Golden Brown Delicious: Making Cultural Connections
Sisters Priya and Symran Singh and partner Genesis Adrian – close friends who met in college – share a love of good food and wine that’s reflected in their social media feed. It’s a sparkly, dizzying array of imagery: the three glamorous young women dancing and posing in their kitchen, raising glasses at glittery restaurants and nightspots in South Florida and well beyond, and showing off dishes that range from humble to sublime. They cater private parties; host wine education videos on YouTube; and do events. At Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe in Coral Gables, they throw regular themed pop-ups, like the recent Not Your Mama’s empanadas, featuring Indian butter chicken with a tamarind mint sauce and cheddar cheese and Gruyere plus a Cholula aioli, paired with wines. “We started this partnership to be creative and have fun,” says Genesis, and their frequent laughter shows it’s working.
The trio’s creativity is fueled by strong family ties. Genesis, 30, was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Broward as a child. Her younger brothers were born here, so her mother made it a point to cook typical dishes – sancocho, a stew of meat and vegetables; corn-meal bollitos; mangu (plantains); Los Tres Golpes (the Dominican breakfast of fried salami, cheese and eggs served alongside plantains) – as a way of keeping the family’s food culture alive in a new country. “After working two jobs, she was coming home to make sancocho,” says Genesis. “It was very important to have food from the Dominican Republic.”
Priya, 28, and Symran, 26, were born in Dallas to parents of Indian heritage. Their father is from Punjab; their mother, who grew up in England, spent little time in India. Growing up, Symran says, the sisters’ cultural food was Tex-Mex, not Indian. To discover their Indian culture, they had to travel to England to visit their grandparents, creating culinary connections and indelible memories along the way: “Watching grandfather making samosas from scratch. Grandma making gulab jamun – deep-friend paneer balls boiled in syrup,” she says. They saw their grandmother cook with squash, mint and cilantro grown in her garden. “Our grandparents show so much love making food for you,” adds Priya. Today, the sisters are taking lessons in Punjabi so they can talk to them.
Golden Brown Delicious started as a passion project that has grown into something more, says Priya, one that combines education, connection and love. The trio has divvied up responsibilities. Priya, is chef and handles BOH; her sister, Symran, is a cook and takes care of FOH; and Genesis is a cook in charge of HR. Events, says Genesis, are the best way to showcase their culinary mashups that draw upon the flavors of their own experiences and the culture they can piece together from family and put their own stamp on it.
Their nonstop joy reflects an important lesson Priya says they learned from their grandparents: “Don’t make food if you’re not going to make it happily.”
GOLDEN BROWN DELICIOUS
The GBD Girls
Look for regular pop-ups at Wolfe’s Wine Shoppe in Coral Gables.
