Haitian cooking and Haitian food in general is getting its property due, thanks to bloggers like Natacha Josselin who’s behind the Taicha’s Cuisine blog. Her simple-to-follow video uploads on the Youtube channel has earned her many followers. The mommy of three, who’s also the founder of a gospel ministry, emphasizes healthy cooking in all her recipes.

Kreyolicious: What was your relationship with Haitian food like growing up?
Growing up in Haiti in a house full of aunties, grandmas, and cousins. Someone was always dishing something. I was the youngest little girl in the house and the pickiest eater, I didn’t have a big appetite. I remember saying to myself I can’t wait till I get older so I can eat all the Fritay(fried food) that want! I was just thinking like a child but eventually, I grew up liking all the healthiest Haitian food such as Legumes and Bouillon.

Kreyolicious: Who do you credit with showing you your way around a kitchen?
I credit my Nininne (my godmother), Mimose Lyncee and my Auntie Mirelle Emile who took good care of me after my mother passed away at the age of seven months. these two ladies did an awesome job teaching me my way around the kitchen and also how to take care of a household like a strong Haitian woman. I am grateful to have them in my life.

Kreyolicious: How did the idea for creating Taicha’s Cuisine come about?
Cooking comes so naturally to me. I never really see the good that could come out of it until my husband Kenny gave me the creative idea to become a food blogger because he believes that I can make a significant difference in other people’s lives by sharing my delicious healthy recipes. I am glad I took his advice. I am new to Youtube, and so far my channel is doing well. I thank all my viewers, subscribers who continue to encourage me to make more videos because they find my recipes really helpful. My fan[base] support is part of the fuel that keeps me going.

Kreyolicious: What’s it like doing ingredient shopping and budgeting for your channel?
I cook on a daily basis so budgeting my channel is not really that difficult for me, but finding the time to record and editing my videos while my twins toddlers are running around the house and my four-month-old daughter who also needs my attention is very challenging. but so far I am trying the best I can to upload at least a video once a week.

Kreyolicious: What do you wish you had known starting out?
I wish I knew that I needed to be consistent with uploading videos. When I first started, I would spend a whole month without uploading a video. Now I know that I need to keep my viewers engaged in order to run a Youtube channel. The best pieces of advice I would give to someone starting their own channel are: love what you do, be consistent and make sure you’re having fun.

Kreyolicious: When did you realize you were getting somewhere?
I spent a whole month I didn’t even check my channel, one day I decided to check on it I noticed one of my videos had one-thousand views! That was really encouraging. From that point on, I decided to keep going. In addition, one day I received an email from you Kreyolicious requesting an interview for my channel. I was beyond excited then I realized that my channel is really getting somewhere. I hope in less than three years, my brand will make a difference in the Haitian Community.

Kreyolicious: What’s it like being part of the Haitian American food bloggers community?
I really embrace the opportunity of being part of the Haitian-American food bloggers community that is making a tremendous difference in bringing more exposure to our culture for the world to see despite everything Haiti is going through it still remains La Perle des Antilles.

This interview is part of a series by your fave chick Kreyolicious to help promote Haitian/Haitian-American food bloggers/Haitian food vloggers! CLICK HERE to read about other Haitian American food bloggers!

Check out this video from Taicha’s Cuisine below!

CLICK HERE to go on the Taicha’s Cuisine channel to view more Haitian food photos and Haitian cooking tutorials!

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you probably think that this headline sounds familiar. Didn’t we see this Haitian-American blogger celebrates headline before, you might ask yourself?

Well, yeah, back in May, I wrote about my 5th anniversary…but five years and seven months after the fact. So, in the spirit of appreciating moments and celebrating victories and living in the moment, I am doing my blogaversary post on time (ahem, albeit a few days a month late, but that’s better than being seven months late). See, I’m improving. I’m trying to change.

