With much gratitude, I got to live a full Boricua life as part of the inaugural Red Bull Chapters, featuring the magnificent Puerto Rican superstar Rauw Alejandro, a two-time Latin Grammy Award-winner and five-time Grammy nominee. What began as a Puerto Rican dinner invitation to Brooklyn ended with a fabulous evening in Queens, replete with fireworks and dancing. Dinner and a movie have absolutely nothing on this experience. Wepa!
Red Bull hosted La Mesa Nuyorican at Brooklyn Grange’s Sunset Park rooftop farm. I was thrilled to visit for the first time. I wish I had arrived before sunset to capture it all for you, but the Red Bull cocktails and sangüichitos de lechón asa’o — tender pork from a whole roasted pig, bright chimichurri, and a sweet roll, plus my request for crispy skin — set me right. I was gutted to miss passed hors d’oeuvres of mofonguitos de yuca con bacalao and the alcapurrias made with green banana and yautía, filled with lentil picadillo and served with pineapple pique. Curses!
I migrated to the area where guests were watching the Bombazo Dance Co. right outside the dining room perform Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican music-and-dance tradition. Dancers in traditional attire moved in conversation with the live drummers, setting a physical intention for the dinner ahead. My hips were ready.
Once inside, there were two long, fully set communal tables that glowed beneath blue light and overlooked the New York City skyline. Centerpieces incorporated produce connected to the island — avocados, papaya, and plantains, continuing the conversation among place, memory, and food.
From the large display across the room, I soon realized that this was not just another PR dinner. La Mesa Nuyorican translated the Red Bull Chapters framework into food through Inspiration (origin story and influences), Momentum (evolution and defining work), and Legacy (achievements and what’s next). This dinner was about Puerto Rico, yes, but also about New York City and the Nuyorican culture that shaped Rauw.
It would take a collaboration of four dynamic Puerto Rican chefs to showcase Rauw’s chapters: Dylan Golden of Chino Grande, Jonathan Meléndez Rodríguez of Michelin-starred Casa Mono, César Pérez of Primos Lejanos, and Manolo López of Café Colmado and Finca La Promesa. Inspiration honored the Puerto Rican culture and food traditions that shaped Rauw. Momentum showed how those traditions adapted in New York, shaping new neighborhoods and communities. Legacy considered what the next generation is carrying forward to define itself.
After the chefs welcomed us and Rauw settled into his seat, the meal began with bread service, but made it Puerto Rican style. Warm pan sobao arrived with freshly made butter, guava jelly, and smoked salt. It was giving guava-and-cheese pastry moments. By the end of the night, my tablemates and I were mad we didn’t bring Tupperware to take some home.
Next came ensalada de hojas locales — local greens with roasted plum vinaigrette. I went back for seconds and thirds. It was fresh, abundant, and deeply satisfying in a way that only a well-dressed bowl of beautiful lettuce can be. Red snapper crudo followed in coconut leche de tigre, finished with crispy malanga. One of my favorite dishes of the night.
When the platter of roasted kabocha squash with queso fresco and candied seeds; oyster mushroom empanadillas with recaito and a Malta reduction; and Chino-Latino chicharrón with tomato escabeche arrived, I lost my mind. The squash was outstanding with its combination of texture and flavor. The oyster mushroom empanadillas brought deep umami realness. Add fatty, crisp, delicious pieces of chicharrón … done!
The entrée course brought Chef Dylan Golden’s Chino-Latino magic to arroz con jamonilla (Spam fried rice) and white beans, stir-fried Chinese yardlong beans over purple yautía and celeriac purée, and prime rib from Finca La Promesa with five-spice jus and scallions. Just brilliant food.
It was getting late, so I missed the dessert of polvorón and peach jam with goat cheese panna cotta … and I do love panna cotta. I said goodbye to my new Puerto Rican family, “Bacalao!” (an inside joke on our new shared IG chat), and headed back to Harlem, joyous and full.
Days later, I was invited to Rauw’s second sold-out concert at Forest Hills Stadium. It was my first time in the historic venue, and the timing felt especially significant while New York was still in the throes of the U.S. Open.
Forest Hills hosted the inaugural U.S. Open in 1968, when Arthur Ashe became its first men’s champion and the first Black man to win the tournament. One week after Rauw’s concert, Ben Shelton became the first Black American man since Ashe in 1972 to reach the U.S. Open men’s singles final.
I am not going to hold you. Rauw’s concert was phenomenal! Exceptional production from staging and choreography to his impeccable leather clothes and sunglasses game. My friend Raquel and I could not stay sitting, especially during his salsa set and when he built a song live onstage, bringing in each musician one by one. Genius!
Each of the three chapters — Inspiration, Momentum, and Legacy — appeared on the enormous screen above the stage and marked another era of Rauw’s journey. The production also featured Red Bull extreme sports athletes, including freestyle motorcyclist Aaron Colton, along with appearances by b-boys and special guests Puerto Rican mega-producer Tainy and Chencho Corleone.
Rauw also shared heartfelt thoughts about home, family, and identity. “You can never forget where you come from,” he said in Spanish. He talked about how life sometimes carries people far from home and how years can pass without seeing grandparents and other family members. “Life slowly pulls you back to where your ancestors are, where your people are,” he said. He ended by saying, “I count the hours until I can return home to my beautiful Puerto Rico.” And the crowd goes wild.
By then, Legacy felt like more than the title of a final chapter. It felt like the purpose of everything I had experienced — from four chefs cooking the flavors of home on a Brooklyn rooftop to thousands of people raising their hands for Puerto Rico in a historic Queens stadium.
La Mesa Nuyorican gave the concert a language before the music began. The chefs translated inspiration, momentum, and legacy into food. Bombazo Dance Co. expressed them through movement and music. Rauw carried them into Forest Hills Stadium with reverence.
One table. Two boroughs. Three chapters. A Puerto Rican story still being written.
Thanks for reading and happy eating!
Kysha Harris is a chef, culinary producer, and food editor for the NY Amsterdam News. As a consultant and owner of SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for over 23 years, she remains on the hunt for the city’s next great bite. Follow her on Instagram and on Facebook, @SCHOPnyc.
Questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations! Email us at [AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com](mailto:AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com). Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, @NYAmNewsFOOD.
