From Cheese Spread to Mango Sour: Chef Coyd Jordan Gives Guyanese Flavours a New York Makeover

At The Skylark in Manhattan, Guyanese-born Head Chef Coyd Jordan is transforming familiar flavours from home into sophisticated dishes for a New York audience.

High above the busy streets of Midtown Manhattan, Guyanese flavours are finding an unexpected home.

At The Skylark, a rooftop lounge overlooking the New York skyline, Chef Coyd Jordan is drawing on the food memories of his childhood to create dishes that are contemporary, polished and still recognisably Guyanese.

A recent visit to the restaurant offered a closer look at Jordan’s culinary approach. Among the dishes presented was a pimento spread inspired by the cheese spread found at Guyanese parties, family gatherings and celebrations. Mango sour also appeared in a reimagined form, bringing the familiar combination of sweetness, acidity and heat into an upscale lounge setting.

These are not traditional Guyanese dishes transferred directly to a restaurant menu. They are thoughtful interpretations of the flavours, ingredients and memories behind them.

That distinction matters.

Jordan is not attempting to replace the foods Guyanese people know and love. Instead, he is taking familiar elements of Guyanese cooking and presenting them in ways that complement The Skylark’s sophisticated atmosphere and international audience.

From Pouderoyen Road to Brooklyn

Jordan spent his early childhood in Pouderoyen Road on the West Bank of Demerara, where food was closely connected to family.

Some of his earliest days in the kitchen were spent cooking alongside his grandfather, mother and aunts. Through them, he became familiar with the flavours, techniques and rhythms of Guyanese home cooking.

Those experiences gave him more than an interest in food. They created a personal connection between cooking, family and identity that would remain with him after leaving Guyana.

Jordan later moved to Brooklyn, but the food memories of Pouderoyen Road travelled with him. As his interest in cooking developed into a career, he received professional culinary training and gained experience working in various French kitchens.

That training introduced him to the discipline, precision and techniques associated with French cuisine. It also gave him the foundation needed to reinterpret the Guyanese flavours he grew up eating.

Today, those two parts of his culinary identity meet at The Skylark.

His professional training shapes the structure, presentation and execution of each dish, while his Guyanese upbringing gives the food its character.

Ingredients such as geera, garam masala, mango sour and pepper are not included simply to make a dish appear Caribbean. They are connected to real memories of his family and the food he knew while growing up in Guyana.

The result is cuisine that can introduce international diners to Guyana without stripping away its identity.

A Signature Crab Tart

One of Jordan’s signature creations is his crab tart, a carefully constructed dish that demonstrates how he combines Guyanese flavour with classical culinary technique.

The dish begins with warm curried crab set in a quiche-like base. It is then finished with a fresh crab salad and mango tart, creating layers of richness, spice, sweetness and acidity.

It is a dish that reflects Jordan’s wider philosophy. The curry provides a familiar Guyanese foundation, while the structure and presentation reveal the influence of his professional training in French kitchens.

The contrast between the warm curried filling and the fresh crab salad also gives the dish a sense of balance. Each component serves a purpose, allowing the diner to experience several textures and flavours in a single bite.

Jordan’s pimento spread offers another example of how he reworks something familiar.

For many Guyanese, cheese spread is not considered fine dining. It is party food, often served in sandwiches or alongside pastries and other finger foods.

Jordan takes that memory and reimagines it for a Manhattan rooftop lounge. The inspiration remains Guyanese, but the final presentation speaks to a different environment and audience.

His use of mango sour follows a similar path. The sweet, sour and spicy qualities of the condiment are preserved, even when its form or placement within a dish changes.

This is where Jordan’s work becomes more than culinary experimentation.

He is demonstrating that Guyanese flavours can move comfortably between a family kitchen in Pouderoyen and an upscale restaurant in Manhattan. They do not have to be hidden, diluted or renamed to be taken seriously.

Giving Guyana Its Place at the Table

Caribbean cuisine has earned growing international recognition, but that recognition frequently centres on Jamaica, Trinidad and a handful of better-known island destinations.

Guyana is often left outside the conversation.

Jordan wants to help change that.

Rather than treating Guyana’s limited visibility as a disadvantage, he sees an opportunity to introduce diners to something they may not have experienced before. Every dish becomes a way of sharing part of the country’s culinary story.

That purpose is particularly meaningful at The Skylark, where guests from different countries gather for cocktails, food and views of Manhattan.

Some may arrive knowing very little about Guyana. They may leave having tasted curried crab, mango sour, geera or another Guyanese flavour for the first time.

Jordan’s work demonstrates that elevating a cuisine does not mean abandoning the food that shaped it. It means recognising the value that was always there, applying skill and intention, and giving it a new stage.

From the kitchens of his grandfather, mother and aunts on Pouderoyen Road to the French kitchens where he developed professionally, each stage of Jordan’s journey is now reflected in the food he creates.

At The Skylark, his crab tart, pimento spread and Guyanese-inspired dishes are doing more than feeding guests. They are helping place Guyana within a wider global culinary conversation, one carefully prepared plate at a time.

The reel was shared by Norman Gobin following a visit to The Skylark, located at 200 West 39th Street, New York.

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