No Culinary School, No Meat: Two Mothers Built HAAM in Williamsburg
Chef Yesenia Ramdass learned to cook from her mother and her mother-in-law, then built HAAM, a vegan Dominican and Trinidadian restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on their recipes. It turns 3 this month.
Yuh Motha's Mofongo, stacked high in curried cream, in front of the HAAM mural. Photo: The Innovators Den.
Chef Yesenia Ramdass never went to culinary school. She learned to cook from two mothers, her own and her husband's, and turned what they taught her into HAAM, a plant-based Dominican and Trinidadian restaurant in Williamsburg that turns 3 this month.
HAAM Caribbean Plant Cuisine sits at 234 Union Avenue, at the corner of Meserole Street in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The name stands for Healthy As A Motha. Every dish is made from plants, and every dish is built on the food Chef Yesenia Ramdass grew up eating in a Dominican home in Washington Heights, plus what her Trinidadian mother-in-law taught her. On Thursday night, November 5, The Innovators Den went inside: the kitchen, the bar, the mural and a table that kept filling up, with Chef Yesenia telling the story of the room as we walked it.
She set the tone standing in front of a mural of two women. "This is my culinary school right here," she told us. "This is where I learned everything from, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
The Chef: Two Mothers, One Kitchen
Chef Yesenia was raised by a single Latina mother in Washington Heights. Our creative director, Orlando Colón, grew up a few blocks from where she did, so walking into HAAM felt a little like walking into a neighbor's house.
She does not have a culinary degree, and she says so with pride. Her teachers are the two women on that mural: her mother and her mother-in-law.
The road to Union Avenue started at home. After her mother passed away from cancer in 2018, Chef Yesenia started questioning everything her family was eating, she told Brooklyn Paper. She is raising her three kids vegan. Her husband, Randy Ramdass, pushed her to start selling her food, and for about three years she ran pop-ups, she told amNewYork. In 2021 HAAM launched as a delivery kitchen in Sunnyside, Queens. Customers kept showing up at the door looking for a place to sit, HAAM became a hit at Smorgasburg, and on November 15, 2023, HAAM opened its first full restaurant in Williamsburg.
The name came out of a promise the couple made to each other. "We said, 'We are going ham this year,'" Chef Yesenia told Brooklyn Paper.
Elsa Strong
Her mother is everywhere in this room, if you know where to look. "There's gonna be little butterflies hidden amongst the greenery," Chef Yesenia told us. "And whether the legs or the antennas, they spell out Elsa Strong." She calls her mother "the reason as to why I opened this space."
That one stopped us. Our founder, Danny Silverio, has a mother named Elsa, too. Standing in front of a wall painted for mothers, it hit home. Some features you cover. Some you feel.
"When you walk in, the first thing you're gonna see is the mothers," she said. "This is my mother sitting down knitting, which is what she loved to do. And then you have my mother-in-law with a basket of fruits." Her father-in-law grows many of the restaurant's peppers in the family's home garden, and her mother-in-law is the cook. HAAM's own hot sauce, Hot As A Motha, starts with those peppers.
The Couple: The Kitchen and the Floor
HAAM is a family business in the truest sense. Chef Yesenia runs the kitchen and the menu. Randy runs operations. They are not a chef and a manager who happen to share a building. They work like a team that has been doing this together for years, and you can feel it in how the night moved: the food came out with a story, the staff knew when to step in, and nothing felt rushed.
Chef Yesenia also builds with women. As one of the few female chefs of color in most rooms she walks into, she makes a point of hiring women in the kitchen and beyond, she told amNewYork. "It's important to show up with pride," she said, "and say, 'You guys aren't the only ones that can do this, we can do it too.'"
The Room: Two Islands, One House
"It's designed really to make you feel like you're transported into the Caribbean," Chef Yesenia said. An artist painted a mata de plátano behind the bench. The wall at the bar is more banana leaves, "with actual plátanos hanging from them," and greenery pours down from above the bar. "When you go to the islands, that's what it is," she said. "You only see greenery everywhere."
The mural, painted by Brazilian artist Livia Mourão, holds both families. On one side stands Pico Duarte, in the Dominican Republic, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean. On the other stands Mount Aripo, the tallest peak in Trinidad. "So you have these two islands, these two cultures, these two mothers," she told us, "but one house, one love."
