Overview:

The Creole Food Festival made its debut in Brooklyn, featuring chefs from Haiti, Venezuela, French Guiana, New Orleans, and beyond. Thousands gathered under the Brooklyn Bridge for food, music, and cultural connection in a celebration that turned into a block party.

Creole Food Festival brings flavors, music and unity to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn welcomed the Creole Food Festival with open arms on Saturday, Sept. 27. It was the first time the celebration had come to the borough, home to many from Haiti and across the Caribbean.

Held in a spacious plaza directly under the Brooklyn Bridge, the setting across the river from downtown Manhattan was easy for visitors to find. Clear skies, the creativity of dozens of chefs, and the beats from DJs and headliner Stacy Barthe set the stage for a festive celebration of shared Creole heritage.

The historic warehouses along Plymouth Street provided a fitting backdrop. For hundreds of years, ships docked there to unload spices and coffee from around the world, which workers would grind and store nearby. Until a few decades ago, the aroma of exotic spices still lingered daily in the air of the industrial area.

Chefs representing the Creole diaspora, from Haiti, Venezuela, New Orleans, and French Guiana, joined locally based chefs to showcase their cultures through food. For many Brooklyn guests, the event became a unifying experience, a chance to extend local hospitality and turn the festival into a block party.

Emily Roebling Plaza, beneath the Brooklyn Bridge on the waterfront across from Lower Manhattan, became a dance floor during the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington.

“We’ve been educating people that Creole is not only Haiti or New Orleans,” said Fabrice J. Armand, co-founder of the Creole Food Festival and a native of Haiti. “It’s about diversity, inclusion, and celebrating commonalities. It’s about connecting the diaspora.”

Armand added: “I’m not a chef, but I’ve been cooking Haitian food since I was 7 years old. My favorite dish growing up was lambi with djon djon rice, and also legim with crab and seaweed.”

Now in its seventh year, the festival also takes place in Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, and soon Washington, D.C.

By 3 p.m., guests lined up at food booths. Haitian chef Jeffrey Morneau served classics, including lambi pike (conch salad) and soup joumou. From French Guiana, Antoine Zulemaro, formerly of Le Meurice Hotel in France, prepared smoked duck breast with brown butter corn tempura, smoked paprika and duck jus, and ginger confit.

Chef Jeffrey Morneau speaks with a guest at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. The festival ran Sept. 26–28 at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Morneau and his team served lambi pike (conch salad) and soup joumou. Photo by Bill Farrington.

Jessica Merritt from Brooklyn samples lambi pike prepared by Chef Jeffrey Morneau at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. She described the dish as tangy and fresh. The festival took place at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Morneau and his team also served soup joumou. Photo by Bill Farrington.

Chef Antoine Zulemaro of French Guiana prepares smoked duck breast with parepou cream, brown butter, corn tempura, smoked paprika and duck jus with ginger confit at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. The festival was held at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Bill Farrington.

Venezuelan chef Vanessa Ceballos offered arepa crackers topped with shrimp and octopus carpaccio, with guasacaca (a green herb-and-avocado sauce) and passion fruit vinaigrette. The dish sold out quickly, prompting her to improvise a live demo with figs carpaccio, prosciutto, blue cheese crumbles, pistachio dust, and passion fruit vinaigrette.

Chef Vanessa Ceballos of Venezuela prepares arepa crackers with shrimp and octopus carpaccio and guasacaca, a green sauce made with herbs and avocado, dressed with a passion fruit vinaigrette. The dish sold out quickly at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Bill Farrington.

Arepa crackers with shrimp and octopus carpaccio, guasacaca, and passion fruit vinaigrette prepared by Chef Vanessa Ceballos of Venezuela at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. The dish sold out quickly at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Bill Farrington.

Flatbush-based Haitian chef Francesca Laguerre, owner of Vivacious Eats NYC, served boulette roulette (Haitian meatballs) with pikliz and bon gou griot (pork sliders). Laguerre launched her catering business during the pandemic.

“Someone actually nominated me for this event on social media,” she said. “I don’t even know who. I learned by watching my mom, a Haitian woman who knows her way around the kitchen. I like to experiment with spices and do Haitian-Asian fusion. I made Beijing beef recently. I do Jamaican and Trinidadian dishes, even homemade roti skins.”

She called the festival “an amazing first-time experience” that allowed her to network, meet community members, and celebrate culture. “For me, the food speaks to us. The moment you try it, the flavors are bold and unique. It speaks to the soul, it melts your heart.”

Boulette (Haitian meatballs) from Chef Francesca Laguerre, owner of Flatbush-based Vivacious Eats, at the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. The festival was held at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Laguerre also served pikliz and bon gou griot (pork sliders). Photo by Bill Farrington.

Morneau, a Haitian-American born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, now lives in New Jersey. At his booth, Jeffrey Morneau Atelier, he led a team plating dishes while greeting customers.

“It’s a tough business,” he told The Haitian Times. “I was scared at times, applying for jobs, thinking I wasn’t going to make it. But perseverance and grit got me through. I now have several thriving businesses. There really is light at the end of the tunnel, you just have to work for it.”

He credited the Haitian community for supporting him throughout his journey. “My goal has always been to push the culture forward, to do a little more than expected. I want the community to feel like if I’m leading the charge, we’re in good hands.” Morneau often updates followers on Instagram at @ChefJeffdidit.

As the afternoon shifted into evening, the festival turned into a full-blown Brooklyn block party. Performers Carmel St. Hilaire and Nayhla Nazon, dressed in vibrant Creole attire by designer Harry Abilhomme, energized the crowd while Sounds of Reality DJs delivered a hot Caribbean mix. Dancers moved in rhythm as the plaza filled with people celebrating together.

Guests dance beneath the Brooklyn Bridge during the Creole Food Festival in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025. The annual multicultural event celebrates the African Creole diaspora at Emily Roebling Plaza under the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo by Bill Farrington.

For Armand, it all began with his grandmother’s cooking. “Whether you call it Kreyòl, Creole, Kriyolu, Gullah Geechee, or Garifuna, we are really connecting the diaspora,” he said. “I love my culture. It’s always been a unifying force for us.”

On Saturday, Brooklyn’s Creole community turned out in full force to prove him right.

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