Chef Jerome Grant wants people to know that Lunar New Year is about “more than red envelopes,” he told Maiysha Kai of theGrio in a recent interview. Grant, the inaugural chef of Sweet Home
Café at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is of Black and Asian descent.
“I wasn’t a kid that was born in America, but my life has been based in America,” Grant told theGrio. “I grew up with a Filipino mother. I had her traditions, and my biological father, my stepfather, I have their traditions. So our American table was different—it was different from yours—but who’s to say it wasn’t American?”
With that, let’s take a tasting tour of how onsite chefs across the country celebrate the Year of the Tiger with culinary fireworks from Texas A&M University, Phillips Exeter Academy and UMass. Get ready for spring rolls, dumplings, unique sweets, cool treats and even some dancing.
