KALISA MARTIN IS A TRAINED CHEF who, together with Jeff Belizaire, founded The Runaway Jamaica in 2015. It was the first crowd-funded B&B. There the couple, both with Caribbean roots, shared Jamaica with guests through traditional foods, local coffee, and even Jamaica-made ceramics. “We didn’t want it to be a cookie-cutter vacation,” says Martin. In 2017, they closed the B&B and renamed the company The Runaway Experience. Today, they partner with boutique hotels to offer food-and-culture rich trips to destinations like Cuba and Morocco. “Now it’s a pop-up travel experience,” she says. Before Martin launched her business, she lived and work in New York City. After spending two years living in Jamaica, the couple moved to Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. “We wanted a city that’s between the speedy energy of New York and the laid-back pace of the island,” says Martin. From this home base, she’s launching the latest brand extension of her business: Kalisa Marie Eats, a website and You Tube channel where she shares recipes inspired by her travels. “This way, a broader audience than we can take on our trips can have access to this conversation about food and culture,” she says. While most of the recipes you’ll see there are globally inspired, Martin loves American dishes as much as anybody. Her current favorite cookbook is Cherry Bombe: The Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, 2017), a collection of recipes from women in the food world. She loves the Shroomy Cheeseburger. “We’ve all made burgers, but I never thought about grating mushrooms into them before,” says Martin.
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