We are inviting the finest Jamaican and Caribbean restaurants from across Chicago to share their authentic flavors at SelassieFest. Below is a curated list of community gems, from family-owned takeout spots to award-winning Afro-Caribbean kitchens.
Otto has been preparing Ital food since he was a boy, learning at the side of the elders in his community on Bobo Hill, a Rastafari settlement in the hills above Bull Bay. Bobo Hill is home to the Bobo Ashanti, one of the oldest and most disciplined orders within the Rastafari movement — a self-governing community known for communal living, strict adherence to Old Testament law, distinctive wrapped turbans and robes, and a way of life built around prayer, labor, and natural living.
It is within that discipline that Otto's approach to Ital cooking was formed. Every dish he prepares follows the same principles his community has practiced for generations: no salt, no preservatives, no shortcuts — only fresh vegetables, ground provisions, coconut, and the herbs and seasonings that grow around him. For Otto, cooking Ital is not a job — it's an extension of livity, a way of honoring the body and giving thanks with every pot.
At SelassieFest, Otto brings that same discipline and care to the Ital Marketplace, sharing dishes rooted in a tradition that stretches back to the earliest days of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica.
