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FOR the first time since 2019, Goatober, the international celebration of goat, will be held in person in TT. On October 19, GoatoberTT presents Feasts of Fire, a live-fire dining event curated by journalist and media entrepreneur Franka Philip.
Philip, who has built a career as both a journalist and food content creator, founded GoatoberTT in 2018 after noticing the growing popularity of the international food festival Goatober, which began in the US in 2011. She hosted her first and only in-person event in 2019 before the covid19 pandemic halted preparations.
Determined to keep the dream alive, Philip pivoted online, hosting virtual cook-alongs and interactive events. She recalls teaching a class on cooking curried goat to participants in the UK, sharing techniques and discussions about the versatility of the meat in 2022.
But in 2023 and 2024, challenges prevented her from staging Goatober. Still, she never abandoned the dream.
[caption id="attachment_1184108" align="alignnone" width="731"] Franka Philip, GoatoberTT founder, journalist and media entrepreneur. Photo courtesy Franka Philip. -[/caption]
“At one point I even thought, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ But late last year I said, ‘You know what, I'm not giving up on this. I'm going to do it.’ So I had to sit and figure out how I would do it.”
“It's something I believe in and you can't just give up your dreams, right? So it has to continue. And everybody kept saying to me, ‘You can't wait until things are perfect to do it.’ You have to launch out there and do it. And putting myself out on the line like that is brave I think.
“So I’m really looking forward to seeing people come and enjoy the different formats.”
The event will feature two unique dining experiences. Lunch, from 12 pm to 4 pm, will be served family-style with guests sharing platters of food in a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. Dinner, from 6 pm to 10 pm, will have a more formal Caribbean chic vibe, giving guests a chance to dress up and enjoy fine dining.
Philllip explained that the inspiration for Feasts of Fire also came from an international resurgence of Caribbean food over the past year. The cuisine has been spotlighted across several platforms, with major chefs leading the charge.
Chef David Chang who, in his own words, dedicated his life to Caribbean food for over a decade, backed Kabawa, a Caribbean restaurant in New York City and has hosted several popular Netflix food series. Chef Kwame Onwuachi opened a new Afro-Caribbean restaurant called Las' Lap, while earlier this year Chef Tristen Epps-Long, who has Trinidadian roots, won Bravo’s popular Top Chef competition.
“But I find that our food has become reduced online to only doubles and roti. The substance of what content people create out there is not great.
[caption id="attachment_1184106" align="alignnone" width="1024"] One of the dishes served at Goatober 2019 featuring local goat and Moruga Hill Rice. PHOTO BY MARLON JAMES -[/caption]
“That's why I took the other route of food writing and trying to produce other kinds of food content. I really felt that people liked this event when we did it. And it's good to try and support or shine the light on our goat. Our local goat is excellent and we really do need to support. We don’t have a big enough share of the goat market. Most of the goat we get here is imported.”
Another source of inspiration was Meatopia, a live-fire food festival that celebrates cooking over flame. Philip has long been fascinated by fire-based cooking, from Moonlight Barbecue located around the Queen's Park Savannah in the 1980s and early 1990s, to her own experiences visiting grill and barbecue spots in the US and UK as well as grilling at home.
She recalled the influence of her South African friends for whom a celebration is incomplete without a braai, the traditional gathering around wood or charcoal fire to grill meat, sausages and vegetables. With Feasts of Fire, Philip is bringing that spirit to Goatober, with chefs preparing goat over live fire, though not at the venue itself.
Philip is especially excited about the culinary team saying she is happy three of her favourite chefs – St Lucian-born Nina Compton, and TT’s Debra Sardinha and Brigette Joseph – all of whom she has long-standing relationships with and who were committed to excellence, agreed to participate.
[caption id="attachment_1184105" align="alignnone" width="635"] Chef Brigette Joseph looks on as Chef Nina Compton bastes goat meat on the bbq grill. - Photo by Mark Lyndersay[/caption]
Compton, who once said her favourite meat was goat, became a household name in 2013 as the runner-up in Top Chef. She has since been named one of Food and Wine magazine's Best New Chefs in 2017, won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South in 2018, and gained international acclaim for her New Orleans restaurant Compere Lapin.
The event also coincides with Compton being in the Caribbean to mark the 100th birthday celebrations of her late father, St Lucia’s first prime minister Sir John Compton. She was also in TT in August, where she met Sardinha, Joseph and many others in the local food scene, and she is eager to return to cook.
“She's the kind of person who loves the sustainability and the idea of local and trying to support as many local farmers with the event as possible.”
Sardinha, meanwhile, made history as the first female executive chef at a Hilton hotel in the Americas. Philip described her as someone who has been quietly transforming parts of the food industry, never hesitating to mentor younger chefs.
“She has a lot of integrity and I am proud to call her my friend.”
[caption id="attachment_1184107" align="alignnone" width="683"] Franka Philip, GoatoberTT founder, journalist and media entrepreneur. Photo courtesy Franka Philip. -[/caption]
Joseph, she described as a “cooking prodigy” who is in demand at high-profile events across the region and consulting with restaurants in the Caribbean. Philip also Joseph as curious and very committed to TT.
Philip said in addition to celebrating goat as a centrepiece protein, GoatoberTT has also sought to engage with farmers and livestock specialists. In 2019, the festival partnered with the TT Goat and Sheep Society, hosting a workshop on butchering goat for different occasions and presenting the meat in innovative ways. While she was unable to do something similar this year, Philip hopes to include them in the experience.
The spirit of experimentation remains strong, with one of the event’s taglines being: “There’s more to goat than curry.”
“We love curry goat, but we just want to highlight that the animal is versatile, and there's so much more you can do with it. When you go to other places, they cook it in so many different ways and use the different parts.”
At the last GoatoberTT one chef, who never cooked goat previously, even created goat pastelles, proving one just had to be open-minded and get creative wit the meat.
Philip hopes the event will spark deeper appreciation not just for goat, but for the creativity and sustainability of Caribbean cuisine.
Feasts of Fire will be held at Veronique’s in St Clair. Tickets and details are available on Island eTickets.
 
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