“Un-Gumbo”

Brandi T. Biggles, known as Chef Brandi to the Southern Californian culinary community, fell in love with cooking as a child by spending time in the kitchen beside her mother and grandmother. After unexpectedly losing her mother at a young age, Biggles found comfort and connection to her late mother through recipes.

Not only are recipes at the crux of Biggles’ upbringing and unique approach to running her business, but they’ve also been key to guiding her through hard times. Biggles chose to share her “un-gumbo” and rice recipe, a fruit and plant-based gumbo dish served over basmati rice, that brought her great comfort when she was unhoused. 

“Rice goes with everything and if you get rice right and it’s at the base of whatever you do, it just brings a vibrance to the dish,” Biggles said as she reflected on the grain’s importance in her cooking. “In my family rice is definitely a part. It’s not a side dish, it is a part of the dish all the time.”

Over the past two decades Biggles has made strides in expanding her business. She opened her first storefront bakery and helped develop a traveling farmers market with Black vendors and farmers. Biggles also launched her own culinary brand Chits and Biggles, directed a meal program and was the head chef at a transitional housing program. While she extended her expertise to the community, she developed her signature artisan woodfired vegan pizzas. 

Amongst triumphs, Biggles also faced many challenges including being unhoused for over six months. For periods of time, she left the culinary world all together; but she maintained that in addition to positivity, prayer and support from family and friends, food was also a means to help her reclaim daily peace, hope and comfort through hardship.

Biggles’ “un-gumbo” recipe was the first and foremost dish that helped her persist through the difficulties she faced while houseless.  

“I created it from wanting that comfort food space and warmth that was so familiar to me from my grandma and her household, always having stability and love and family,” she said. 

In her family, members each take to their own iteration of her grandmother’s gumbo recipe, but still consider rice a key component. Biggles’ version of the recipe centers on plant-based alternatives.  She developed this recipe in an effort to create  comfort food without animal protein, as she tries to keep her diet largely plant-based. The recipe begins with what Biggles calls “the holy trinity” — onions, carrots and celery. Then, she adds okra, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, bok choy, more onion and kale. 
Black Voice News spent time with Biggles in her outdoor kitchen which she uses for large gatherings, catering preparation and storage. We documented the importance of rice in her “un-gumbo” dish, a recipe that she keeps close, like a memento from her childhood memories spent with her mother and grandmother. Check out the recipe and photos below.

This project was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.