From RosaCaleta to Soulful Sunday Dinners

In 2009, Lopez founded RosaCaleta in Kreuzberg together with his partner Kirk Henry. The restaurant quickly became a hub for socialising and made a name for itself with its innovative approach to Jamaican-European fusion cuisine. Lopez combines Caribbean ingredients such as Jamaican curry powder and Pimientos de Padrón with European staples.

His groundbreaking menu featured playful creations such as fiery guava jerk chicken, sweet-and-spicy pork with ginger gnocchi, and plantain spätzle in coconut cream. After an extremely successful decade, the restaurant switched to a pop-up and catering-only model in 2021.

As well as running RosaCaleta, Lopez organises lively ‘Soulful Sunday’ community dinners and runs a bespoke patisserie specialising in sought-after specialities such as authentic Jamaican rum cake and Key lime cheesecake. Driven by passion, romance and culinary pragmatism, his culinary and hosting endeavours continue to bring together diverse Berlin communities. For many newcomers to the city, these gatherings have played – and continue to play – a vital role in helping them build a new home far from their homeland.

This edition of Tongue and Throat Memories is dedicated to the significance of food as an expression of resistance and as a means of fostering community and a sense of belonging within the diaspora. The focus is on a culinary performance in which Troy Lopez serves his jerk chicken, a vegetarian version and one of his legendary cake creations.

The communal meal will be accompanied by a conversation with Diana Arce about culinary traditions, personal stories and the role of the restaurant as a vibrant salon and a place for exchange, encounter and conviviality. The evening will draw to a close with a DJ set by Mokeyanju.

• Culinary performance and discussion, followed by a DJ set by Mokeyanju at 10.00 pm.

in the Sylvia Wynter Foyer

IN ENGLISH