The importance of ital food in our culture

ITAL SIMPLY means natural! It is not just a cuisine, but a lifestyle based on the Rastafarian faith, which is well known in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean. Ital cuisine means no salt and no chemically modified additives.

Ital has been slow to enter the mainstream food scene because of its strict regimen, as it stipulates that we should eat food grown from the earth unmodified. Developed by Rastafarians in the 1940s to eliminate processed foods and enhance a healthier lifestyle, it is about eating ‘high-vibration’ foods, unlike processed meat and food which have ‘low vibration’.

Chef Troy Levy believes that our food should be our medicine and our medicine, our food. He is the owner of Chef Troy’s Table, where he specialises in plant-based, ital Caribbean food. He is inspired by fresh organic ingredients and the taste of the islands and beyond, and as a result, infuses them into each dish, serving up a delectable Caribbean-fusion cuisine.

“Ital cuisine comes from my upbringing in the countryside of Glengoffe, St Catherine, in Jamaica. Among my Rastafari uncles and extended family, whole healthy food had a strong influence on my style of cooking. After experimenting and using many different cuisines and styles of cooking, I decided to implement my Jamaican roots to reintroduce ital cooking in a modern style,” he said.

Rastafarians in Jamaica were ridiculed for eating ital food in the 1970s, when their lifestyle was shunned by conservative society. That was not the case in Chef Troy’s Glengoffe home where his uncles, Earl ‘Jas Rus’ Hall and Winston ‘Priest’ Hall, visited regularly.

Both are members of the House of David, also known as Boboshanti, founded by Charles ‘King Emmanuel’ Edwards.

“My uncles’ influence plays a major role in my career. Their style of cooking is a healthier way of eating Caribbean food. Ital food contributes to the health and longevity of the community, and that has a lasting impact. I am doing something that is good for people that also makes me feel good,” he said.

Rastafarians believe eating pure, organic food increases one’s natural connection with nature, and getting that food directly from the land is just one more way they strengthen that bond.

Spiritual and practical

Speaking at a recent weekly Health Talk Sunday Series presentation on the ‘Importance of Ital Food In Our Culture’, Chef Troy said eating naturally is both a spiritual and practical matter for Rastafarians. “The healthier you eat, the less you have to see a doctor, a concept just now catching on in the mainstream society. As processed foods were being introduced in the 1950s, Rastafarians took a firm stand against them, even before research proved how unhealthy they can be,” he said.

In recent years, ital cooking has become more popular as interest in health food grows and new restaurants serving ital-inspired food have sprouted up in places like New York and London.

Instead of using butter or dairy, coconut milk forms the base of many ital meals. Herbs and hot peppers, like the fiery Scotch bonnet that is native to the Caribbean, replace salt and processed flavour additives.

This natural way of living and eating is a key aspect of ital cooking, as those who follow the diet do not eat meat or animal products such as milk and eggs, in a bid to be fully nourished, healthy, and live spiritually.

Even stricter followers of the ital diet avoid eating food that has been preserved by canning or drying.

While it can be both vegan and vegetarian, there are key products that are consumed within the ital diet. Things like lentils, beans and alkaline foods, including spinach and broccoli, almonds and peanuts are staples, along with salads, carrots and beets, due to their being pure and directly from the earth.

Chef Troy utilises mostly organic food in his cuisine. Mango, avocado, passion fruit, sugar apple, banana, breadfruit, coconut, soursop, tamarind, guava, collard greens, kale, peppers, pumpkin and callaloo, a Caribbean favourite, are used in many stews.

“There is room for experimenting with ital cooking, since the diet is more of a guideline than a strict code. Since we move away from added fats and salts, we are acutely skilled at creating complex flavour profiles from herbs and spices, like lemongrass, allspice, nutmeg, and thyme,” he said.

Chef Troy has assumed the culinary identity of tutoring persons about ital plant-based food, the kind of Caribbean food that he grew up on, while adding a fine-dining touch. With elegant plating and modern cooking techniques, his ultimate goal is to denounce the myth that ital food is bland, a misconception many people have.

He pointed to constant experimenting for creating some of his most popular dishes, which include the coriander spiced jerk portobello mushroom with tomato choka, and the ital stir-fried cauliflower rice.

There is also a coconut cream pumpkin soup and ital stew, which has pleased the palates of natural foodies for nearly 50 years.

Chef Troy said his overall mission in life these days is to create a movement that promotes healing through food.

For more information on the importance of ital food in our culture, you can email healthtalksundays@gmail.com.

keisha.hill@gleanerjm.com