AfriKin Foundation Announces
Taste of AfriKin
NORTH MIAMI, FL, Miami Spice 2026: AfriKin Foundation, Inc. today announces Taste of AfriKin, Miami's #1 African & Caribbean food festival, returning to Maison AfriKin on Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 6, 2026, from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. The evening is presented as part of Miami Spice season in official partnership with the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) and the City of North Miami.
Taste of AfriKin brings Global African fine dining, live music, curated art, and community together under one roof, anchored by the evening's signature program: the renowned Jollof Cook-Off, where chefs from across the continent and its diaspora bring their proudest version of Africa's most celebrated dish to the table for judgment and bragging rights.
Food Is How Global Africa Remembers Itself
Long before it was cuisine, it was inheritance. Every grain of rice, every simmered pepper, every hour spent over a low flame carries a story that was never written down, only cooked, tasted, and passed on.
Across the African continent and its diaspora, the table has always been where identity survives. A dish carried through the Middle Passage becomes a Sunday tradition in Kingston. A recipe from Dakar reappears, transformed, in a kitchen in Bahia. A single pot of rice, cooked a hundred different ways across a hundred different coastlines, becomes the clearest proof that Global Africa was never scattered. It simply learned to season itself differently in every place it landed.
Taste of AfriKin exists because this history deserves a table as beautiful as the story it tells. This is fine dining as cultural preservation: chefs from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, standing shoulder to shoulder, plating dishes that carry centuries inside them, served with the same care and craft as any tasting menu in the city.
An Evening Built for the Senses
Picture smoked jollof rice, its char curling up off the pot the way it only does when it's been cooked low and unhurried for hours. Picture oxtail so tender it falls from the bone before the fork asks it to, plantain caramelized to the edge of sweetness, jerk spice riding the smoke off an open flame, and cocktails infused with hibiscus, ginger, and sorrel, poured the way they'd be poured at home, if home stretched from Accra to Port-au-Spain.
Guests move through a curated evening of chef stations representing the food and beverage traditions of 15 nations, framed by live performances from the Rozz Parker Band, Connis Vanterpool, Binghi Blaze, Jerilyn Davis, and Nadia Sol, followed by guest DJ and host Fonz spinning Afrobeat, Amapiano, soca, and gwo ka, and original visual art on display throughout Maison AfriKin's gallery walls. Every element of the evening, plated, poured, played, and painted, is in service of one idea: Global Africa is not a category of cuisine. It is a civilization, and it eats like one.
The evening builds to its centerpiece: the Jollof Cook-Off, staged as both culinary competition and cultural celebration, where the debate over whose jollof reigns supreme is settled the only way it can be, on the plate, in front of a room full of guests with strong opinions of their own.
The Renowned Jollof Cook-Off
Few dishes carry as much pride, and as much friendly rivalry, as jollof rice. Chefs representing West African and Caribbean culinary traditions each bring their own definitive version to Maison AfriKin, prepared live and judged by the crowd itself. The winner leaves with the title, the bragging rights, and a place in Taste of AfriKin history.
The Jollof Cook-Off is more than a competition. It is a joyful argument that Global Africa has been having for generations, staged in public, for the first time, in Downtown North Miami.
Art and the Beautiful Game
AfriKin Foundation's exhibition Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage remains on view at Maison AfriKin throughout Taste of AfriKin. The exhibition features Togolese-born artist Bamazi Talle's 48-piece Flying Calabash collection and other artists. Works from the exhibition will be available for purchase during the event.
15 Countries. One Table.
Taste of AfriKin's 2026 program features participating food and beverage traditions from the following countries, presented in alphabetical order:
Participating Food & Beverage CountriesFrom the Horn of Africa to the Dutch Caribbean, from West Africa to the Gulf Coast, Taste of AfriKin gathers Global Africa's culinary traditions under a single roof for a single night.
Reserve Your Seat at the Table
Taste of AfriKin is a ticketed event. Doors open at 5:30 PM, with the program running 6:00 to 9:00 PM. General admission tickets are $55, with a VIP experience at $125 and reserved tables of eight at $440. Presale tickets sold out; day of tickets will be much higher if not sold out prior. Free parking is available on-site, and the event is open to all ages. All ticket sales are final.
Guests celebrating a birthday on Labor Day weekend are invited to join the celebration and receive a complimentary bottle of champagne with the purchase of a VIP table. Additional programming includes a limbo competition alongside the evening's live performances.
Partner With Taste of AfriKin
AfriKin welcomes institutional sponsors, culinary partners, and brand collaborators to Taste of AfriKin. This is placement within Miami's #1 African & Caribbean food festival, presented for Miami Spice season in official partnership with GMCVB and the City of North Miami, before an audience that values culture, craft, and community in equal measure.
- Event name integration: "Presented by [Brand]"
- Exclusive Jollof Cook-Off naming rights
- Premier logo placement on all event materials
- 10 VIP tickets with reserved seating
- Custom on-site branded activation
- Social media: pre, live, and post-event, plus email campaign feature
- Branded activation or tasting station on-site
- Logo placement on event banners, programs & digital
- VIP access for 6 guests
- Feature in one dedicated email campaign
- Dedicated social media spotlight
- Logo on event banners and printed programs
- 4 tickets to the event
- Social media acknowledgment
- Verbal recognition at stage announcements
- Logo in printed event program
- 2 tickets to the event
- 1 social media shout-out
- Verbal recognition at the event
In-kind sponsorships in catering, production, photography, and printing are welcome at equivalent value. All contributions are tax-deductible. AfriKin Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3), EIN: 85-2592611.
To discuss sponsorship, custom packages, or in-kind partnership opportunities for Taste of AfriKin, contact:
Presented in Partnership With
Get in Touch
Founder & Chairman, AfriKin Foundation, Inc.
Maison AfriKin · 1600 NE 126th Street, Downtown North Miami, FL 33181
+1 (305) 760-5515
info@afrikin.org
afrikin.org
About AfriKin Foundation, Inc.
AfriKin Foundation, Inc. (EIN: 85-2592611) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural institution based in Downtown North Miami, Florida, operating from Maison AfriKin at the Scott Galvin Community Center. Founded by Alfonso D. Brooks, AfriKin produces the annual AfriKin Art Fair, African Fashion Week Miami, Taste of AfriKin, and a suite of international cultural programming.
AfriKin is recognized by the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) as a partner institution across multiple cultural tourism platforms, and carries civic proclamations from the City of Miami, the City of Miami Beach, and the City of North Miami.
Recognized by the Associated Press, Al Jazeera English, NBC, WPLG Local 10, and Deco Drive. For over a decade, AfriKin has produced programs and exhibitions that champion ethical practices, sustainable creativity, and the reclamation of narrative agency for Africa and its diaspora.