New Cuisine of the Old African Americas

Pio Pico Popup

A San Francisco Bay Area-based, pop-up kitchen celebrating the flavors, stories, and resilience of the African Diaspora across the Americas.From the kitchens of New Orleans to the markets of Bahia and Georgia, from Caribbean islands to the coasts of Central and South America, Black food traditions have shaped what we eat and how we gather. Pio Pico is a culinary journey that honors this shared heritage through re-imagined dishes, familiar flavors, and bold new creations.Expect plates that carry history: smoky Jambalaya, golden Acarajé, hearty mofongo, plantain and cassava pasteles, Georgia Sea Island Peas, warm cornbread, and the everyday staples like beans, rice, sweet potatoes, sesame, okra —that connect us across continents.Join us for a table where the past meets the present, and every bite tells a story of survival, love, preservation, adaptation, and celebration.

ABOUT

DON PIO PICO

Each dish is a bridge between continents and generations, a reminder that food is both survival and celebration.

Our name honors Don Pío de Jesús Pico, the last governor of Mexican California. Born in 1801 to parents of African, Indigenous, and Spanish heritage, Pío Pico lived at the crossroads of cultures in the Americas. His life embodied resilience, reinvention, and survival during times of immense change.Much like Pico himself, the cuisine of the African Americas is defined by movement, adaptation, and creativity. The forced transporting of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic scattered foodways that would take root and flourish on new soils—from the Lowcountry of the U.S. South to the sugar cane plantations of the Caribbean, the coasts of Brazil, and beyond. What emerged is a powerful culinary legacy: food that sustained communities, created belonging, and carried memory.Our Cuisine
Pio Pico celebrates this legacy by weaving together the flavors of the African Diaspora across the Americas, like:// Jambalaya & Red Rice (United States) – smoky, spiced rice born from West African jollof traditions
// Mofongo (Dominican Republic) – green plantains mashed with garlic and pork, rooted in African pounded yam and cassava
// Pasteles (Puerto Rico) – savory parcels wrapped in banana leaves, blending African, Taíno, and Spanish influences
//Black-Eyed Peas (United States) - black-eyed peas slowly braised in seasoned pork broth until soft and delicious, similar to Ghanaian "Red Red"
// Acarajé (Brazil) – crispy fritters of black-eyed peas, fried in dendê oil and stuffed with okra stew, sacred to Afro-Brazilian tradition
// Cornbread (United States) – a staple elevated through Indigenous and Black southern foodways
//Chow Chow (United States) - Pickled and spiced cabbage or green tomatoes, similar to pickled slaws and cabbages like Haiti's Kreyòl pikliz.And, of course shared cross-Atlantic staples, like – beans, rice, sesame seeds, sweet potatoes, okra, plantains, cassava, coffee, cocoa beans, and more!

the mission

Pio Pico is more than a pop-up—it’s a culinary story of the African Americas. We honor the creativity of Black cooks across centuries and borders, while imagining what the future of this cuisine can be.At our table, the African Americas come alive—one plate, one story, one bite at a time.

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