Last week was epic—a rediscovery of why I do what I do, the fine chefs who also do it, and the people who like what I do. The bonus is doing what I love to do in Harlem with a team of talented Black chefs and staff. It had me at the highest of high vibrations.
The founder of the Black Chef Series, Chef Lance Knowling, once again invited me to join him for dinner, this time in honor of Harlem Week at the new Victoria on 125th Street. Along with chef Chris Scott of Butterfunk Biscuit (now in Harlem), Executive Chef Melvin “Boots” Johnson of the Victoria restaurant, and legendary Chef Herb Wilson prepared a five-course meal highlighting Black-owned food brands like Ratcliff Premium Meats, McBride Sisters, and Live.Loud.Foods.
When determining my first-course dish, I followed suit from my first Black Chef Series dinner, a Ladies Night of Black female chefs, documented on these pages. I’d just gotten my Ancestry.com results, showing my 25% Italian heritage, so I prepared a dish that honored my Louisiana Southern roots and my affinity for Mediterranean food: collard pappardelle “pasta” with pork sage ragu.
To follow the Southern American-Italian fusion idea and honor the season, I prepared watermelon carpaccio: thin slices of seedless watermelon topped with ricotta salata cheese, red pearl onion, Castelvetrano olives (my olive bae), micro arugula, jerk pecans, watermelon Meyer lemon vinaigrette, and fruity olive oil. The combination of sweet, salinity, spice, acid, crunch, citrus, and “green” played so well together and were the perfect start to the meal.
After my course came Chef Chris’s stunning miso-cured scallop and smoked trout salad with mixed grains and salmon roe, topped with sorrel, chervil, and a buttermilk dashi. I melted into this dish, which was filled with rich umami goodness. I need him to give me this recipe.
Kysha Harris photos
Chef Wilson and his talented staff were up next with sautéed Maryland soft-shelled crab with truffled creamed corn and tomato confit. I copped two of these crabs for lunch the next day, served over herbed orzo—summer on a plate.
Chef Boots’s main course laid down chicory coffee braised short rib with chipotle yam hominy grits, sweet garlic bordelaise, fried corn ribs, asparagus, and popcorn cream. It was “Goodnight Irene” lights out. This dish also came home with me and made two more small meals that still hit.
Finally, the reason we were all together: Chef Lance whipped up a dessert of blackberry mascarpone mousse with Jersey sweet corn fritters, roasted pineapple anglaise, and crumbled brown butter pecan brittle. Tasting all of the components separately was a vision. I know the guests had a treat eating the composition.
It was good to be in community with a like-minded team of people with a common goal of pushing out the best food and experience for our guests. My word for the evening is “capacity” and realizing how much we have in us that we don’t know about until we push it.
Thank you to Chef Boots and the Victoria for hosting the event, to my fellow chefs for their professionalism and experience in what they do, and to the passionate staff who supported us along the way. Keep pushing in your hospitality careers.
Stay tuned for my watermelon carpaccio recipe in the coming weeks. It has to be tested a couple of more times (wink) before I share it with you.
Happy eating and thanks for reading!
Kysha Harris is a chef, food writer and editor, culinary producer, consultant, and owner of
SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for more than 22 years. Follow her on Instagram,
@SCHOPnyc, and on Facebook, @SCHOPnyc.
For questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations, email to AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.