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Chef Omar Tate is changing the way we see the food of Black folks.Chef Omar Tate, Honeysuckle Projects
He left New York City to return to his hometown of Philadelphia to immerse himself more fully into Black culture and history through food. He and his wife and business partner Cybille St. Aude-Tate created the Honeysuckle Project in 2017, a popup dinner series of meals he created from locally sourced products. The project is “community-focused and education driven,” he states.
The idea for Honeysuckle was spawned by his wanting to learn “more about Black foods and Black culture by understanding the position that Black folks are in, in America and throughout the world,” he said in a Vogue magazine article. “We started Honeysuckle Projects as a brand in 2020. We are opening several different concepts under our umbrella, but the one that we're working on right now is Honeysuckle Provisions which is an Afrocentric grocery cafe that will be in West Philly where I'm from.”
Last year, Chef Omar Tate was named to the TIME100 NEXT list of emerging leaders in the world based on his culinary skills. Food & Wine magazine named Honeysuckle one of the 15 most anticipated restaurants of 2021, and Esquire named him Chef of the Year in 2020.
In New York, he hosted sold-out penthouse dinners. He has worked at restaurants in New York and Philadelphia, where he started his career in hotel kitchens before becoming a private chef. He also worked at the Smithsonian. In July, he hosted a special dinner in Brooklyn to celebrate Black farmers.
“I don't think that I'm defining Black cuisine,” he told Vogue magazine. “I feel like Black cuisine on its own has a significant history and we're just adding our piece to that space. It's very elegant. We work towards bringing people to understanding our food ways because I think through migration a lot of these things have been lost. I think we're just building upon a legacy that already exists through our ancestors.”
Back in West Philadelphia, he plans to open a community center that at its start will be a grocery store and eventually build out into a supper club and more.
For Arts in the Parlor, Chef Tate will prepare a packaged meal for purchase beforehand, and talk about food and its relation to Black heritage during a presentation at the house.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
4951 Walnut St.,Philadelphia,US, United States
Tickets
USD 0 to USD 20