Natacha Candio infuses her Haitian heritage into Charlotte’s food scene

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By Loán Lake 

May 29, 2020

Natacha Candio is on a mission to expand your taste buds with her Haitian cuisine. 

Born in Haiti, Candio moved to Miami, Florida, with her family at age 9. Later, she studied culinary arts at the renowned culinary institute, Le Cordon Bleu, in Paris. Candio developed a love for cooking from her grandmother at a young age and turned her passion into a decadelong career as a restaurant manager and caterer. Tired of the rising cost of living in Miami, she set her sights on Charlotte and never looked back.

Turning lemons into lemonade

She relocated to Charlotte in 2016 to work as a restaurant manager at a local restaurant only to be fired a year later, she says, for expressing her sentiments about racist conditions she was experiencing. That incident became the catalyst for launching her food truck business, aptly named Caribbean Buzz. 

Candio initially planned to open a bakery until she realized Charlotte’s market was still wide open for a broader range of Caribbean cuisine.  

“When I first moved here, it was a culture shock because I couldn’t find decent Haitian food,” she recalled.

Starting a business was an enormous undertaking for the 34-year-old wife and mother of three. Still reeling from how she had been dismissed by her employer, Candio decided to take a chance on herself

Today, she is making her mark on the Queen City’s ever-growing food scene by expanding its access to authentic Caribbean food. Though she specializes in Haitian, Bahamian and Jamaican dishes — with special recipes for favorites like conch fritters, curried goat and jerk chicken — Candio’s goal is to share the flavors of the West Indies with food lovers.  

“[At first,] I didn’t think there were too many Haitians in Charlotte, so I combined the cuisine of three islands to ease people into sampling Haitian cuisine,” she explained. 

Her menu goes beyond typical island fare that many U.S. residents have come to identify as representative of Caribbean culture. Some of the delicacies from her homeland sometimes draw strange looks from newbies to the cuisine. That is until you taste it. 

She makes her own spice blends, curry paste and jerk sauce, as well as a Haitian favorite — diri djon djon, or black mushroom rice. Coming from Miami, which boasts a strong Haitian presence, Candio still wrestles with the culture shock of not having easy access to staple items for her menu.Continue reading