6 minute read
Beaucoup Buku
Chef Jenny Chicoye is spreading joy and veganism, one delicious plate at a time.
HEATHER ANNE LEE / Photos FRED LOPEZ
There’s something soothing and magical about watching a small number of simple ingredients—beans, water, garlic, cloves, herbs, and spices—start as a flavorless bowl of nothing, then very slowly fill your kitchen with the most decadent aroma. The steam that emerges from the lifted lid of sos pwa nwa smells like home to every Haitian.
While this velvety purée of black beans and coconut milk bubbles slowly, a Jay Shetty podcast plays in the background. Every three or four minutes it seems, Jenny Chicoye steps away from her prep to nod and proclaim, “Yaaasssss!” agreeing with the former Hindumonk-turned-life-coach.
It’s only been three months since Jenny’s broad, infectious smile, calm demeanor and signature turban has graced the petite, open kitchen at Main House Market, but the kindness she shows herself and others is earning her a growing following in Winter Garden. That, and the damn good food.
Before she was a vegan chef, Jenny Chicoye Zweifach worked long retail hours at Chelsea Market in New York City and subsisted on a diet of chicken tenders. “I was such a picky eater, 19 years old with childlike taste buds. Give me my chicken fingers and my French fries,” she laughs. But when a close family member got sick and turned to a raw, vegan diet to help ease the pain, curiosity consumed her.
“I was like, okay, let me do some research and see what this is about. I locked myself in my room for like three days and three nights and went crazy. I must have watched a dozen different documentaries, Pinterest, Google, YouTube, you name it. What I learned about agriculture, our food systems, and climate, it made me question everything. And now that I know this information, I can’t go back.”
So by age 22, Jenny had fully transitioned from her omnivorous chicken-tendered youth to veganism for a constellation of reasons: health, animal welfare, environmental and climate concerns, and racial consciousness. Still, the raw vegan lifestyle her cousin pursued wasn’t her thing. “It’s fantastic and I love using fresh ingredients, but I just had these fantastic memories of my mom in the kitchen growing up. Cooking is such an integral part of our culture, the Haitian and Jewish cultures. It’s how we show love and nourish souls.”
Sweet Beginnings: Jenny's Haitian mom, Naomie, and Jewish dad, Jeffrey Zweifach—the OG "Buku Love"
Courtesy of Jenny Chicoye
And yet, as beautiful as that sentiment is, that’s not why Jenny started cooking. That came from a much more visceral space: “I was hungry,” she laughs. “I was living in Staten Island at the time and it was snowing. I was not about to go outside. So I was like, let me see what I have here. I ended up with vegan banana bread, and it was delicious!”
The banana bread led to potato salad, but with her own cashew mayonnaise. And then mac-and-cheese, but with cashew cheese, potatoes, and onions. “I joke about it all the time, but I just kept going. I did not stop. YouTube University was my culinary school. I binged enough Gordon Ramsey and Master Chef to pick up technique, and if I had a question, I just researched and tested until I got it right.”
For the past eight years, Jenny has embraced the constraints of cooking without animal products as a kind of mad science project, utilizing ingredients that are raw, organically grown, or lab-generated, harnessing techniques from Indigenous tradition or from her own DIY workbench. First, she just cooked for herself and friends. Then, as interest grew, she launched a popup vegan bakery side hustle before moving to Florida, slowly transitioning her side hustle into a full-time business at age 30.
All the while, Jenny allowed herself to be thoughtfully guided by her heritage. “I let my ancestors talk to me. I let them whisper in my ear when I’ve added enough seasonings to tell me, ‘That’s enough, my child.’”
“I feel a very strong spiritual connection to my grandmother. I feel like she’s with me all the time. Every time I use her pilòn— it’s what we call a wooden mortar and pestle—I feel her presence.”
Chritiana Chicoye’s heirloom pilòn sits on a shelf above Jenny’s work station, along with a smaller one given to her by her mother, Naomie. “My mom, my grandmother, they are just strong black women, firmly planted in our Haitian heritage. I feel it deep within my soul, this bond … and it’s always strongest when I’m cooking.”
Happy Heritage: Jenny's bond with her Haitian grandmother, Chritiana Chocoye, runs deep: "it's always strongest when I'm cooking."
Life hasn’t afforded Jenny the opportunity to visit Haiti yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from channeling her heritage into her kitchen. Buku Kitchen, the name of her business, pays homage to the island’s French Creole influence, a colloquial spelling of the French word beaucoup. Epis, legin, and sos pwa are kitchen staples, as are vegan interpretations of Haitian favorites: griot made with shredded fried jackfruit, and “conch” made with hearts of palm. Djon Djon, Haiti’s most famous black mushroom, also makes a regular appearance on Buku’s menu. There is, of course, a nod to her father, Jeffrey Zweifach, the Jewish man who captured her mother’s heart before passing away. Jenny’s version of French toast features a stunning from-scratch vegan challah bread that would make her father proud. Jenny dredges the thick slices of challah in coconut milk with spices, slathers it with a berry-lime compote, and tops it with vanilla bean streusel and homemade whipped coconut cream.
“It’s me on a plate. Literally,” she laughs.
And that’s the essence of Jenny: cooking with creativity, exuberance, intellect, and soul. All in service to a quality that every chef and cook aspires: deliciousness.
“Being vegan is my choice. I don’t judge others for their choices, especially food. It’s just too personal. I’ve learned that everything in life is about balance, positivity, and being able to be empathetic to people who may not always be like-minded. So what’s really important to me is that I make authentic food with purpose and intention and that I make food that’s not just good because it’s vegan, but it’s good because it’s good. That it’s great-tasting, amazing quality, honest food made with love.
