Carol Zou – susuEco

Update:

Did you read about the Susu collaboration with TransLation to provide chef training and launch cultural culinary business within the diverse and rich immigrant/ refugee community of Vickery Meadows? Check out the DMN article on the TransLation Chef debut HERE . If you missed it, come out to the Oak Cliff Cultural Center on Saturday November 21 to the Fair Trade Market 1p -7p to sample the chefs’ treats.

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Featuring:

Janna Grill – Iraqui sweet doughnut holes
Jabana Cafe – East African coffee and tamarind tea
Delicious Farat – falafel and salad
Casa Doña Felix – Taquitos al Pastor

photos by Carol Zou

(the last photo is a stock photo)

UPDATE:

Susu Cultural Business Incubator has a yummy partnership with the TransLation Vickery Meadows Project in North Dallas! We have been conducting Chef Training workshops with the goal to launch a collective of cultural culinary businesses. This partnership, led by Trans.lation Project Manager Carol Zou and Susu lead Tisha Crear, is a tasty tale in building bridges and/or just jumping in and swimming across.

First, do you know about the Trans.lation Vickery Meadows Community in North Dallas off of Park Lane and I-75?

Just behind the Park Lane Whole Foods and North Park Mall, right there by Half Price Books, is a community in which nearly 30 languages can be heard from the over 25,000 people living in the less than 5-square mile area. The Trans.lation project storefront is a resource center that serves the largely immigrant and refugee community. Trans.Lation Vickery Meadows was founded by Rick Lowe and the Nasher Project in 2013 to unite the super diverse and truly multi-cultural, multi-lingual and transient community through arts, education and community activities.

Drop by any given day and you will find the dynamic Project Manager Carol Zou navigating resources and co-creating with any combination of Trans.lation community members engaging in a multitude of activities from Aztec dance to sign language to printmaking to Arabic lessons. Take a look at the Trans.lation calendar that hangs on the wall among the paintings and you can feel the depth of the nature of the work.

Did I mention there is a blooming community garden in the back?

As you may know, Susu ‘s work is focused on the ‘southern sector’ of Dallas, in particular, key Oak Cliff neighborhoods poised for major transition in this era of the ‘Grow South Initiative‘. Susu pop-markets intentionally highlight local good food and a big part of our mission is entrepreneurship around issues of food security.

We have been excited and honored to take the drive up 75 north to work with five chefs from the Trans.lation community on building their culturally unique food businesses.

Here’s what we’ve done together so far:

In September 2015, we began the Chef Training series with study sessions to attain the Food Managers Certification. After more than 16 hours of study, the chefs took their exams and are now all certified Food Managers / Food Handlers!

Who are the five chefs?

The Trans.lation Chefs bring cuisine from Iraq, The Dominican, Mexico, and Eritrea. The chefs each bring a wealth of experience and rich tradition in the culinary arts.

More on each chefs’ unique style to come….

In the meantime….If you want a sample, come out to the Trans.lation Dia de Los Muertos celebration on November 1, 2015 from 4pm – 7pm. Several of the Trans.lation Chefs will share a taste of their culinary offerings.