Chef Picky on Trinidadian food, Caribbean identity, and building his food brand

Chef Osei “Picky” Blackett, has been called “the driving force behind Brooklyn’s modern Caribbean dining scene” and has been recognized for his work at Ariapita and Everything Oxtail.

In this episode, we start at the beginning of Osei’s journey: his introduction to food entrepreneurship as a child in Trinidad with family businesses and through his Uncle, moving to New York City at the insistence of his mother because he was getting into trouble, and falling into the culinary world by happenstance. Washing dishes at James Beard gave him an opportunity to learn, and he embraced all of it.

He explains why he thinks Caribbean food is having a moment, how his cooking evolved from making meals at home for his cousins to avoid the fast food rotation of McDonald’s, Domino’s, and a local Brooklyn Jamaican restaurant where he broadened his taste for oxtail, and how his disdain for math led him to a hospitality & tourism program.

Chef Picky’s goal is to educate and elevate, which he does through collaborations with other chefs, developing his condiment brand UMI, and his video series Hot Mouth. His success comes from persistence, networking, curiosity, and learning from others working in professional kitchens.

Bio: Chef Osei "Picky" Blackett, is a Trinidadian chef and food entrepreneur based in New York. His cooking is shaped by Trinidad's bold, layered food culture — where sweet, heat and acidity are balanced to build real depth of flavor.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefpicky_

UMI Made: https://umimade.com/

Articles:

https://tastecooking.com/a-brooklyn-chef-considers-the-oxtail/

https://www.foodandwine.com/osei-blackett-8776836

https://www.jamesbeard.org/events/platform-collab-dinner-osei-picky-blackett-tavel-bristol-joseph

What is moreish? | more·​ish ˈmōrish | informal, of food, causing a desire for more

Join us on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to continue the conversation.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) https://uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/jerk-sauce

In this episode, Hema and Vinay discuss how language and the words you may have grown up saying in a Caribbean household are actually living records of survival, migration, and cultural memory.

Vinay Harrichan, founder of The Cutlass Magazine, breaks down how Indo-Caribbean language, food, and identity were shaped by Indian indentureship, traces the line from indentureship to the Caribbean expressions, family words, & food terms that still show up in everyday language across Trinidad and the Caribbean today.

We discuss why words like bandhania, parathai, mohan bhog, and gulab jamun carry layered histories that don't always match the version that they came from. Vinay also shares a bit of his research process, talking to and verifying information by speaking directly with elders, and why preserving oral history matters now more than ever.

If you are interested in Caribbean history, Indo-Caribbean identity, and the stories behind the words you use every day, this conversation will help you understand where our language came from and why it still matters.

What you'll learn

• How language survived in the home, in Trinidad, through family life and became part of everyday vernacular, widely understood across communities
• Elders, often women, kept Hindustani and Bhojpuri alive in the home
• Indian indentureship and how it differs from chattel slavery in the Caribbean
• How food words preserve cultural history, can be used to trace the origins of foods and language, and how language is developed locally

About Vinay Harrichan

Vinay Harrichan is the founder and curator of The Cutlass Magazine. Founded in August of 2020, it is a social media platform dedicated to the Indo-Caribbean community and descendants of Indian indentureship. TCM covers topics such as history, religion, politics, music, dance, and linguistics in the name of cultural preservation. You may follow The Cutlass Magazine (@cutlassmagazine) on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, Threads, and TikTok.

https://linktr.ee/cutlassmagazine

Past Episode with Vinay

Doubles: The Origin Story https://youtu.be/GR9LhaebibI?si=Gw6PEDAyn-JtqxpA

Resources

The Repair Campaign https://repaircampaign.org/reparations-today/cutlass-magazine-founder-vinay-harrichan-explores-the-legacies-of-indentureship/

Karen Dass https://www.youtube.com/@karendass

Dr. Visham Bhimull https://caribbeanhindustani.org/

Join us on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) https://uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/jerk-sauce

The Virgin Islands of the United States does not have one tidy food story. Disputes over the national dish, generational divides over what constitutes a Virgin Islands plate, and influences from Africa, Europe, and other Caribbean nations, as well as American policies that limit food production creates a narrative that isn’t straightforward. It’s why this conversation with Stephanie Chalana Brown, historian and visual documentarian, is so informative and fascinating.

Chalana gives us a peek behind the curtain on how politics, migration, colonial history, and identity have all shaped what ends up on the plate in the US Virgin Islands. This is not a simple food conversation. It’s a revealing look at creolization, generational memory, and the pressures of being a territory of the United States of America. From fungi & boil fish to maafe, red pea soup, kallaloo, red grout, and the seven-layer Vienna cake, Chalana shares how each one carries a history of labour, class, taste, and survival.

You'll discover:

• Why older Virgin Islanders may see ground provisions as nourishment while younger generations may see them as stigma
• How 98% food import dependence changed the island's foodways and daily life
• How Danish, African, Antillean, and American influences all show up in the US Virgin Islands cuisine

If you are interested in Caribbean foodways, the way colonial history lives on in everyday meals, or just want to learn what’s good to eat in the USVI, have a listen to this episode. Part food story, part history lesson, and proof that “food is kinda heavy when you talk about the politics about it.”

About Stephanie Chalana Brown

Stephanie Chalana Brown is a Virgin Islands–based photographer, cultural thinker, and public intellectual whose work explores African diasporic history, place, and memory across the Caribbean.

Her practice moves between photography, archival inquiry, and cultural interpretation. She documents everyday life, heritage spaces, and community rituals with an eye toward how history lives in bodies, streets, buildings, and shared traditions. Her work treats culture as a living record, something carried, practiced, and remembered rather than frozen in the past.

Chalana’s interests sit at the intersection of African studies, Caribbean history, visual literacy, and public education. She is particularly engaged in how communities preserve memory outside of formal institutions, and how photography can function as both documentation and archive.

Her work has appeared in exhibitions, publications, and national media, and she regularly contributes to conversations about heritage, representation, and cultural accountability in the Virgin Islands and the wider Black Atlantic world.

She lives and works in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she continues to photograph, research, and write.

https://www.instagram.com/chalana_vi/

https://www.facebook.com/StephanieChalanaBrown

Article: https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/virgin-islands-masquerading-traditions

Previous Episode

Exploring the US Virgin Islands: History, Identity, and Cultural Shifts https://youtu.be/WzU6QSg048A?si=uAP2VW39hnNiS5Sq

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/andrey-rossi/jerk-sauce