An oxtail-only cooking competition is coming to New York

Charles and Shireen Kuykendoll hosted a small oxtail cookout in Los Angeles in 2024, expecting a family-friendly competition. Charles had refined his recipe during the pandemic using techniques and tips from friends and Caribbean chefs. Social media posting led to rapid interest, with chefs requesting to compete and more than 200 attendees showing up. The couple runs an event company that has produced large gatherings, and the turnout confirmed strong public demand. In 2025, they launched The Oxtail Off, a competition across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. The inaugural event drew over 2,000 people and featured creative dishes like oxtail pizza, oxtail pot pie, and an oxtail Philly cheesesteak, celebrating oxtail as a unifying, love-filled home dish.

"During the pandemic, Charles had finally perfected his recipe, picking up techniques and tips from friends and Caribbean chefs along the way. Confident in his skills, he posted about an oxtail cook-off on social media, expecting only people from his Instagram “close friends” list to show up. Instead, word spread quickly. Soon, chefs began reaching out asking to compete. On the day of the event, 12 cooks arrived with Nigerian, Jamaican and Dominican interpretations of the dish. More unexpectedly, so did over 200 people."

"“My wife and I were a bit taken aback,” says Charles. “We invited about 120 people, and even that was probably too many for our house, but word of mouth spread. We looked up, and suddenly people were everywhere.” Perhaps the turnout wasn't entirely surprising. The couple runs Charles Beloved Productions, an event company behind large-scale gatherings like RNB House, which later evolved into the Blavity House Party Music Festival. Still, the overwhelming response made one thing clear."

"In 2025, the pair officially launched The Oxtail Off, a food competition bringing together chefs across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora to answer an age-old question: who makes the best oxtail? More than 2,000 people attended the inaugural Los Angeles event, dancing, celebrating and sampling some of the city's most creative takes on the dish-from oxtail pizza and oxtail pot pie to Charles' personal favorite, an oxtail Philly cheesesteak."

"“[Oxtail] is a dish that unites cultures, is authentically 'us,' and food is a mechanism and display of love and home,” Charles says. The Oxtail Off centers an entire festival around oxtail, using the dish as a shared cultural anchor while showcasing multiple regional interpretations from across the Afro-Caribbean diaspora."

Read at Time Out New York