Last month I covered Uncorked & Uncapped 2026 for The Pulse, a tasting benefit for The Arc of Essex County held Oct. 1 at The Hanover Manor in East Hanover. Somewhere between the tables I met Chef Eulan, tasted her food and knew I wanted to hear her story. We later sat down for an interview, which you can watch below.
Her full name is Eulande Joseph, but most people know her as Chef Eulan. She’s the founder and owner of The Eulan Experience Catering, based here in New Jersey, and her cooking is rooted in Haitian, Caribbean and Haitian American flavors. When she talks about her work, she doesn’t only talk about the meal. She cares most about how people react after the first bite.
At Uncorked & Uncapped
At the Arc benefit I tried her beef empanadas, seasoned with Haitian spices and epis, along with a vegetarian marinated fritter. They were full of flavor without being heavy, and I learned later that’s on purpose. She keeps Haitian seasoning in everything she makes because she wants guests to taste where she comes from.
I asked her what makes a table unmistakably Haitian. She listed fried pork, fritters, a beet-and-potato salad, rice and stews. The dish people ask for most is fritay, a spread of fried bites that can include plantain and deep-fried pork. Her marinated meats and the empanadas I tried that night are close behind.
School, family and why catering
Her path into the kitchen wasn’t a straight line. After high school she started out studying business administration before realizing it wasn’t for her. “I wanted to do something that I have a passion for,” she told me.
That passion went back a long way. She grew up watching her mom and family cook and spent hours with Food Network. She still names Emeril as an early influence for the way he turned simple ingredients into something special.
She went on to the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan, a program she describes as about a year to 18 months, and graduated in 2024. The timed kitchen tests are what she remembers most. She had one hour to cook two dishes for instructors before her externship, and on her final exam day she made a garlic cream chicken.
Restaurant life never pulled her the way catering did. Catering lets her feed more people at once. “That’s why I went into catering,” she said. Haitian and Haitian American food is her heart, but she also builds Jamaican and Southern menus.
How Chef Eulan builds a catering menu
Every booking starts with a consultation call. She uses it to learn about the event, the budget and the experience the host has in mind, then builds a menu around it. Once it’s paid for, she runs the service herself.
She does private chef work, weddings and events, corporate and brunch catering, buffet and plated service, family-style dinners, passed hors d’oeuvres, drop-off catering and fully customized menus.
You can book The Eulan Experience Catering LLC on her Bazaar.events vendor page.
