Our Team

Tamika R. Francis (Founder, Chief Cook + Bottle washer)

Tamika R. Francis is a curious generalist, currently working as a public health practitioner by day, and moonlights in food by night. She has a strong passion for the outdoors, farming, and indigenous food traditions. This love came from her family’s long lineage in farming and food. Her mother’s ancestors, the Jamaican maroons, invented jerk as a resistance cooking method during war. After graduate school at the Heller School at Brandeis University, she ran away to the tiny island of St. Lucia to work on marketing and product development for an eco- and agro-tourism project working with a permaculture farm, street food vendors, a women's fishing cooperative and local food festival. Tamika has been a chef instructor for kids and adults at the Haley House, The Kitchen at Boston Public Market, The Food Project, and the Urban Farming Institute in Boston where she is also a member of the board. Her company, Food & Folklore, pays homage to global food tradition and highlights unrepresented foodways, centered around the question “What does home taste like for you” where she explores travel, nostalgia, belonging, identity and the immigrant experience through culinary classes, pop up dining, and storytelling with a collaborative of other local chefs. She apprenticed with Jamaican chefs Conroy Arnold and Oji Jaja before receiving culinary arts training from Boston University. Tamika is on a personal mission to get more people to enjoy goat meat.

Affiliated Chefs

Kwasi Kwaa

A native of Ghana, Kwasi Kwaa has been honing his culinary craft at various kitchens in the Boston area. His passion for food has led him from his early start at Hi-Rise cafe & bakery, to the world of large-scale corporate catering at Fireside and BG Events. In 2016, The Chop Bar pop-up emerged as a venue for Kwasi and his collaborators to explore street fare from around the world. The pop-up ran in tandem with the H.O.P.E. Inc. poetry series at the Dudley Cafe in Roxbury. It takes its name and inspiration from the tiny roadside restaurants of his Ghanaian childhood. Learn more about Kwasi here.

Siedric  N. White

Siedric began his career in the food industry at the age of sixteen working for a local caterer in Boston.  Influenced by his chef grandfather and excellent home cooking parents, he began pursuing the goal of becoming a chef and achieved that goal in 2003 taking the helm at Intermission Tavern (Boston).  Siedric continued to expand on his skill set by delving into the front of house as a server, bartender, service manager and GM. In 2010 many factors combined to push him to pursue  a more sustainable lifestyle.  He began gardening and educating  himself on organic food production practices and methods.  In 2014 Siedric attended the eight week urban farming training seminar offered by the Urban Farm Institute (Boston).  Siedric currently is working as chef for Boston based caterer Fresh Food Generation. Follow him on Instagram @beantown_charmer. Learn more about Siedric here.

Chef Chantal Thomas

Chantal is the blogger & recipe developer behind Amazing Ackee and the Chef-Owner of Amazing Ackee LLC.

While pursuing her first degree in Statistics she started and ran a successful home based dessert catering business. Upon completing her first degree she sought to improve her culinary knowledge and so went on to study Culinary Management at the Trinidad & Tobago Hospitality & Tourism Institute. Her academic endeavours gained her a scholarship to complete her culinary education at Lambton College in Ontario, Canada. Her recipes have been featured in: JamaicanEats Magazine; Clever Girls Know and Simply Local Life Magazine.  She has appeared on the Jamaican Food & Lifestyle show: "Nyammings" and placed fourth on Season 5 of the Food Network's Holiday Baking Championship. Learn more about Chantal here.

The Awafi Kitchen

The Awafi Kitchen is where Arab and Jewish cuisine are one in the same.

We are cousins of Iraqi Jewish diaspora, making meals as a tribute to our heritage. We host narrative food events in restaurants across Boston, as well as the greater Northeast . All of our family left Iraq between 1950 and 1970. Much was left behind, but not the food. Our menus are recreations of the meals we grew up eating as children, and the stories they heard of food in the old country. We are cooking to preserve the lesser known pieces of Jewish history, and Iraqi history. Plus, share some delicious recipes with our community. Learn more about Awafi Kitchen here.

Otto Llamas

Born and raised in Guatemala, in 1995 emigrated to Boston.  With several years of experience in the restaurant business, handled and worked in high volume kitchens including The Elephant Walk, Stephanie’s on Newbury Street.

 After 12 years of working in the financial industry, I decided to go back to what I enjoyed the most, my passion for cooking. In 2013, I embarked on a new journey, taking Culinary classes at D’Gallia, a prestigious culinary school in Lima Peru. In 2017, I created/founded Lima Limón, a small catering company that has been serving Peruvian dishes to a variety of institutions around Massachusetts. Learn more about Otto here.