MarjiesPlaintainFoods

All Natural..Healthy and Tasty..Try It!!

Plaintain Foods

Meat and Vegetable Plaintain Tart

Marjie’s Plantain Food products combine US fine dining style with the food that I grew up with in Haiti. The result is a marriage of US style and Caribbean healthy food. My approach to food preparation draws on traditions and also insights that I’ve developed through experimenting with plantains. As a result, Marjie’s Plantain Foods converts a staple of the Caribbean and Latin America into a series of US health food products that are natural, filled with vitamins, and taste good. Try some!

Cod Fish Cake Vegetable Plantain Loaf

Flageolet Plantain Loaf Chicken Plantain Tart

Biography

Marjorie Dunbar

I grew up in Haiti where I lived with my grandmother, a single elderly businesswoman. At an early age, she had me selling her baked goods and other farm products to the locals and collecting her money. I developed a fondness for the locals because they would bring me fresh foods made from the produce cultivated in their small gardens. In return, I would give some of my grandmother’s products to them.

I moved back to New York in 1988, where I spent several years working in fine-dining restaurants as a waitress, and sometimes as a bartender. Later, I enrolled in college. At first I thought that getting an education could help me, and so I attended New York Technical College for a degree in food and management; I graduated in December 1996. I struggled to define my goals, as I was not always sure what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to work with food but I did not know in what capacity. Throughout, I stayed close to work that involved food while I kept silent for awhile. As I served these common American foods, I often had recurring flashes of new food products.

Unable to articulate my vision, feeling lost, not knowing what to do, I was often dissatisfied but always looking for the next thing to learn that would compensate for these self-doubts. In January 1997, I enrolled at Baruch College where I earned a degree in business administration. That was followed by a brief stint in the corporate world. After working there for a short time, I quickly realized that I was bored. I felt if I stayed in the corporate realm my dream would never come true. So in 2004, I started baking using plantains. Immediately, I noticed that I felt very good. I started to have memories of my grandmother and the Haitian locals. I realized later that my grandmother’s influence was a big part of who I had become as a person and perhaps something of which I was not always aware. These memories ultimately became the impetus to propel me forward. Slowly things began to become clearer for me, and I began to understand why I often felt dissatisfied and empty no matter where I worked.

I continued to visualize different ways of presenting food that others have never seen or tried before. I wanted to make products that would be fresh and natural, and that other people would also enjoy. Eventually, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was able to write down various ideas for food products that would combine the style of food presentation in America but using the Haitian cuisine with produce that I was accustomed to eating as a child. This cultural marriage would consist of new food products that would combine the fine-dining style of food presentation in the US using produce found in the Caribbean and Latin America where the focus is on the natural, fresh, tasty and healthy food that my grandmother’s maids and the locals made for me in Haiti. I have drawn on these two cultures to develop Marjie’s Plantain Foods. The emphasis in the food presentation retains the fine-dining style found in America with a French flair found in my Haitian culture. The type of plantain food products I prepare is therefore a reflection of both American and Haitian traditions. This basic vision has enabled me to open up new possibilities for what can be done with plantains as a basic food product. My business, Marjie’s Plantain Foods, converts a staple food from the Caribbean and Latin America - plantains - into a collection of American health food products that are natural, filled with vitamins, and taste good. Try some!

Marjorie

Copyright 2008 MarjiesPlaintainFoods