RosaCaleta prepares ackee with saltfish
As a national dish, ackee with saltfish is a must on any Jamaican restaurant menu. And of course, the exotic dish is served in RosaCaleta - a restaurant run by Kirk Henry and Troy Lopez.
Kirk Henry and Troy Lopez
"After so many years in Berlin, I feel at home here. It's a place where people come to visit me. I have really good friends in Berlin. Kirk only visited me in the beginning, but now he's a Berliner himself!" - Troy Lopez, chef at RosaCaleta
Little Jamaica…
RosaCaleta - Troy Lopez and Kirk Henry gave the restaurant the names of their grandmothers. The two Jamaicans met in Paris at the beginning of the 1990s. Lopez has lived in Berlin since 1990, Henry since 2008. They opened their restaurant in 2009.
…in Kreuzberg
"We chose Kreuzberg for our restaurant because it's definitely the coolest place to be. What happened in Kreuzberg was a sort of homecoming. It is so easy to be here - in every way. Just be who you want to be, act how you want to act and do what you wanna do!" - Kirk Henry
Caribbean-European fusion
Troy Lopez's culinary creations are based on the traditional dishes prepared by his grandmother, with whom he lived while growing up. But he doesn't only employ elements of his native Jamaican cuisine; he also draws inspiration from European traditions. He calls it "fusion cuisine."
Jamaican national dish
RosaCaleta's menu naturally includes Jamaica's national dish: ackee with saltfish. Ackee - also called a ackee plum - is a tropical fruit that is very popular in Jamaica, and which is often eaten raw. Troy Lopez imports the fruit from Amsterdam - canned, of course.