanksgiving and Christmas, there was always black cake. But my aunt's sweet potato pone was just as much a staple, and I couldn't think of a better way to close a nostalgic night.

The twist was the ice cream. I've been playing with turning classic Jamaican drinks and porridges into ice creams and sorbets, so they taste exactly the way you remember but arrive in a new form. Peanut porridge was the first one I put in front of guests.

[Get my aunt's sweet potato pone recipe →](LINK TO RECIPE POST)

The Room

Looking around that night, I saw every chapter of my life at one table. All of my sisters. Friends I've known for decades. Chefs I used to cook for. Private clients who had only ever seen me in their own kitchens. It was a mix you'd never plan, and it worked better than anything I could have planned.

In the Glass

The bar was open all night, with cocktails built on Ten To One Rum. Big thanks to Ten To One for believing in the first one, and to Burlap & Barrel for sending over the spices I used to cure the salmon.

And to the crew in the kitchen with me, and everyone who played a part: thank you. It came together exactly the way I hoped it would.