On Her Garifuna Upbringing:
Francesca Chaney grew up immersed in Garifuna culture and traditions through the ancestral foodways her mother's side of the family passed on to her. While visiting her family's hometown of Dangriga, Belize, at 15, Chaney sat down with her aunt, who walked her through a number of recipes. "My aunt in Belize, she cooks traditional dishes every Saturday, and then distributes it to everybody's house — like her family and close friends — so when I'm in Belize, sometimes I'll just be with her in the kitchen," Chaney told POPSUGAR.
Though miles away from the eastern coast of Central America, the East New York chef has continued to preserve the Afro-Indigenous cuisine, opening plant-based restaurant Sol Sips in 2018.
On Preserving Garifunaidad:
"So many of our dishes are plant based or have seafood in it," the 25-year-old entrepreneur shared. "Usually what we do at Sol Sips, the dishes that have seafood in it, we just omit the seafood or we make a plant-based fish cake, with like hearts of palm and seaweed, to give that impression of seafood. We make darasa [a tamale made of green banana]. I've done hudut, it's not on the menu, before [at a presentation] . . . Within my work, it's so important to center the Afro-Indigenous, plant-based experience because we've been doing this for generations."
