Kwéyòl/Creole Recipes, stories, and tings from a St. Lucian chef's journey

Nina Compton

Book - 2025

"James Beard award-winning chef Nina Compton shares recipes and stories inspired by her culinary journey from Saint Lucia to the American South and the deep African culinary roots that thread these cuisines together. Growing up in Saint Lucia, a small island nestled in the heart of the Caribbean, chef Nina Compton developed a deep sense of community through cooking and food. As she traveled and worked in restaurants abroad, she was eager to learn, improvise, and innovate by doing what transplants like herself do best: Bring the best of home with them wherever they go. Kwéyòl / Creole explores the cuisines that form the basis of her unique culinary perspective, from St. Lucia and the Caribbean to the Afro-Latino cuisine of Miami where... she continued to hone her cooking style, the Creole cuisine of New Orleans, and the indigenous and African influences underpinning them all. The recipes are both transportive and irresistible: callaloo greens with coconut cream, guava vinaigrette drizzled over banana, homemade curry with fresh turmeric and ginger, pickled mango and avocado salad, jerk-buttered corn, Creole potato salad, the countless possibilities of the beloved plantain. Interwoven short essays offer fascinating insight into the cultural experiences connected to Nina's food, such as folktales and origin stories of the "twin" holidays of Creole Day in Saint Lucia and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Full of beautiful travel photography and Nina's uplifting voice and singular culinary vision, Kwéyòl / Creole stands at a thrilling intersection of cultures and foodways"-- more