Standout creations at Kuyah

If the goal of the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival’s Kuyah was to demonstrate the evolving possibilities of Jamaican cuisine, the chefs made a persuasive case that the island’s most familiar flavours still have room to surprise.

Held at the Festival Marketplace in downtown Kingston last Thursday, the tasting-style event delivered a wide range of creative plates, but a few dishes rose above the rest — distinguished by thoughtful flavour pairings, strong technique and a clear understanding of how modern cooking can elevate familiar island staples.

Among the evening’s most compelling plates was Chef Volae Williams’ smoked pimento pork belly, a dish that demonstrated both restraint and creativity. The pork belly, slow-cooked until tender and infused with the unmistakable warmth of pimento smoke, delivered a rich, savoury depth that demands careful balance. Williams achieved that balance through clever accompaniments.

A rice and peas arancini – crisp on the outside with a creamy interior — translated one of Jamaica’s most beloved staples into a textural counterpoint to the pork’s fattiness. The addition of callaloo pesto introduced a grassy, herbal brightness, while the jerk tamarind ginger sauce provided acidity and subtle heat, cutting cleanly through the richness of the pork belly. The dish worked because each element had a purpose; no flavour competed unnecessarily, and the interplay of smoke, spice and acidity kept the palate engaged.

Williams said the idea was to push familiar ingredients slightly beyond their expected roles. “Rice and peas is something everyone knows, but presenting it as [an] arancini changes the texture and the experience,” he noted. “The goal is to keep the flavours recognisable while giving people something new to think about.”

Another memorable creation came from Chef Scotley Innis, whose oxtail pavé offered a polished reinterpretation of the beloved Jamaican classic. Oxtail, traditionally served as a deeply braised stew, was transformed into a composed dish where the meat was shredded and layered into a cassava pavé. The technique allowed the dish to retain the rich, gelatinous character of slow-braised oxtail while presenting it in a more structured form.

The cassava base contributed an earthy starchiness that anchored the dish, while potato foam added a surprisingly light element that softened the plate’s overall richness. A finishing note of smoked Parmesan introduced a subtle umami lift that tied the components together. The result was a dish that maintained the comfort of traditional oxtail while demonstrating how technique can shift both presentation and texture.

“I didn’t want to lose the soul of the dish,” Innis explained. “The idea was simply to refine it and present it in a way that highlights the ingredients differently.”

Among those who sampled the dish was Grammy-nominated reggae artiste Lila Iké, who stopped by the station and offered her enthusiastic approval. “The flavour still feels like the oxtail we grow up loving, but the presentation and texture make it feel brand new,” she remarked after tasting the dish.

Meanwhile, Chef Jacqui Tyson’s yard fire lamb leaned into bolder, deeper flavour combinations. The coffee-rubbed jerk leg of lamb, slow-roasted and finished with rum-wood smoke, delivered a layered spice profile where the roasted bitterness of coffee complemented the warmth of the jerk seasoning. Lamb, with its naturally robust flavour, proved to be a fitting canvas for those spices.

The accompanying charred corn and breadfruit succotash offered sweetness and texture that balanced the intensity of the meat, while grounding the dish firmly in Caribbean ingredients. Tyson noted that the dish was an exploration of how traditional Jamaican flavour profiles could work with proteins outside the usual repertoire.

“We did a jerk coffee-rubbed lamb because it needs time to marinate, and many Jamaicans are not yet accustomed to cooking lamb,” Tyson explained. “But it’s really the same [way] we make curry goat. We roasted the lamb for two hours after marinating it with the coffee and jerk rub, and paired it with breadfruit succotash for a medley of flavours. We also roasted the chickpeas to add a bit of crunch. Jamaican food is big and happy, so the dish is really about bringing all those flavours together.

For diners moving between stations, the experience at Kuyah was both sensory and exploratory – smoky aromas from open grills, bursts of jerk spice, the sweetness of roasted corn, and the richness of slow-braised meats layered across the palate.

nyoka.manning@gleanerjm.com