Do you ever go to a restaurant and feel like you’ve tried something new and exquisite while also remembering meals from your childhood? I recently went to the newly opened Markette Restaurant (formerly Haymarket), the creative culinary vision of British Jamaican Chef India Doris. Although Chef India hails from London, the flavors are definitely straight from the pots of her Jamaican grandmother.
Some of my fondest memories are all of the conversations I had with my grandmother while she was in her kitchen, standing over her pots … whether she was adding ham hocks to her collard greens, frying fish, making grits to perfection, or steaming the biggest backyard okra I’ve ever seen. Sitting at Markette with my friends, who spanned two generations, made all us nostalgic for the cooking of our various grandmas and reminded us of flavors we’ve experienced during our travels to the Caribbean, Europe, and the continent.
Chef India has curated a menu of delights ranging from tuna crudo, a flatbread cooked to perfection; tomatoes that will make you question whether you’ve ever had a real tomato up until that very moment; and salt cod fritters that were fried to a perfect crisp and felt like a pillowy hushpuppy inside. I ate my shared starters so quickly I had to remember my home training and table manners.
For me, it’s always so great to support a female chef — someone who is young and innovative in the industry, and who is leaning into highlighting incredibly fresh ingredients with what food critics define as a “modern European menu.” As I ate my braised oxtail, dorade fish with crispy skin, and peri peri chicken (which had the absolute ideal amount of heat), I also thought of all of the similar cuisines that bind Black Americans, Caribbeans, and Africans. When I wrote “Black Ethnics,” I wanted to focus on all of the ways Black people can build coalitions. Writing it in a book is one way; seeing those connections seamlessly on a plate is another.
As I am constantly reminding my readers of this column, if we like something, we must support it, cultivate, and help it grow. There are so many young chefs who need to see Chef India, her absolutely esthetically beautiful restaurant, and her courage to begin this endeavor. Luckily for me, Markette is only a few blocks away from Madison Square Garden. I now have the perfect restaurant to complement my Knicks games. I hope to try the lamb skewers, the bavette steak, and the linguine for my next round. And if I don’t have time for dinner, I will definitely be at the bar, enjoying the incredibly innovative cocktail menu. I’ve found a new gem in New York City.
Markette is at 326 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, near West 28th Street. See you there!
Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University; author of the books “How to Build a Democracy: From Fannie Lou Hamer and Barbara Jordan to Stacey Abrams” and “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream”; and co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.