When you go on vacation, few things are as important as what you eat. Food reveals a lot about the culture and traditions of a community. Undoubtedly many of the best memories from your trip will be around meals.
In restaurants around the world, who is in the kitchen counts. Although men tend to dominate the chef and head cook positions no matter what country, in the Caribbean, some female chefs are killing it in the kitchen. Here are a few of the standouts who, if you are in their country, you’ll want a seat at their table.
1. Joyce De Cuba-Husken
Yemanja Woodfired Grill, Aruba
Go to Yemanja Woodfired Grill in Oranjestad, Aruba, and you’re in Owner and Executive Chef Joyce De Cuba-Husken’s world — vegan, gluten, and dairy-free cuisine that is as pleasing to the palate as it is to the eye.
“Yemanja stands out because we elevate our flavors using many spices and fresh herbs and pay attention to details in our presentation,” said De Cuba-Husken.
After culinary school, she worked in her native Netherlands as a sous chef. “I started in a leading position right off the bat, which was unusual considering I was only 18,” she said. She would become executive chef of six restaurants under the restaurant group De Beren.
In 2006, she moved to Aruba. Her brother was working at a restaurant and asked her to join the kitchen team for a season. She discovered her happy place and stayed. “I got to develop my own style, working more with spices and herbs. That was not common back in the Netherlands. Having Indonesian roots, I strongly identify with spices and herbs.”
She traces her love of food to as early as six years old. “I was always baking with my aunt. On Saturday mornings we would go to the farmer’s market and spend the entire weekend cooking whatever we purchased.”
De Cuba-Husken confesses, “Food is love and I love food, sometimes too much, I can’t take a break from it. I’m always cooking in my head and that can sometimes be overwhelming.”
Her restaurant also runs a year-round fundraiser to support local dog rescue organizations.
What To Order At Yemanja Woodfired Grill
Yemanja’s signature dish is the Carpaccio Bomb, the first recipe DeCuba-Husken created as a chef. The Beef Carpaccio Bombe is thinly sliced raw Angus beef tenderloin, salad blend, arugula, pinenuts, cucumber, tomato, cherry tomato, scallions, old Amsterdam cheese, sourdough croutons, pesto, truffle sauce, and balsamic crème.
2. Renata De Weever
SALT, St. Maarten
Renata de Weever knew early on she wanted to be a chef. She left St. Maarten, studied at Johnson & Wales University in Miami, and got a break with a job at the Mandarin Oriental Miami. She cross-trained in various outlets, including the banquet kitchen under Chef Jerome Canada. When she was ready to return to St. Maarten, there was an opening at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino. She nailed her first interview. The second one entailed cooking lunch for the head chef. She was in. De Weever would go on to also work at Emilio’s and today is the sous chef to David Seeman at SALT at The Morgan Resort & Spa in Simpson Bay.
De Weever led the nine-medal St. Maarten national culinary team to the famed international Taste of the Caribbean competition in 2017 and is assisting with getting a new team together for 2023. When it comes to her style, “I have traveled as far as Thailand, prepared numerous dishes across different cuisines, but I like adding a little of St. Maarten and the Caribbean in every dish.”
Her favorite dishes include curry chicken wings, dumplings, and curry shrimp served with a plantain roti. “I like to take a Caribbean dish and make it contemporary.”
As for her love affair with food. “Food is the glue that brings people together. It’s happiness. Watching people savoring one of my dishes is gratifying.”
What To Order At SALT
Start with conch fritters with pickled onion and spicy remoulade sauce and then have the popular island-style churrasco steak with rice and peas, tostones, and chimichurri. The only other thing you’ll need is Duprat’s Coastal Caribbean Punch, rum, passion fruit purée, pineapple juice, honey, lime juice, and fresh cinnamon.
3. Maria Mercedes Grubb
Decanter Hotel, Puerto Rico
Maria Mercedes Grubb loved cooking but didn’t think of doing it professionally until she moved to New York in 2002. Members of her husbands’ band loved the meals she prepared and they encouraged her to consider them. They lived one subway stop from the French Culinary Institute where she ended up winning the Outstanding Service Award. She graduated and learned from James Beard winner Gabriel Kreuther in the Michelin-starred kitchen of The Modern. She cooked Spanish Basque cuisine at Bar Basque and Italian cuisine at Maialino, Danny Meyer’s famed eatery in the Gramercy Park Hotel.
With a load of experience, she returned to Puerto Rico, working in restaurants for a time and doing supper clubs at her home. These were evenings where she would serve 6-9 course meals on her indoor patio. In 2013, she and her brother opened Gallo Negro, a restaurant and whiskey bar. Grubb made history in 2019 when she became the first woman in Puerto Rico to be nominated for a James Beard Award as a semi-finalist for “Best Chef: South”.
The restaurant closed just before the pandemic and since then she’s worked as a consultant, helping others open restaurants not only in Puerto Rico, where you can find her in the kitchen at Decanter Hotel’s restaurant in Old San Juan but in Austin where she’ll soon be executive chef at Ember, a restaurant that will showcase Caribbean cuisine. She’ll still be involved with the restaurant at the Decanter Hotel. “I am passing on knowledge there and have an all-girl team.”
What To Order At The Decanter Hotel
Go with one of Grubb’s specialties, cabrito guisado (goat stew), goat cheese dumplings with rum, and coffee au jus.
4. Liliana Ojeda
El Leon, St. Croix
Liliana Ojeda’s first notion was to be a lawyer like her dad wanted, but she couldn’t deny her love of cooking. At 6 years old, her grandmother let her handle a knife to cut vegetables. By age 15 she worked at a small bakery. Ojeda attended a culinary college in her native Mexico City while cooking in top restaurants and hotels. After college, she was recruited as part of the pre-opening team of the W Hotel and Residences in Doha, Qatar. She learned from a Michelin-star chef and would go on to a W Hotel in Puerto Rico and worked in Paraguay, Japan, China, and Indonesia.
Today she is executive chef at El Leon at King Christian Hotel in Christiansted, St. Croix, making her mark with a local and sustainable menu, even using the invasive lionfish from local waters. She blends her Mexico City flare with Crucian ingredients. Her specialties are mole sauces with unique twists, and fresh seafood, in tribute to her grandmother.
“I combine Mexican ingredients like mole with oxtails. Locals love oxtails,” says Ojeda.
Because some traditional Mexican ingredients are hard to find in St. Croix, she brought from Mexico what farmers need to grow spices, herbs, and chiles. “Food is the way I say I care.”
She’s looking for a little balance. She can spend 14 hours in the kitchen. “I’m in paradise and I’m not able to get to the beach because I’m in the kitchen, but I really love it.”
What To Order At El Leon
You won’t go wrong if you choose the pork belly in green pipian mole. It’s slow-cooked with a crispy crust over green pumpkin seed salsa, roasted baby corn, and palomitas powder. You could also just pop in for guacamole and chips and the El Leon Margarita, tequila, lime juice, agave, orange bitters, and dried lime wheel.
For more information on traveling to the Caribbean, check out these articles:
