From Trinidad to Smorgasburg: A Culinary Journey of Success

In Trinidad and Tobago, Sundays often mean eating pelau for lunch, a traditional one-pot meal of rice, pigeon peas, coconut milk and meat. Beginning at age 12, Darlene Vincent began watching her mother in the kitchen. Pelau was one of the first meals she learned to perfect.

“She used to sell at different events in Trinidad, parties, carnival,” says Vincent.  “I’m from a family of 12. And we all had to cook growing up. It was hard but we did it.”

Even though it was tough, Vincent developed a feeling of pride knowing that her food put smiles on people’s faces. Cooking was no longer a chore. It became something she loved doing, even  putting a twist on traditional dishes by adding her own combination of seasonings.

“My favorite thing about cooking is the food tastes good,” says Vincent. “Everybody say they could cook. But the food have to taste well seasoned.”

In Trinidad, Vincent used her passion for cooking to sell food and provide for her three children. But when she moved with her family to New York in 1996, her options for making money were limited. So Vincent turned to the one thing she knew how to do well — cook.

“I wasn’t working and I wasn’t documented as yet. So I had to get a means of income. So I started selling food to the hair salons and the barbershops.”

Nearly 30 years later, Vincent has taken her joy for serving people tasty food and created her own business known as Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen. The catering company is a reflection of her Trinbagonian upbringing, with the name “Tanty,” a term of endearment for women that means “Auntie,” symbolizing a familial style of cooking. The menu offers a variety of traditional dishes, from corn soup to curry crab and dumpling, a specialty of Vincent’s that’s flavored with a combination of herb seasonings she makes herself.

“And it’s just something people love and I think I cook well,” she says. “So they love and enjoy it.”

Now Vincent is adding a new role to her resume. In April 2024, Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen became one of the newest vendors to take part in the popular seasonal food festival, Smorgasburg Prospect Park. The news of her acceptance into the food market left both Vincent and her family extremely overjoyed, especially her daughter Afesha Chong, who received an email from Smorgasburg in January confirming their interest in Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen after she submitted the application at the end of 2023.

“I didn’t think we would get it because we’re small. I didn’t think small businesses were here.”

Chong says after Smorgasburg confirmed their interest, the next part of the application included a tasting of Tanty Darlene’s food. And a few weeks later, they got the official invite to become a vendor.

“It felt great because I feel like my mom is known in the Trinidad, Trinbagonian community as this person who cooks food. But I want the world to know her,” says Chong. “This is major.”

Chong was just a little girl when she would walk with her mother up and down the streets of Flatbush in Brooklyn while she sold her food out of a trolley.

“I hated doing that,” she says as she chuckles remembering what it was like. But now an adult herself, the memory holds a greater meaning.

“When I look back at it, I feel like my mom is low-key my motivator,” says Chong. “I’ve always seen her do her best with what she had. And I feel great knowing that I came from someone like that.”

Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen has quickly become a customer favorite at Smorgasburg Prospect Park with the food selling out every weekend. The menu has several items for sale, including her signature crab and dumpling dish. Vincent says a lot of customers also really enjoy the taste of her aloo pie, a sandwich-like food that’s fried and filled with seasoned potatoes. And now their happy reviews on social media are helping to make Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen a household name, with more and more people from all over the world following her page.

“It feels great. I never thought I would be here,” says Vincent.”And I’m here and I’m grateful.”

Vincent’s youngest daughter, Tenisha Chong, also helps serve food at Tanty Darlene’s Kitchen. She says she is proud of her mother’s growth.

“It brings joy to my heart because she came here as an immigrant. She started food sales, she would do curry-cues and barbecues, and then she did a lot of catering. And then when she got the opportunity to come to Smorgasburg, it was just a joy to the family.”

And Vincent’s loved ones make sure to support her any way they can. Her brother Kerwyn says seeing her stand over a hot pot of oil, cooking fresh food on summer days when many New Yorkers might opt to cool down at the beach instead, is proof of her determination to succeed.

“And she is willing to go out there and make sure that people get what they deserve because that’s the business that she’s in,” says Vincent’s brother. “And she wouldn’t fail them. She says ‘I’m coming today. I’ll be there.’ No matter between pain, headaches, it doesn’t matter, she’s coming. And I feel proud of her. Everybody feels proud of her. And we have to come and support her every time.”

“It’s my passion,” she says. “I don’t really do it for money because I just do it for the love of it.”

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