- We're about to meet Chef Nigel Jones,
who's been a champion for Jamaican cuisine
right here in Oakland.
We'll be meeting him at his first spot,
Kingston 11, but then we're gonna take a ride
over the bridge, and he's gonna show me his new spot, Kaya,
which is taking Jamaican cuisine to the next level.
(upbeat music)
- Kaya was a unique opportunity.
Daniel Patterson has a number of restaurants
in San Francisco and Oakland.
His desire to open some opportunities
for people of color to get into the fine dining industry.
And knowing that there is a void for my type of cuisine,
he approached me and so, we discussed the opportunity,
and we embarked on that relationship.
We're gonna do the classic Jamaican breakfast,
ackee and saltfish.
- Everybody grows up eating saltfish.
- Yes, so we'll start by making some dumplings.
The dough here is flour, oil, a pinch of salt,
baking powder, roll it up.
- When I think of dumplings, I'm thinking
of it's being filled with meat and all of that.
- Yeah. - Not in Jamaica, though.
- [Nigel] We use dumplings as like a bread.
- [Sheldon] Okay. - [Nigel] It's like a
fry bread.
- So you remember doing this back home?
- Yes.
- With grandmother?
- And my grandmother, would make certain dishes.
- [Sheldon] Okay.
- And I would complain, and she says "If you gonna
"complain about my cooking, you better learn
how to cook yourself".
(Sheldon laughs)
My mother was 15 years old when she had me,
I was an only child, my father was also
around the same age, he left Jamaica,
went to England, migrated there.
My mother left Jamaica and moved to the United States,
so I grew up with my grandmother.
One of the things that I love about cooking,
in Jamaica, everybody cooks.
And what we would do, is, something similar
to what you would call a pot luck here.
- [Sheldon] Okay.
- But instead we call it runnin' a boat.
Pot luck is something where everybody cooks
and brings something to the event.
But this, you bring whatever you had,
and we cook it together.
- Oh, you run the boat! - You know, I –
– you run the boat.
- You always had that boy that,
come on, you're bringing this rice again?
- Exactly yeah, exactly. (Sheldon laughs)
Yeah, yeah, but he's gonna eat everything, you know?
- Johnny bringing the rice again.
- Meantime, we're gonna start with the ackee and saltfish.
This is our national dish, ackee
actually comes from West Africa.
- Okay.
- And it's a fruit, that we cook in a savory way.
The saltfish is a very interesting role it plays
in the Jamaican culture.
Back in the days, there was not refrigeration,
so they would use salt and pack meats with salt
to preserve it.
- [Sheldon] What is this made out of?
- This is cod. - [Sheldon] Usually, it's cod.
- It's cod fish, so I'm gonna add a little bit of tomatoes.
We're gonna add some of the ackee to it,
it's gonna start looking a little bit like scrambled eggs.
- Yeah.
- So the seasoning here is salt, allspice,
which in Jamaica is pimento, that's the berries,
garlic and some paprika.
- Smells very Filipino to me, chef.
With the garlic and onions. - [Nigel] Yeah, yeah.
- You know, Jamaican food, as I taste it,
people associate with island life,
What is the steps, taking it - Yeah.
- Into, you know, taking it to fine dining?
- If you have amazing food, why shouldn't it be shared
in different social economic settings and background?
If you're a certain class, - Yeah.
- and live in a certain area, maybe you never had it.
One of the things that I love about Jamaican food,
is that everybody eats the same thing.
From the Prime Minister, - Oh, right.
- down to the little guy on the street.
You know, if you look in our dining room, it's packed,
with people from all different backgrounds,
and they're eating the same food
as a working person in Jamaican eating,
and I think that's beautiful.
- It's the dumplings - Yes.
- This is like a flatbread. - That's fried dumplings.
- Mmm. That saltfish like that reminds me of Filipino foods.
- Yeah, and you have the spices coming through.
- What's the evolution of Kingston 11 to Kaya,
as far as the food goes?
- There is a tight bond in terms of what we're doing there
and what we're doing here.
The recipe's the same, the jerk chicken,
the oxtail, same recipes.
Over here, we add a few new items, such as
the black pepper crab, we wanna make sure that we stay true
to the original intent, - Mm-hmm.
- and the presentation is part of that.
Just dungeness crab, ginger, sweet soy sauce,
lots of black pepper.
- Do you encourage everyone to kind of
just dig in? - Just dip in.
Like we're in our backyard, eating crab.
We wanna get our hands dirty on this dish right here.
- Yeah.
(crunches)
The spices balance perfect with that sweetness of the soy.
- [Nigel] Yes.
- You get the ginger in the background of it.
- And the Thai chile pepper, with a little kick there.
- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah.
- It's the perfect amount of heat, that makes you
sit up, but makes you go right back in
for another bite. - Yeah, oh I love it.
So what I find myself doing in Oakland,
people who are not as experienced,
give them the chance, if they show
the level of commitment, to be trained,
and create the next wave of servers, bartenders,
line cooks, and potential sous chefs and head cooks,
and that's what it means to be a black chef
and a black owner, is to keep opening that door
for other folks.
- Yeah, all my workers are kids of the community.
- Yeah.
- That are afraid to, a lot of times,
just speak up, too. - Yeah.
- I think they're raised to be so humble,
and I love being an example for those guys,
that, no, they can get out there,
and put your head down and work.
- Yeah, the high level in which you are working
and operating, it's a major inspiration
for folks in your community.
- Yeah.
- Coming in to San Francisco, and know recent history.
The migration of a lot of the black community, out,
leaving San Francisco, I would expand that to say
Latinos, Asian Americans, or even white folks
of not high economic means, that cannot
make ends meet here in San Francisco.
- [Sheldon] Yeah.
- But, I think we can act locally,
and start putting things back together.
And food is the vehicle for that.
- These have been cured for the last two days,
so now we're going to take some of these onions.
- [Sheldon] Okay.
- [Woman] And we're gonna start to layer them.
(guitar chord)