Krewe owner shares meal, history with students

The Johnnie Development Institute (JDI) partnered with SJU Residential Life and Krewe to bring a homecooked meal to CSB+SJU students last Sunday. The two organizations hosted a community dinner for students in the McKeown Center. Mateo Mackbee, owner and chef of Krewe, prepared the meal in honor of Black History Month.

When the dinner bell rang at 6 p.m. and a menu of traditional New Orleans jambalaya and rice was served, Mackbee shared his inspiration for the meal—the recipe for the jambalaya is over 100 years old and has been passed down through generations. Mackbee primarily spoke about his grandfather’s experience growing up in the bayou of New Orleans.

“The food you’re eating now is my grandfather’s recipe. As a young child, I got to go and listen to the stories of his travel, a lot of it to and from Africa,” Mackbee said. “I got to experience some of the stories and artifacts that he would bring along. The recipe is one of those things that he gave to me as a gift.”

Krewe has been a fixture in the St. Joseph community since opening in 2020 on College Ave. Mackbee’s efforts to promote racial diversity and teach people about food have since been featured in the New York Times.

“What we do inside Krewe is just celebrate New Orleans. Not only the culture of New Orleans, but the history, the vibe, the music, the sounds and the colors,” Mackbee said. “This is what I love to do, to be out and share Louisiana culture with people who have never had this before.”

The JDI chose to collaborate with Residential Life with the goal of creating meaningful conversations. The organization is adding to its already full agenda of events during February to celebrate Black History Month. It sponsored “The History of Race and Racism at CSB+SJU” earlier this month.

“We thought partnering with Mateo from Krewe would allow us to highlight a local business that has become a really successful piece of culture in St. Joe,” said SJU senior Sam Rengo, student director of the JDI. “The Sunday dinner format has been successful in bringing people together to have a meal. We wanted to take advantage of the fact that there will be a whole bunch of people that are already going.”

Sunday dinners have been a fixture of lower campus life at SJU for some time. Every Sunday, approximately 70 to 90 Johnnies and guests converge in the McKeown Center to socialize and enjoy a meal together.

“You don’t really get the opportunity for Johnnies to come together like this. This is a great way to do that,” SJU senior Jervon Sands said. “You get to see people you haven’t had a conversation with in a while. It’s a great way to celebrate community on campus.”

On most Sundays, with the help of Faculty Resident Brother Paul Richards, resident assistants plan and prepare the meals for upperclassmen living in apartments.

“For me, it’s one of those opportunities to come here and wrap up the week on Sunday night,” SJU senior Logan Woods said. “A lot of us upperclassmen on lower campus share that sentiment of, ‘It’s Sunday, I don’t want to make a meal’. We get to come here and a meal is made.”

Rengo hopes that it will not be the last educational Sunday dinner.

“In the future, it would be cool to host some type of cooking class or program. It would help serve the guys that are going to live in apartments on limited meal plans,” Rengo said. “I can eat frozen pizza every night of the week, or I could make something better with whole ingredients and have leftovers.”

The collaboration with Mackbee serves as a test run. Rengo hopes to incorporate more local businesses, cultural clubs and create a spotlight on students to share their heritage through food.

“It will stick with the mission of the Sunday dinners, which is to provide a cheap, nutritious and tasty meal for people to gather and eat in a community setting,” Rengo said. “It made sense for Black History Month, it made sense with the Sunday dinners and it made sense with Mateo.”