In the past, I was always concentrated on the next victory, on the next goal, to pause and take the time to revel in achievements. Nothing was ever enough. I always wanted to push myself towards the next goal. The next goal. The next goal after the next.

Yes, it’s part of my attempt in living in the now…appreciating the present…focusing on the future, but not to the point where I lose track of the present and its blessings.

So, it’s been six years since I officially became Kreyolicious. I say “officially” because even before the launch of the actual site, I had taken all the steps from everything to buying the domain name to doing off-line branding and mental planning.

I have to tell you that I’ve enjoyed the journey. I’ve learned so much about myself.

And speaking of me…I have had to reach beyond myself. I always wanted to be the person behind the keyboard, who never emerged from behind the screen.

Six years! Time passes swiftly. To understand time, I try to think about it in “achievement” terms. Like, I think of six years as being undergrad and grad school combined.

Guess I should talk about the blog a bit, at this point? What did I do this year? Well, since last year, I did this #YeahItsHaitiWhereYouThoughtThisWas hashtag. It has a lot of attitude in it, I suppose. I’m pretty polite, so there were times when I felt it was too, er, blunt. But oh, well. That’s part of the going “beyond myself” stuff. Oh, there was the #ThisLifeofHunger which is inspired by Jay-Z, Tupac and Beyonce song remake Bonnie and Clyde…in which I celebrate Haitian cooking and chefs. I try to encourage dialogue and self-expression in the Haitian-American community. Jay-Z also provided the inspiration for the #HaitiGot99ProblemsBut hashtag.

Haiti History 101 will continue. Thanks for your inquiries and messages concerning it! Chapo Ba has been one of those things I tried out of the blue, not realizing how much the segments would be embraced by you beloved readers. I added some new entries to the 5 Success Principles series. I remember being so thrilled when the Black Weblog Awards awarded me with the Best Blog Post Series Award.

One of the things that I do here on this creative space is to showcase other Haitian-American content producers. I did this Haitian/Haitian-American food blogger/vlogger series. CHECK IT OUT HERE if you haven’t already done so. More recently, I launched this new series on the site to showcase Haitian-American Youtubers. In case you missed those segments, CLICK HERE! Ooh, I try to explore stuff coming out of Haiti. To that end, is the Straight Outta Haiti series. CLICK HERE to read installments from that series.

And ahem, since I don’t write 3,000 word posts any more, we’ll stop here, and continue talking about the life and times of a Haitian-American blogger in PART II. Okay? Meanwhile…

Check out my Instagram: Kreyolicious on Instagram | My Twitter | Facebook too: Kreyolicious on Facebook

Guess what we’re going to be talking about today, oh, beloved reader. The site! I’m celebrating the sixth year of my website.

If you missed PART I of this, CLICK HERE!

Besides the blog, I’m working on several other projects. People see me tweet and update my pages at the wee hours of the morning, and ask me why am I still up. Even my followers. Well, sometimes, I just get so excited about things, I shun sleep. I don’t believe in resting sometimes. But maintaining a balance, I’ve learned, is absolutely essential. Like, as I’m writing this, I’m drinking this acai/berry juice blend. Have to replenish the soul as well as the intellectual.

Sometimes when you’re building something, you hope for the best. When the best happens plus other things you did not necessarily anticipate, it’s truly a blessing. Like people looking to your thoughts and opinions, and putting you on a pedestal. Brands reaching out to you. People you’ve admired from afar and whose careers you’ve studied from afar, approaching you to ask your advice on how to approach the Haitian-American populace, and just wanting to reach out to you to tell you how much they love what you’re doing and convey their admiration over the growth of your site and brand. Plus! Truly amazing.

For a long time, I was just writing, putting my best work forward, and putting my best foot forward, totally oblivious to the fact that I was inspiring so many people. That people who I never imagined were watching me, studying me, and acclaiming me.

