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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Charlotte’s Central Avenue Corridor

ORAL HISTORY

David Ragoonath

Soul Central

David Ragoonath was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. He came to the United States for winning a bowling tournament. He found his passion for cooking after managing a restaurant in New York. In Charlotte, he apprenticed at a bbq joint, Hog Heaven, and a soul food favorite, Lola’s restaurant before opening Soul Central. Soul Central honors the legacy of African American and Southern food traditions, but it also includes flavors from Mr. Ragoonath’s homeland. At his five-table restaurant in Plaza Midwood, his customers enjoy fried chicken, fried catfish, and his famous meatloaf along with other staples like greens, black-eye-peas, and macaroni and cheese.

Interviewer:
Joseph Ewoodzie

Photographer:
Peter Taylor

Download Transcript

“

"I learned to cook coming from [Trinidad]. Growing up in the islands, we'd go to the beach. Here they say a cookout, there we say a lime. We going for a lime. When you hear a lime that means we're going to cook, eat, drink. That's where my cooking experience comes from." - David Ragoonath

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