The “Cooking With Rum” cover features Nina Compton – the award-winning chef in New Orleans who is behind Compère Lapin and the Bywater American Bistro. We talk with Ms. Compton about why she decided to toss out the brandy and cook instead with rum and about how an increasing national interest in Caribbean food is changing the ways she is doing business.

Miami. It’s an alluring vice made up of one part sunshine, one part fantasyland and two parts damn good food. Having lived this picturesque life for 13 years, I know the city well. And I found myself missing my old friend as the gray days weighed above New York City like a bad hangover.

To understand how to eat like a Rasta, I had to understand the founding principles of Rastafarianism and how its founders, like Leonard Howell, knew that food was a means of control. (Keep in mind that Jamaica was under British rule at the time and had endured more than 400 years as a colony.)

I’m not a fan of cold weather. I prefer heat, sunshine and, yes, even humidity. Nevertheless, I love the coming of fall and winter — a time when I can embrace the warmth of a Caribbean kitchen and watch as an edible array of seasons unfold.

When a ham appears in the freezer, Thanksgiving is around the corner. Christmas time is upon us if rum cakes are resting on the counter. If there is a red brew bubbling on the stove, a holiday party is about to happen within a week’s time.

It is an odd thing to center the first issue of Island and Spice Magazine around the concept of rebirth. However, the theme reflects the maturation of a larger food movement taking place — one that recognizes the people of Caribbean heritage who are actively redefining Caribbean food on their own terms.