Chef Christa Lynch hosted “Morebeza, A Love Letter to Cape Verde” for our A NIGHT IN pop-up series.
Photo Cred: Chef Christa Lynch
Chef Christa Lynch is a proud steward of Cape Verdean cuisine.
Her upbringing and memories of home inspired her carefully curated menu for our A NIGHT IN pop-up series. With Morebeza, which translates to “welcome”, Chef Christa Lynch invited guests to experience the comfort of Cape Verdean cuisine.
In developing the menu, Chef Lynch aimed to celebrate the rich history and culture of Cape Verde, an island rarely in the spotlight.
"Designing this menu was a little bit difficult for me because I am giving New Yorkers a taste of Cape Verdean food, but it is a culture many people don't know about. They don't know what to expect. People are completely unfamiliar with this group of islands very close to Senegal."
Staying consistent with Cape Verdean culture, Chef Lynch prepared a fresh salad with roasted butternut squash and toasted pumpkin seeds for our first course. Using only seasonal ingredients, she brought elements of the Cape Verdean lifestyle to the plate.
For our second course, she served a peri-peri chicken with turmeric cauliflower rice, roasted peppers, and tomatoes. Incorporating peri-peri spices, Chef Lynch provided a punch of flavor and a historical backdrop to the blend of Cape Verdean and Portuguese seasoning.
Our third course was a traditional Cape Verdean dessert, a fried goat cheese ball with house guava jelly. She used fruits commonly prepared in Cape Verde to bring the meal to a sweet close.
Brooklyn Braised, Chef Lynch’s farm-to-table business, offers catering for intimate gatherings, special occasions, workplace dining, and live virtual cooking classes. Giving back to her community, Chef Lynch provides hunger relief initiatives and equitable hiring practices for formerly incarcerated women and men.
Follow Chef Christa Lynch by supporting her business, Brooklyn Braised.
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