Chef Odean Smith prepares a signature dish mixing Caribbean flavors with kosher delicacies.
Photograph courtesy Odean Smith
When Chef Odean Smith first arrived in North America 15 years in the past, he carried with him his Jamaican heritage and a imaginative and prescient to revolutionize Caribbean delicacies. At present, because the proprietor of Chef O’Smith Ideas, which incorporates O’s Cook Shop and O’Smith Ideas Kosher Catering, Smith has established himself as a trailblazer within the Caribbean and kosher culinary markets.
Born and raised in Jamaica, Smith spent 4 years in Toronto, Canada, pursuing a level in Culinary Arts at George Brown School. In 2013, he relocated to the US with the aim of not solely working within the restaurant trade however reshaping it.
“I didn’t need to simply be a chef,” Smith mentioned. “I needed to be concerned in each facet, from conceptualizing eating places to consulting and creating culinary experiences.”
Over time, he has consulted for 18 eating places whereas establishing his ventures. His journey has been something however straightforward, navigating cultural limitations and carving an area in industries the place he initially appeared an outsider.
Certainly one of Smith’s most surprising profession turns led him to the kosher meals trade. An opportunity encounter with a Mediterranean restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn piqued his curiosity, setting him on a path to changing into one of many few Black Caribbean cooks thriving within the kosher market.
“I am most likely one of many solely Black Caribbean cooks within the kosher trade on the prime stage,” he defined. “It required studying a very completely different tradition and culinary apply whereas sustaining the self-discipline to fulfill the very best requirements.”
His experience and dedication have earned him the respect of elite kosher eating institutions. He now companions with a kosher restaurant in Jackson, New Jersey, whereas operating his catering service.
Whereas making a reputation in kosher delicacies, Smith has additionally labored to redefine Caribbean meals in New York. His tenure as govt chef at Negril in Greenwich Village allowed him to showcase a contemporary interpretation of Jamaican flavors.
“Negril was my playground,” Smith mentioned. “I launched dishes like jerk duck, jerk rabbit, and octopus — issues that weren’t sometimes present in conventional Caribbean eating places. I needed to deliver Caribbean flavors to a wider viewers whereas retaining our cultural id alive.”
That imaginative and prescient led to the opening of O’s Prepare dinner Store, a restaurant impressed by the prepare dinner retailers of Jamaica. For Smith, it was about creating the meals he missed whereas touring extensively for work.
“After I got here house from months on the highway, I needed actual Caribbean meals, the type that brings again recollections,” he mentioned. “O’s Prepare dinner Store is my manner of preserving that authenticity whereas placing my spin on it.”
Smith stays devoted to pushing boundaries and making certain that Caribbean delicacies receives the popularity it deserves. Whether or not by consulting, catering, or restaurant possession, his work continues to raise the flavors of the islands whereas mixing them seamlessly into the broader culinary panorama.
“It’s about staying true to my roots but in addition evolving,” he mentioned. “I’ll not all the time be within the highlight, however I do know my affect on this trade.”