Towards the beginning, I was scouting people to write about. As the site picked up on traffic, and increased in popularity, and my articles started to get circulated all over the web, people started to reach out to me. Then I started getting approached by publicists and the like. And of course artists, especially rappers and singers, who wanted me to review their music, or request performance write-ups. Then we’d get to start talking and then I’d bring up Haiti and then….

Artist: Wait. I gotta be Haitian to be on your site?
Me: Well…Yeah…I’m Kreyolicious and the website are all about those who are of Haitian descent. I have written about non-Haitians, but only when they are somehow significantly connected to Haiti.
[long silence]
Artist: Well, my best friend in elementary school was Haitian.
[or variations of this]
Well sorry, no. It—
My ex is Haitian.
My boyfriend is Haitian.
My roommate is a zoe.
I gave to the Haiti relief work.
Me: Well, your donation was appreciated. Would you like to be featured maybe on another site I write for?
[Tension evaporates. Artist begins to smile. If it’s a chat, I get smiley faces. If it’s a phone conversation, unexpected laughter comes on the line.]

Let’s talk a little about the future. Some of the biggest achievements behind being Kreyolicious are things you, oh beloved reader, don’t see on the website, but will see manifest as time goes along.

I wish to extend a big “Thank You” to my readers, lurkers, commentators and all those who make me a better person. I strive to become a better person. I’m always thinking of ways to grow in how I approach my craft. How can I improve my thinking? What projects can I undertake that will allow me to test my creative boundaries, my perceptions? Stuff like that!

So goes the life of a Haitian-American blogger Kreyolicious. The saga continues. The journey resumes.

If you missed PART I of my blogaversary post, CLICK HERE.

Check out my Instagram: Kreyolicious on Instagram | My Twitter | Facebook too: Kreyolicious on Facebook

Most of his followers know him by his Instagram account user name: 1NegLakay, but he answers to the name Wesley when he’s around his family and friends. On his popular social media account, he shares funny memes about Haitian culture, funny quotes, and his 40,000+ followers absolutely love his Instagram hustle—so much so that a photo or a meme that he posts can easily get more than 200 likes within minutes. This is influencer gold in the digital space, thank you very much. Noting his popularity, Wesley has created several other spin-off accounts, and created an online retail store called Sizo.

Kreyolicious: What made you start your Instagram account?
1NegLakay: This is account was created as a way to keep in touch with the Haitian Community through jokes and humor. It was created around the time Zoe Poze , Mr_509 and Chelo_Chelo were blowing up. But everybody was just doing videos and no one was really doing Haitian memes. So I got together with my cousins and I said, “Lets create a page, we will do Haitian memes. We will post them and hopefully they will go viral.” I think when we started, the page only had 500 followers but in no time, the memes made it popular and before we know it, we were at 10k then 20k then 30k and now we are at 40k. We wanted to reach the Haitian community in a different way and we are thankful that we have come this far.

Kreyolicious: When did you realize you were getting extremely popular?
1NegLakay: I realized [this] when I would go on my timeline, just to browse. I realized [that] a lot of people were reposting the memes and videos we were posting. And whenever people would find something on another page, they would tag us in it so we can repost it. And also, when people were making their funny videos they would share them with us, so we can repost them cause they knew they would get more views, likes and comments. This one instance, I went to this Haitian restaurant and I saw these two girls looking at their phones and they were laughing and tearing up, and when I was about to get my food, I glanced at their phones to see what they were laughing at. It was our page and I was like “Wow”, mama we made it.” [Laughter] And seeing that really humbled us cause we realize we were helping people laugh because we didn’t expect to have such a major impact.