The black circles on the wall are tawas, the flat iron griddles used to make roti. "The smaller one came with my husband's grandma from Trinidad," Chef Yesenia said, "when she came here for the first time."
The Dominican Vibes
Plant-based or not, this is a Dominican house, and it does not hide it. Dominican flags hang from the ceiling, as amNewYork noted. Chef Yesenia's custom HAAM chef coat carries the Dominican and Trinidadian flags on the collar. The drink menu has morir soñando, the Dominican orange juice and milk classic, made with plant-based milk. The conversation at our table drifted into Spanish and back the way it does at any Dominican family dinner from majarete to bollo. Somebody even promised to settle it with a call home: "Voy a llamar a papi hoy mismo."
The Kitchen: Where the Magic Happens
Chef Yesenia threw open the kitchen doors herself. "This is where the magic happens," she said. "We're about to make you guys a curry mofongo."
What followed was a show. A tray of flour, then the fryer basket. Mofongo pressed into a ring mold. A pan that went up in a wall of flame. Then the plating: a mofongo set in the middle of the plate, a ladle of curried cream poured all around it and a tower of crispy oyster mushrooms stacked on top.
The Table: What We Ate
Yuh Motha's Mofongo. Green and sweet plantains, tempeh bacon and oyster mushrooms under a curried cream sauce. "Both the mushroom and the plátano, one is not overpowering the other," one of us said. "So the curry kind of ties all that together. You need that crispiness with that softness." Then came the line of the night: "There's no way in hell that somebody is gonna put this in front of me and tell me that this is not chicken."
Crispy Cou Cou with Glazed Steak. A scotch bonnet honey glazed plant-based steak over a crisp Caribbean cou cou, with grilled pineapple, charred corn and mint. Chef Yesenia told us to take a bite with everything on the fork at once, and she was right. "Just like pineapple on pizza doesn't seem to be a good idea," one of us said, "but with this, it's perfect." The cou cou took the Dominicans at our table straight back to majarete, just without the sweetness, and to bollo, a Dominican breakfast staple. "There is nothing missing here from a flavor profile perspective."
The sweet plantain boat was getting dressed on the pass when we walked by, and the bar kept up with the kitchen: a foamed cocktail crowned with a dried citrus wheel, and a round of shots for the table.
By the end of the night, one of us summed it up the Dominican way: "Te pasaste." Another was already done fighting the plate: "Quítame el plato, Dani."
The Hospitality
What stays with you is how you were treated. The chef walked us through her kitchen and her family history like we were family. The team checked in without hovering, explained every plate and made sure we tried things the way they were meant to be eaten. It felt less like a restaurant visit and more like Sunday at a tía's house, if your tía ran one of the most creative kitchens in Brooklyn.
The Verdict
HAAM is proof that you do not have to give up your culture, or your flavor, to eat with intention. It is a Dominican and Trinidadian love letter to two mothers, run by a husband and wife who clearly built it together. On November 15, HAAM turns 3. Go hungry, order the mofongo, and look for the butterflies. "Everyone is welcome here," Chef Yesenia told us. "That's what we're all about: community, love, and love for our people."
If You Go
- What: HAAM Caribbean Plant Cuisine. Plant-based Dominican and Trinidadian cooking, full bar
- Where: 234 Union Avenue (at Meserole Street), Brooklyn, NY 11211
- Hours: Monday to Thursday 4 to 10 p.m., Friday noon to 11 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., per HAAM's website
- Order: Yuh Motha's Mofongo ($29) and the Crispy Cou Cou with Glazed Steak ($23). Add a morir soñando
- Reservations and online orders: haamnyc.com or (212) 271-0110
- Instagram: @healthyasamotha
Keep Reading
- PB Brasserie: From Dishwasher to Chef-Owner on 125th Street
- This Risotto Inspired a Gin. In Williamsburg, They Finally Share a Table.
- Hidden Harlem: Kitchens With Something to Prove
Your Turn
Who taught you to cook: your mother, your grandmother or your tía? Tell us in the comments, then tag who you're taking to HAAM.
The Innovators Den visited as guests of HAAM. Our opinions are our own.
For us. By us. Follow @theinnovatorsden.