Kelewele
At just 27 years old, Rachel Laryea has reinvented herself several times over. In a past life, she was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. Currently, she’s a dual Ph.D. candidate at Yale studying anthropology and African American Studies. In 2018, she founded her food business, Kelewele, which transforms one key ingredient — plantains — into an inventive, delicious menu that includes plantain ice cream, plantain brownies, a black bean burger with a smashed plantain “bun” and more. Last month, she expanded Kelewele with the opening of a flagship location in Downtown Brooklyn’s DeKalb Market Hall. It’s the latest chapter in what Rachel — the child of Ghanaian immigrants, who grew up in Northern Virginia with plantains as a cultural diet staple — calls her lifelong “plantain love story.”
Rachel’s love for the African superfood deepened in college when, as a broke and vegan NYU student, she cooked plantains all the time because of their affordability. In grad school, she began considering plantains through an anthropological lens.
“I got excited thinking about plantains as symbolic of African diasporic cultures,” says Rachel, who appreciated how her West African context for the starchy food also had resonance for people in the Caribbean and Latin America. From spicy fried plantains called kelewele, a popular Ghanian street food; to pounded plantain fufu; to mashed mofongo; to fried sweet plantain; to crisp tostones or bannan peze made from unripe green plantains; there’s a throughline of connection across the globe. “All these inflection points, from childhood through grad school, inspired me to start the business.”
“I got excited thinking about plantains as symbolic of African diasporic cultures.”
Courtesy of Kelewele
What George Washington Carver did for the humble peanut, Rachel Laryea is doing for the plantain. “I wanted to take plantains from the side menu and bring them to the center,” she says. At Kelewele, everything on the vegan menu uses plantains as a base, with a focus on innovative yet familiar and tasty dishes. There’s the namesake kelewele, a Ghanaian street food of diced plantain, marinated in fresh ground ginger and spicy cayenne pepper, then fried. The “chichinga burger” is a sweet plantain and black bean burger seasoned with Ghanaian chichinga (a peanut-based spice blend), smashed green plantains serving as the bun. We highly recommend the “planana boat,” a fried sweet plantain topped with a savory bean stew; golden plantain balls that are a play on fishcakes; and the variety of desserts. The rich, fudgy brownie is our hands-down fave, but you won’t want to miss the soft-baked chocolate chip cookies and smooth ice cream, made from a plantain-based milk in flavors including the turmeric-kissed “liquid gold” and classic cookies ‘n’ cream.
“I crafted the menu to be accessible but still be an adventure and an experience,” says Rachel, who has twice been invited to serve her creations at the prestigious James Beard House. If you can’t make it to Downtown Brooklyn, however, you’re still in luck: Kelewele ships its cookies and brownies nationwide.
Rachel started Kelewele by vending her plantain-based treats at festivals and pop-ups, before she scaled up to incorporate e-commerce as well. Her new physical location, which opened at DeKalb Market on July 1, is an exciting progression for the business. Amid the neon lights of the basement food court, she has managed to design a fresh, natural space brightly wallpapered with a banana leaf print and lined with wood paneling. “I see this as an opportunity to showcase and celebrate my own culture, as well as cultures that are representative of the African Diaspora — and to make that front and center in an American discourse where that’s often marginalized,” says Rachel, who also sees her brick-and-mortar as a place for dialogue about these cultural connections. “Kelewele engages customers in a way that’s more than just a transactional experience. It’s really about making it an experience that feels reciprocal.”
Dekalb Market Hall, 445 Albee Square W,, 929-322-3480, kelewelenyc.com
