Jul 13, 2021

You’d be forgiven for assuming the name “Ital” kitchen is short for “italicized,” especially since the plant-based food it serves is emphatically bold and fresh. But “Ital” comes from the word vital without the “v” and is a Rastafarian term for being natural—and boosting energy as a result. Everything chef Michael Gordon does leans into that natural perspective. He has owned Ital Kitchen in Crown Heights since 2013, serving vegan dishes of all organic ingredients.

Gordon was born in Jamaica, where he adopted both veganism and Rastafarianism, before moving to Queens. In 2010, he completed his culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu, where he studied French cuisine and mastered his concepts for vegan cuisine. Today you can find hints of his French training in his island-inspired Caribbean cuisine in dishes like a Thai curry stew of oyster mushrooms, bok choy, chickpeas, red beans and tomato, or a “Noxtail” made from portobello mushrooms, chickpeas and sun-dried tomatoes in a coq au vin sauce.

“Something I see with Rastas is we start things, and we don’t take it to the next level,” he told Black-Owned Brooklyn in February 2020. “That’s kind of my mission with this. I’m not saying I’m fancy—but I do have a little swag.”