Coconut milk is India Doris’ favorite ingredient in the kitchen — and she uses it for “everything.”
It is a universal staple for the cuisine coming out of Markette, a European-Caribbean restaurant on 7th Avenue near West 28th Street.
“It adds that creaminess and a little bit of tang,” says Doris, who also loves using curry leaves and scotch bonnet peppers—ingredients that surround her every day.
The Markette menu draws on both her Caribbean heritage and her expertise as an esteemed, experienced chef. Doris won the MICHELIN Guide Northeast Cities Young Chef Award in 2025.
“We’re dipping into new territory with Caribbean food,” she said, explaining the concept of Markette.
When customers walk through Markette’s large glass doors that let natural sunlight in, they are met with deep green, orange and gold decor. A long bar traces the right wall, while a spread of cozy tables and booths sit on the left. It feels like stepping into a retro lounge during the springtime. A staircase at the back leads downstairs to the speakeasy-like Argyle bar.
The decor sets the scene, but Doris’ cooking is the main event.
“I love her talent and how she layers flavor, spice and color in her food,” said Markette co-owner Alex Pfaffenbach.
The influence of family and food
Doris grew up in London with cross-cultural culinary influences from her Jamaican grandmother and Guyanese grandfather.
”But we always ate Jamaican food just because she’s the queen of the house,” said Doris, laughing. She reminisced about her favorite meals as a child. “On every Saturday, we would always have ackee, saltfish, and fried dumplings.”
Seeing her grandmother in the kitchen, Doris couldn’t wait to learn how to cook. Now, she runs a kitchen of her own, thousands of miles away in New York City.
She says that there are some similarities in “flavor profile” between Markette’s menu and the food she grew up eating in London—like the salt cod fritters with scotch bonnet aioli.
However, she set out to make this menu truly her own.
“ I don’t want to just like replicate the things that my gran showed me,” said Doris. She used Markette’s braised oxtail dish as an example. ”It’s cooked pretty much the same way my grandma would cook it, but we present it differently. We serve it in a little dish that’s broken down [and] picked with the gravy in it. And then we pipe this really creamy polenta that we blend until it’s super smooth, so it’s almost like a béchamel.”
The menu incorporates parts of her “Caribbean palette” like this, and also includes dishes like rock shrimp linguine, peri-peri chicken and grilled lamb.
A history of working in global kitchens
Doris’ grasp of global cuisine is a product of her experience. She has worked in major cities in countries across the world, like France and Spain, and in MICHELIN-starred NYC restaurants like SAGA and Crown Shy.
“ I’ve seen a lot of different food,” said Doris.
From working in these kitchens, she picked up different skills and techniques that now come naturally. For her, the key to succeeding in any role—inside and outside of the kitchen—is adaptability. She says there were often cultural and language differences among staff in the kitchens she worked in.
Functioning seamlessly in these environments is something she learned then, and she has carried it into her present role as head chef at Markette.
“Opening a business, you need those same skills,“ said Doris, explaining how she and her business partner built Markette from the ground up. “You need to be able to figure out all these different things that you haven’t done before.”
That prior experience, along with her skills in management and leadership, came in handy when opening Markette.
“Her team is devoted to her, she’s an incredible leader,” said Pfaffenbach. “Our communication is fantastic. We really understand each other well, and it works effectively.”
Non-traditional Caribbean cuisine
Markette is still relatively new to the NYC food landscape. The restaurant opened in the summer of 2025, with The Argyle opening shortly thereafter in the fall.
“I feel like we’re getting a lot of great feedback,” said Doris. “Guests love it. They leave having a really good time.”
The most validating feeling for Doris, though, is seeing fellow Caribbean people—a demographic that represents a significant portion of foreign-born immigrants living in NYC, according to the Office of the New York City Comptroller—enjoy the food.
“ I’m getting great response from the Caribbean community, which is really important for me,” she said.
Doris described how customers enjoy the new spin Markette offers on staple Caribbean dishes. It’s a style of culinary fusion that she has witnessed variations of in other establishments too. Fusion restaurants that offer a modern or multicultural take on traditional cuisine have continued to grow in popularity in NYC, and Markette has joined this movement.
”I’ve been to restaurants that are somewhat similar to what we do and it’s always fun because I know I’ll enjoy the flavor of the food,” said Doris. She added, “To be able to open a restaurant in somewhere like New York, it’s nice. It’s great. It makes me feel good.”
For more information, visit marketterestaurant.com.