Discover the Flavors of the Caribbean: A Family-Friendly Celebration of Belly Full by Lesley Enston
Join us for family fun and conversation in celebration of Enston's new book, Belly Full: Exploring Caribbean Cuisine through 11 Fundamental Ingredients and over 100 Recipes!
For author Lesley Enston, cooking has always been a way to connect to her Caribbean roots. Belly Full, with its breadth of stories, recipes, and stunning photography, will leave your stomach and heart more than satisfied and proves that the essential dishes and ingredients of Caribbean cuisine can be seen as an alphabet to unlocking a triumphant culinary language and legacy for all to gather in and share.
Join us on September 21 with Lesley Enston in conversation with registered dietician nutritionist, Maya Feller, as we dive into the vibrant world of Caribbean cuisine and the 11 staple ingredients that make it so uniquely flavorful! Along with Maya, Lesley will bring us into the overlapping histories of the Caribbean islands through their rich cultures and cuisines.
This is a family-friendly event and we encourage you bring your little chefs and eaters- kids under 12 are free!
What's included with your Belly Full ticket
a personalized signed copy of Belly Full
small bites curated by Best Dressed Plate
discounted access to MOFAD's sensory exhibition, Flavor: The World To Your Brain
What's included with your Standard ticket
small bites curated by Best Dressed Plate
discounted access to MOFAD's sensory exhibition, Flavor: The World To Your Brain
More about the book
Belly Full is a delectable exploration of Caribbean cuisine through 105 recipes based on eleven staple ingredients, featuring powerful insights into the shared history of the diaspora and gorgeous photography.
Eleven staple ingredients—beans, calabaza, cassava, chayote, coconut, cornmeal, okra, plantains, rice, salted cod, and scotch bonnet peppers—hold echoes of familiarity from one island to the next, and their widespread use comes in part from the harrowing impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism. As Lesley delves into how history shaped each country and territory’s cuisine, she shows us what we can learn from each island (such as Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cuba) and encourages us to celebrate the delicious differences.
More about the participants
For Lesley Enston, cooking has always been a way to connect to her Caribbean roots. After growing up in Toronto, moving to Brooklyn, and spending a few years in London, she ultimately settled in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Lesley is a seasoned home cook and takes great pleasure in spreading the joy (and heat) of these flavors to her friends and loved ones by way of her famed backyard dinner parties. Better yet, Lesley’s young daughter, Desalin, now plays the role of sous-chef, enjoying the flavors her mother and grandmother cherish so deeply.
You can find Lesley’s recipes in Bon Appétit, Food52, and the New York Times.
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Maya Feller, MS, RD, CDN of Brooklyn-based Maya Feller Nutrition is a registered dietitian nutritionist and author of Eating from Our Roots: 80+ Healthy Home-Cooked Favorites from Cultures Around the World (goop Press, January 24, 2023) and Co-Host of Well, Now Podcast, Slate’s new wellness podcast.
More about BEM
BEM | books & more is a literary destination at the intersection of food and Blackness. Established by two sisters in January 2021 as an online bookstore, BEM is proud to serve as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity. Taking an expansive approach to the nexus of food, literature, and culture, BEM celebrates Black food by bringing works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for readers of all ages into conversation with cookbooks and culinary studies to explore how what feeds us defines us.
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