Award-winning US-based Guyanese pastry chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph, who is known for generating excitement with his decadent desserts will be in Guyana next week where he and his team of distinguished chefs of the Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group are on a mission to be enticed and inspired by the flavours of local cuisine as they prepare to open Canje, their first Caribbean restaurant.
Canje will be one of six restaurants owned and managed by Tavel and his five partners of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, all of which are in Austin, Texas. The name of the restaurant is inspired by Guyana’s national bird, the Canje Pheasant. The other restaurants are Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Henbit, TLV and Kalimotxo. The first restaurant, Emmer & Rye, was opened by Tavel and Chef Kevin Fink in November 2015. Emmer & Rye has been included in Bon Appétit’s America’s Best New Restaurants 2016 list, as well as named Austin American – Statesman’s 2018 Best Restaurant in Austin.
Last year, Tavel was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs of 2020; ten chefs in the US were recognised for their outstanding skills. He is the first of two pastry chefs in the country to have secured a spot in the magazine and even more celebratory, he is the first Guyanese to do so.