Someone who read my review of Creole - the excellent cookbook by Babette de Rozières - asked whether I’d read any more interesting books about Caribbean cuisine.
As it happens, I’ve been checking out a range of books about Caribbean cuisine that I reviewed for the latest issue of Caribbean Beat magazine.
Some of them are pure cookbooks, while the others are books about Caribbean food culture. Here’s an excerpt from that column.
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After all the culinary gymnastics and trumpeting of molecular gastronomy and other mystifying cooking methods, simple cooking seems to be the theme for cookbook writers this year. This is a smart move, because then they can capitalise of a huge market of time-poor people who want to cook delicious meals.
One of the best books I’ve seen in a while is One Perfect Ingredient: Three Ways to Cook It by Marcus Wareing. I haven’t had the opportunity of eating at his Michelin-starred restaurant Petrus, but I have tried his recipes, seen him at work at food shows and on television. I enjoy looking at him cook because he’s one of the most technically proficient chefs on the box these days.
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This could be the shortest book review I’ve ever written: ‘It’s a fantastic book, buy it.’
It’s what I’ve been telling all my foodie friends about Creole, the new book by Guadeloupean-born chef Babette de Rozieres.
Creole is an absolute revelation and I can’t remember the last time I got so excited about a book at first sight. It’s got to be one of the best cookbooks published this year.
From the vibrant, colourful cover based on the French Madras print seen in traditional costumes of the French Caribbean, to the evocative photos of food and French Caribbean life and the utterly tempting recipes, Creole wins on all fronts.
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If I didn’t have to shelter in a bookshop during a torrential downpour in Port of Spain, I might not have picked up a little gem called A Taste of Nature Island Cooking: The Cuisine of Dominica by Hyacinth Elwin.
I’m always on the lookout for cookbooks that give some insight into how people eat in the rest of the Caribbean and I’ve always been intrigued by Dominica’s interesting history and so I was keen to read about how this history has informed their cuisine.
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I’ve spent the last few days reading a super-duper book on African cuisine. When I first saw The Soul Of A New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavours of Africa, I was struck by the life story of author, Ethiopian-born chef Marcus Samuelsson, brought up by a Swedish family who adopted him and his sister after their mother died in a tuberculosis epidemic.
His love for food was fostered by his grandmother where he spent lots of time learning about Swedish food. “I spent many weekends at her side, learning about food from start to finish: picking apples, making jams, hunting for mushrooms, pickling our garden harvest, and more. She passed her love of food to me and because of her teachings, every job I have ever had has had some connection to food.”
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“Don’t be afraid of cooking, as your ingredients will know and misbehave.”
Wise words from Fergus Henderson, chef and author of Nose to Tail Eating, one of the books that’s taken me to cookbook heaven in recent days!
You see, Messrs Henderson, Hix and Lawson, have caused me to ditch my new year’s resolution to get to bed early because I’ve been up until the small hours reading their fantastic books.
When I’m done, I’ll write a couple of reviews and give you a few recipes but in the meanwhile, I highly recommend that you get these books off the interweb or at a bookstore near you.
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I had the most delicious venison the other day, but it happened quite by accident.
We booked our team Christmas lunch at The Cow, a popular pub in west London, but when we got there, weren’t satisfied with the accomodation provided for our group of ten and the attitude of the gentleman who claimed to be in charge was quite stink so we moved across the road to The Westbourne.
At The Westbourne, we were welcomed and treated very well. The restaurant’s atmosphere was better than the other place and there was the added bonus of a being seated near to a huge black and white photo of Trinidadian cricket legend Brian Lara being saluted by his team mates after he broke his first batting record in Antigua in 1994.
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In the latest issue of The Observer Food Monthly, 20 rums are rated by the magazine’s drink panel. Only one rum got five stars, the Havana Club 15 anos. The panel said “It’s a perfect balance of sweet and dry. You just have to go back for more and more. Excellent.”
It better be perfect, cause at £125 it isn’t easily affordable, but I’d love to try it.
I have to shamefully admit that I am now learning about rum properly and it’s a steep learning curve. I am making a point of understanding rum because I think I should be able to match Caribbean food to rum, rather than wine. It’s ours after all!
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If only you could hear my groans of satisfaction as I savour a slice of the Black Cake I made using the recipe by Dan Lepard, I wouldn’t have to write this post.
But my groans won’t convey what a total pleasure this cake has been to make. Dan’s ‘English Black cake’ is actually easier to make than the traditional Trini Black cake mainly because there’s no seemingly endless creaming of butter and sugar. The only bit that takes some time is reducing the stout to a slightly syrupy consistency, but other than that, it is extremely easy.
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One of the most precious compliments you can give a cook – especially one from Trinidad – is that they have a 'sweet hand'.
When somebody has a 'sweet hand', it means everything they cook is yummy. Of course, this makes them all the more desirable for marriage because most people dream of having a partner who could dish up tasty meals almost on command.
Several weeks ago, I was trawling the Inter-web for some new cookbooks and stumbled across Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad and Tobago by Ramin Ganeshram. Instantly seduced by the name, I ordered it.

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