Inside Isla, The D.C. Restaurant Where A Black Woman Chef Is Making Fine Dining Feel Like Home

Essence Magazine:

Updated March 29, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

For a long time, the conversation around Caribbean cuisine in fine dining moved slowly, if it moved at all. 

Executive chef and restaurateur Lonie Murdock is part of why that is finally changing. She grew up between her Jamaican mother’s kitchen and her Canadian father’s table, learning early that food was the one place her two cultures actually met. Decades later, that education is

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