Chef Jae-Anthony Dougan is the executive chef and part owner of Tropikal restaurant in Montreal’s St. Henri, as well as a food truck and restaurant in Ottawa.
He has participated in Top Chef Canada and has been featured in Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants magazine.
Until Sunday, food enthusiasts across Canada are invited to indulge in a week-long celebration of diverse flavours, culinary creativity and community spirit with a ByBlacks restaurant week.
Dougan feels “like education is needed in terms of Afro-Afro-Caribbean and Latin food.
“People should go out, taste the food, enjoy it and get to know us and to get to know our culture.
“Growing up in Canada, I’ve tasted a lot of different backgrounds and a lot of different diversity.
“So I was able to fuse all these Caribbean dishes because the Caribbean is extremely diverse with dishes that everybody knows.”
Dougan is motivated by standing out in the industry. “What inspired me to become a chef was there’s not a lot of chefs that look like me that are actually doing stuff in the industry,” he said.
“I wanted to change the culture a little bit and I wanted to show my culture that you can also do a lot more in terms of the culinary field as well.”
Dougan learned to cook from his grandparents. “So my craziest moments is my nostalgic moments where I cook with my grandparents and my father and they teach me different techniques and different flavouring and stuff like that.”
Chef Jae-Anthony poses with his son at Tropikal restaurant in Saint-Henri. (Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed, CityNews Montreal)
He says he understands what it feels like to be the underdog. “When you see like a lot of Italian chefs or Asian chefs and you have another background of a young Asian child, you see that there’s somebody that’s opened multiple restaurants and done this so it’s not impossible.
“When I started cooking, there wasn’t that many chefs, especially in the Canadian spectrum.
“That was like from a Caribbean background, a Caribbean descent that had multiple restaurants, food trucks, TV appearances.
“So the reason I’m saying that is because I would like more of not just Caribbean culture, but African, brown and any kind of minority to really push the envelope.
“So other kids like my son and other kids could be like, ‘oh look, my dad did it and other people did it, so I’m going to try it myself.’”
When asked what advice he would give to the younger generation, he said: “A lot of crying nights, a lot of broke nights, but it’s one of the most gratifying jobs in the world. And if you really love it, definitely do it.”