World-renowned chefs Marcus Samuelsson and JJ Johnson will be showcasing the culinary talents of South Florida’s Black chefs and the diversity of Black cuisine at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival (SOBEWFF) this week.
The festival, on its 24th year, returns to Miami Beach on Thursday, featuring chefs and spirit producers from all over the nation.
As part of SOBEWFF, Chef Samuelsson will host Gospel Brunch at The Red Rooster, which he opened in Overtown in 2020. He opened the original Red Rooster in Harlem and said the similarities between the Miami and New York City neighborhoods interested him.
“ I was drawn by the African American history … It was called the Harlem of the South, all the amazing musicians and athletes used to stay in Overtown, but very often performed on the beach,” he said. “And this push and pull was something that was very similar to Harlem to me.”
With the restaurant right around the corner from St. John’s Baptist Church, the second oldest Black congregation in Miami, Samuelsson felt the Gospel Brunch was the perfect event to have at his venue.
Overtown’s Red Rooster celebrates Miami’s Black heritage and the cuisine that developed alongside it. For Samuelsson, highlighting other chefs in the community is what makes it special.
“ Whether you want to come for Jackson Bros' Ice Cream from Donovan Jackson, or you want to come for Derrick [Turton]'s incredible World Famous House of Mac … you can discover through Red Rooster and this gospel brunch so many other amazing chefs in the community here in Miami,” he said.
Chef Johnson is hosting “The Cookout” at the Eden Roc on Miami Beach alongside Angela Yee, the host of "Way Up with Angela Yee" and former co-host of the nationally syndicated "The Breakfast Club."
Johnson is a James Beard Award-winning chef, TV personality and author with multiple restaurants in New York City.
He is also pushing Black culture and cuisine by introducing audiences to an environment with which Black people are familiar.
”When you think about the cookout, and if you're Black, you know what that means,” he said. “There's going to be music, delicious food [and] nine times out of 10 it’s going to be in somebody's backyard."
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He felt that the food landscape has always been diverse at festivals — but not diverse enough. He said chefs like himself and Samuelsson will be at events drawing a significant number of Black attendees and they’ll always ask themselves: "What else is out there?"
With the event he is spearheading — The Cookout — Johnson wants to answer that question by showing the variety among Black chefs in South Florida.
He said that ten years ago you could probably name a handful of Black chefs that were mainstream national chefs, but that that isn’t the case anymore.
“ You can start in like Seattle, Portland and come down and around … you got chefs in Oklahoma City winning James Beard Awards,” Johnson said. “You got people in New Orleans, you got people in South Florida, you have people in the middle of America that are getting representation.
“And I think that the beauty of it all is that we might all be cooking similar styles of food, but it's so different because it's our interpretation.”
IF YOU GO:
What: Gospel Brunch
When: February 23, 2025
Where: Red Rooster Overtown
What: The Cookout
When: February 22, 2025
Where: Eden Roc Miami Beach