Kreyolicious: What are your memories growing up Haitian?
Wow, that is actually my favorite question. I remember going to school, wearing my uniform and then after school is over, I couldn’t wait to go home to play soccer with my friends. Then, I would have to do my homework because that’s the first thing my parents would check when they get home. I really miss the school experience. But I would have to say some of my best experiences and memories come from my parents [Laughter] because they were very strict to the point I thought they were crazy. [Laughter] I remember when I used to get in trouble my mom would put me “ajenou” [kneel] and I would think that’s it right but after I’m done I would have to get a baton and I would be like “Wait, why am I being punished twice for the same thing?” [Laughter] But now that I’m older, I realize she was just doing it out of love, they didn’t want me to be a vakabon [good for nothing], so I’m grateful for that. I also loved summer time in Haiti. I grew up on King Posse, Original Rap Staff. I love those guys. I also loved to “teke mab” [play with marbles] and fly my kite with my friends. It was just an amazing time. I would not trade it for the world. I truly have some great memories from my childhood in Haiti.

This concludes PART I of the interview with Wesley, better known as 1NegLakay. Be on the lookout for PART II.

CLICK HERE to visit his Instagram page | CLICK HERE to get to the SIZO STORE|

For the past five years, it’s been the same thing for this Haitian-American blogger. I would sit there and tell myself that I would write a blogaversary post, come October. Then the blogaversary would come and go, and I wouldn’t write my planned essay. Then it seemed futile to write about it months and months later.

Sometimes, I was too busy trying to run this site to write such a post. But most of all…even though I had plenty to celebrate and rejoice in, in terms of the brand’s and the website’s milestones, I wanted more. My rationale was always, “Okay, I’ve accomplished this and that, but I need to do this and that.” But today, dear Kreyolicious readers, I am interrupting the flow of interviews, commentary and review articles on the site today to take the time to 1) thank all of you readers 2) appreciate the moment.

While I’m thanking my readers, I’d like to thank my web designer Zillz, who designed the site.

So, back to the subject at hand…

I think that a lot of times I didn’t want to come across as a braggart, so there were a lot of great things that were happening to me behind the scenes, some really great things, some really fabulous things, that I kept for myself…because I’m not the type to rest on laurels of the present…I want to continue building to create more laurels for the future.

I read this quote recently, and I will paraphrase it…and it basically said that we either live in the future or we live in the past too much. I think in this case, it’s the former for me. I was always focusing on what needed to be accomplished that I, at times, overlooked and under-appreciated what had been accomplished.

I remember when I was brainstorming becoming Kreyolicious and having Kreyolicious.com. Those were the days! I look back at some of the older articles I wrote. Lawd, is all I can say. Some of these articles were more like essays. And I went in this blogging game, knowing very well that shorter and concise was the best way to go. But, I’m also a huge believer in giving value and adding value. But to be frank, I became obsessed with giving value. Not sure if I would do anything differently if I were starting out now. I still believe in value, but now, instead of writing 1000-word articles, I break them down nicely for my readers into multiple parts.

Being a Haitian-American blogger has been loads of fun. I started out with 25 readers that I most likely got on Twitter, and it was on from there! I’ve won blogging awards, and have been blessed with so many great opportunities, and have come in contact with so many fabulous human beings. I’ve had people tell me that when they’re looking for Haitian music to buy, they come to the site. I’ve had celebs of Haitian descent contact me to help them connect or re-connect with the Haitian-American community. This site has grown larger than all my dreams for it, and my dreams for it were big.

Becoming Kreyolicious helped me become a better me. I still have to let go of my control freak tendencies. Learn how to delegate, and all…

I have a lot more planned for myself, for this site and for this brand. I want to tell you everything, and I know I’ve told you guys some things…but I think it’s best that I do the work, and let you see it, instead of blabbing my gums about “what I will do”. Thanks very much for your emails, your lovely messages, your thoughtful DMs and your upbuilding words. It’s been a joy growing with you, and I know that we’ll continue to grow together.

What are your thoughts on my website? And about me? Are you a Haitian-American blogger? Plug yourself, chile. Ain’t no shame. Talk to me!

Just a little note from your favorite chick Kreyolicious.

CLICK HERE to read some culture articles.

CLICK HERE to read some music articles.

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