Shaun's love and knowledge of Caribbean food comes from his Mum, who continues to provide ongoing inspiration and influence over the Caribbean dishes we produce...

Shaun was born in 1971 in Sheffield into a large family of 9 but being the youngest was always getting up to no good!  

"I always looked forward to Sundays because my Dad would always watch Weekend World ( a programme on politics) and argue with my older brothers about the rights and wrong in the world today.

Then he would watch county cricket or if the West Indies cricket team was touring England he would watch this all day, I had no choice but to love cricket and music he always set the record player up and play reggae music until dinner was ready.    

My Mum (pictured above with Shaun) would be up early cooking breakfast and preparing a Caribbean Sunday lunch for the family in the kitchen but all of my sisters would play a role in making both meals.

Breakfast sometimes would be fried dumplings and bake beans which was amazing, but dinner would seem to take all day to cook but the smells coming from the kitchen would just make you even more hungry than you actually was.

I would help my sisters set up the table for dinner and we would all sit down to have rice and peas with curry chicken or sometimes mutton curry but this was the best meal of the week and I would always ask my mum why does it take so long to cook Sunday dinner and she would reply "Good food take time son".  

I remember my first time going shopping with my Mum for Caribbean ingredients at the market I was always crying as soon as we got off the bus because I didn’t like walking and to make things worse she also went to the Sheaf Market to buy materials to make curtains and sew dresses for my sisters.

She brought Plantain, Sweet Potato, Oxtail and Cassava to make soup and she would always make dumplings to go into the soup this was every Saturday but once again the soup would always be amazing and my oldest brother would have his soup in a Pyrex but he would also have what was left in the big pot what mum had made it in.  ​

In 1982 I left England and went to the Caribbean to live with some of my brothers and sisters and Mum and Dad, now this is where a learnt lots about Caribbean food and livestock.

​I met my Uncle and Aunties for the first time, my Uncle had a farm with chickens, pigs and cows and a wonderful herb garden.

​I always remember when he said to me one morning "Do you want to kill a chicken and make some chicken curry with rice and peas?"  

We went down the farm and he told me to choose a chicken so a pointed at the biggest one so off he went caught the chicken and killed it ,it was the first time I had seen a chicken killed, he placed it in hot water and took all the feathers off and took the insides out.  
He then got some herbs from the kitchen garden blended them and marinated the chicken for a couple of hours.  

He let me wash the rice and pick some peas from the garden and we started cooking this was the best meal I have ever had in my life.  

I asked him what else he could show me to cook he said "Your mum knows all these recipes".  

Mum then showed me how to make Roti, Fish Curry, Pepper Pot and Mutton Curry and Fruit Punch to wash it down.  

Every week I would make a new dish with my Mum or Uncle, this was great food fresh from the farm and done in the authentic way.   

"I returned to England in 1987 where my passion for cooking and food was at a high point,  which led me down the path to open my own Bistro and Caribbean Street Food outlet. "

We hope you enjoy our Caribbean dishes as much as we love to make them for you.....