Haitian Journalist and Culinarian Lionel Moise

Lionel Moise, Award-Winning Journalist and Co-Founder of Papi Soley

Honoring his Haitian heritage, Lionel Moise is sharing his love of Haitian cuisine through his vegan pop-up Papi Soley which features some of the classics with a twist.

Honoring his Haitian heritage, Lionel Moise is sharing his love of Haitian cuisine through his vegan pop-up Papi Soley which features some of the classics with a twist.

Lionel Moise (pronounced Moo-ease) is an award-winning Haitian journalist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, currently based in New York.

Growing up, he has always been immersed in Haiti’s rich culture and history as shared through his family, especially his father’s family who immigrated from Haiti.  Unfortunately, the media’s lack of knowledge and misguidance of information about the country has led to insensitive comments.

“I have always known I was Haitian. My family has always been very proud.  My father was an immigrant; he passed a few years ago. He was an immigrant from Haiti; they moved here when he was seven years old. He had an accent. In the house with my grandmother, he spoke Creole, and so that was a big part of my culture. We had the parties and the art and all that I loved. But then when I went to school, they would tease us. There is such a negative connotation, and this has been something that has come up in recent years. I don’t need to give examples, but we know about things that are said about Haitians in the media.”

The negativity at one point when he was young caused him to just tell people and kids at school that he was Black and hide the fact that he was Haitian due to the things they would say to him, such as he ate cats, practiced voodoo or couldn’t dress because he was poor.

However, he shares that it was in middle school when he was celebrating Haitian Flag Day with classmates, and the display of pride in their Haitian heritage reignited his own. From that day forward, he no longer hid his cultural identity as a Haitian.

Since that day, Lionel has proudly shared his culture and heritage with everyone he meets along the way, including introducing Haitian cuisine with a vegan twist through his pop-up Papi Soley. The pop-up made its debut earlier this year and will be headed to Florida for the Black Pepper Food and Wine Festival on August 13, among other events this year.

To learn about how Lionel puts a vegan spin on Haitian classics as well as new culinary creations, be sure to listen to this episode.

For upcoming events and catering requests, follow Papi Soley on Instagram.