Heritage Challenge Spotlight

Join us in the Draper cafe during lunchtime for our Heritage Challenge Spotlight, where each week one of our staff members will prepare a dish representing their heritage.  This week our own Dereq De Costa will create Peri Peri. Here is what he says about this traditional dish:

Peri-peri is a cultivar of Capsicum frutescens that was originally produced by Portuguese explorers in Mozambique from the malagueta pepper and then spread to other Portuguese territories. Pilipili in Swahili means “pepper”.
Other romanizations include pili pili in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and peri peri in Malawi, deriving from various pronunciations of the word in different parts of Bantu-speaking Africa. Peri peri is also the spelling used as a loan word in some African Portuguese-language countries, especially in the Mozambican community. The peri-peri spelling is common in English, for example in reference to African-style chili sauce, but in Portuguese it’s nearly always spelled piri-piri.
Like all chili peppers, piri piri is descended from plants from the Americas, but it is now cultivated commercially in Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Rwanda.

ABOUT DEREQ:
Dereq Kyle De Costa is our most unique chef because he has a wealth of heritage from both sides of his family and his own life. His mother was from Portugal and his father was from Pakistan, but Dereq himself was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in South Africa. In 2004 Dereq decided to move to the United States where he aspired to go to culinary school at Utah Valley University’s Culinary Arts Institute.
Dereq continued his culinary adventure where he has gained knowledge and experience from working at Panache Restaurant, BRIO, Willowcreek Country Club, Hilton, BYU, Heirloom, and every year he works at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City. Finally he found Bon Appetit where he has worked for the past 8 years.
When it comes to food, Dereq loves bringing people together through his food and he loves being the catalyst that starts those conversations and gatherings.
From his diverse family and deep-rooted culture, he has learned to always be positive, upbeat, work hard, never quit, and never give up. However, he misses the atmosphere of Portugal. He misses alfresco dining, fresh seafood, eucalyptus trees, futball, festivals, but most of all he misses his extended family.