Jyl Benson
Fried ginger “Beign-Yays” from Black Roux Culinary Collective
Chef Myisha “Maya” Mastersson arrived in a blaze of color and fanfare. The pink-haired, pink-coated chef pulled up to my friend’s Algiers Point home in a Cadillac (not pink) packed with flowers, serving ware, table adornments, and the makings for an unforgettable brunch.
I invited my well-travelled, former journalist, octogenarian friend, Robin, to join me in Black Roux Culinary Collective’s Vegan Brunch Affair—just so long as we could do it at her home. Between my four dogs (two of them rambunctious, destructive, nine-month-old puppies) and a hardworking historical renovator husband who would rather eat a bug than socialize over brunch on a Saturday, my house is not the ideal venue for a chef trying to compose a seven-course meal with cocktail pairings.
Chef Mastersson danced a shimmy as she plated up the courses and mixed cocktails, conversing easily as she worked from sealed containers holding her prepped ingredients, leaving her only in need of a hot oven and a small saucepan.
A native of Detroit, Mastersson fell in love with New Orleans in the 1990s while studying zoology at Dillard University. She returned home, broke as students tend to be, and, lacking money, offered to cook a feast for her mother’s wedding as a gift. “I missed the wedding since I was in the church basement cooking for fifty people, but that’s when I had my ‘ah-ha’ moment. I knew I was doing what I was meant to do.”
Jyl Benson
"Lox Nest Monster" by Black Roux Culinary Collective
She graduated with a culinary degree from Baltimore International College then set off to work in Seattle, often as a vegan chef, until her abusive husband sent her fleeting back to Detroit with her dog in the middle of the night. She started dreaming of the business she wanted to create. “I knew I would call it Black Roux because black is as far as you can take a roux and there is a very fine line between a black roux and a burned one. My marriage to an abuser took me as far as I could go without getting completely spent and burned.”
She returned to New Orleans with a new partner, and launched her business just in time for the pandemic to shut her down. Part of her business plan involved taking travelers on culinary journeys where they cook the cuisines of other cultures. She canceled the group’s planned trip to Ghana, returned $30,000 in deposits, accepted a job as a vegan chef, and started all over again.
Two years later, she’s officially relaunched her vision. This past June, she finally got the chance to lead a group on an immersive culinary tour in Yelapa, Mexico. She’s begun hosting a monthly supper club at her home in the Marigny for up to twenty guests, conducts regular pop-ups around New Orleans, and offers catered experiences in private homes for up to fifty people The themes and the menus for those experiences change every three months or so and include “A Little Dim Sumthin’, Sumpthin’” featuring foods of the African Diaspora presented in a dim sum style; Mediterranean; Tapas; and “A Vegan Brunch Affair”. She is a member of the Good Trouble Network, a non-profit coalition of hospitality workers in New Orleans that hosts monthly fundraisers for local social justice and human rights organizations. Seemingly inexhaustible, she is also starting a Led Zeppelin cover band with her husband, Adam—but that’s another story
Mastersson is also as vibrant, compelling, and engaging as the food she prepares. And she knows full well that we feast first with our eyes. Her dishes are artfully composed of screamingly-fresh produce and lushly adorned with edible flowers. Robin, my Epicurean friend, is thin as a wisp and eats very little. She cleaned her plate through all seven courses. We both did.
The meal started with “Ramen in the Morning”: a vegan soft-boiled egg (silken tofu flavored with Middle Eastern black salt, the high sulfur content in which mimics the flavor of egg), confit carrot bacon, blueberry sausage, pickled collard greens, “bacon” broth (made from smoked mushrooms), and yam noodles. I obnoxiously tilted the bowl to my lips to consume every drop. This was paired with coffee spiked with Nigiri sake and finished with coconut cream. I eyed this beverage dubiously, but the pairing was brilliant, and I drained the glass.
Up next was the “Garden of Eden,” featuring generous portions of fresh tropical fruit (passionfruit, starfruit, dragon fruit, gooseberries, persimmon, and papaya) lightly drizzled with rose-infused agave and served atop a swoosh of vegan turmeric yogurt and adorned with edible flowers. It was presented in a transparent glass orb that magnified the colors and concentrated the aroma of the fruit. This was paired with a light rose spritzer.
Jyl Benson
"Garden of Eden" by Black Roux Culinary Collective
Yet another feast for the eyes, the “Lox Ness Monster” combined lox-cured beets, vegan crème fraiche, heirloom tomato, spring onion, fried capers, micro dill, and a petite freshly-baked everything bagel served with a cucumber-dill martini. The martini carried over to also pair with “Let’s Toast”—small baguette toasts each with its own topping of smashed avocado, fresh hummus, and smashed, roasted garlic.
“Simba’s Waffle” married chicken-fried Lion’s Mane mushroom atop a small black garlic waffle with carrot bacon and a light barbecue bourbon sauce. A smoked Bourbon Cajun Mary accompanied and carried over to “The Southern Omelet,” which was made with an exterior of Just Egg (a plant-based egg substitute) filled with Cajun Smoked Jackfruit, braised collards, red pepper gravy, cashew crème, and a sweet potato biscuit.
The final course, “Beign-Yay” brought together a fried ginger beignet, seasonal berries, coconut cream, and vegan chocolate ganache paired witch a peach-infused Moscato.
Lauching this month, The Vegan Brunch Affair menu’s bright colors and refreshing flavors are as tantalizing an exploration of summer flavors as I’ve ever encountered.
Read about two other unconventional New Orleans dining experiences featured in our July 2022 issue: Fish Hawk NOLA and Rabbit Hole Supper Club.
