Black chefs, Black culinary traditions, and Black innovation have all shaped American and global cuisine for centuries. February is Black History Month, which provides an extra and important opportunity for everyone to recognize and celebrate Black Heritage. One of the ways we do that at Universal Orlando Resort is with featured dishes at many of our dining locations.
Lucky for me, I got the opportunity to talk with four of the resort chefs about the dishes they created to celebrate Black Heritage this year. The conversations alone made my mouth water! Let’s dive in.
Asian Barbecue Chicken at Lombard’s Seafood Grill
Chef Terrence Johnson’s family hosted a big function for years when he was growing up and people would bring a dish from their own household to contribute to the potluck-style meal. Back then Chef Terrence was often in charge of bringing barbecue, so it’s only natural that he’d create a similar dish for Black History Month.
As he says, the dish “holds a special place in my heart. These items are normally the stars of everyone’s plate, giving me good reason to present this to our guests. Using my experience here at Lombards, and the San Francisco theming, I wanted to enhance my traditional barbecue with some Asian flavors.” The dish features Asian Barbecue Chicken, served with a pork belly cornbread and braised collards.
The collards are cooked with ham hocks and a smoked pork belly adds moisture and flavor to the cornbread mix. Chef Terrence also created a tea brine in order to marinate the chicken before baking. “The addition to the barbecue on the chicken, along with the collard greens and the cornbread, give this dish an Asian flare and still represent my family heritage,” says Chef Terrence.
You can find this dish at Lombard’s Seafood Grill in Universal Studios Florida, where you can enjoy it paired with a charming waterfront dining experience.
Black Grouper Stew at Bob Marley-A Tribute to Freedom
For the entire 14 years Chef Carlton Hull has lived in Orlando, he’s worked at Universal Orlando Resort. Chef Carlton was born and raised in Jamaica, so Bob Marley-A Tribute to Freedom holds a special place in his heart. It’s a Caribbean-inspired venue at Universal CityWalk where guests can engage with history and music while enjoying a live band. The restaurant is also a replica of Bob Marley’s house in Jamaica, which Chef Carlton assures us is a “very, very good” recreation. He even recognizes much of the art featured around the restaurant from his own childhood home.
For Black History Month, Chef Carlton created a Grilled Black Grouper Stew with summer vegetables, coconut milk, pigeon peas and avocado, served with rice. For Chef Carlton, this dish recalls an iconic Jamaican culinary experience: eating a fresh catch on Fisherman’s Beach where he would swim. Chef Hull described walking the beach and approaching someone fishing, who would cook the catch for you on the spot.
Chef Carlton enjoys celebrating the diversity of backgrounds he encounters at Universal Orlando Resort, fondly describing meeting other team members from Morocco, Israel, and Azerbaijan. “Everyone is welcome here,” he says.
Smoked Turkey and Collard Greens Gumbo at Confisco Grille
Talk for any length of time to Chef Antwan Dickerson about food and you will learn about Big Mama. Chef Antwan’s mother had him in the kitchen as a youngster, doing prep items like cutting onions and peppers.
Chef Antwan says, “Any dish I create starts with two things: passion and the desire to see guests smile.” Creating a dish for Black History Month felt even more personal: “Big Mama was born in 1921, so she went through a lot of American’s transition. She’s seen a lot of things and I’ve heard a lot of stories. When you start talking about Black History Month, it’s a celebration of those journeys for a lot of people.”
Chef Antwan’s dish for Black History Month features a collard combo, which takes two traditional soul food dishes and combines them. Big Mama would cook this dish often when he was young. “Soul food comes from the soul,” Chef Antwan says. The gumbo will be served with honey butter cornbread, scratch-baked in-house.
When the first guest orders a new menu item developed by Chef Antwan, his tradition is to personally deliver the dish to their table. Stop by Confisco Grille in Universal Islands of Adventure and maybe you could be the lucky one!
Cajun Prawns at Bigfire
Chef Chad Scott’s desire to work at Universal Orlando Resort was so strong, he applied the very night of his 18th birthday. Throughout his Universal career, he has prepared food for guests in different roles at several venues, spending his last two years at Bigfire. “It has been an amazing journey so far,” he says. “Essentially, Universal is home for me.”
At Bigfire, Chef Chad explains, guests can enjoy classical American cuisine with theming to create a lake house atmosphere, including a big campfire. The Universal CityWalk restaurant’s showpiece is a grill visible to guests and large enough for four different grilling stations.
Chef Chad’s dish for Black History Month features prawns in an Andouille cream sauce, finished with toasted corn nuts and served with smoked cheddar grits and charred collard greens. To develop the dish, Chef Chad thought about the various ingredients that are important in Black Heritage. He also thought about textures and balance: the creaminess of the grits and a little bit of bitterness, as well as the sweetness of the greens, which will be made fresh in-house.
Important to Chef Chad, who was also born and raised in Jamaica, is the huge impact of the community on the culinary scene. He values contributions from both American Black Heritage and Caribbean Black Heritage. “I combined what we use on the islands with what we use traditionally in America to create something new that guests will enjoy,” he shares.
After all this, I can’t imagine not running into you at these venues with these simply spectacular plates of food in front of us all. Wave at me, and then we can thank the chefs together for sharing their heritage and their skills with guests of Universal Orlando.
Which dish are you most excited to try this Black History Month? Let us know in the comments below!
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