Shivi Ramoutar, the queen of contemporary Caribbean cooking, brings sunshine flavours to Arvia’s Caribbean holidays.
Shivi Ramoutar’s journey to culinary queen is as evocative as the delicious plates of food she creates. Plates brimming with passion and flavour recall her childhood growing up in the Caribbean and her life as a chef and cookbook author. Shivi’s childhood in Trinidad was marked by mealtimes with family and friends, with food always at the centre of any gathering. And later, after her family moved from Trinidad to the Leicestershire countryside, food became the bond between her family and their local Caribbean community. Although Shivi was surrounded by food from an early age, it wasn’t until she started working in London that she discovered her calling, and a passion for Caribbean cooking. ‘I worked as a lawyer for several years, but I was never satisfied,’ Shivi recalls. ‘I always knew I wanted to do something creative but being a lawyer wasn’t creative enough for me. I wasn’t happy and I found myself going back to food.’ Shivi set up a supper club with a friend and her life took a new direction. ‘It was lovely to step into my parents’ shoes and cook Caribbean food for other people,’ she smiles. ‘I felt like I was passing on the comfort. I’d spent so much of my childhood in Leicester feeling embarrassed by being sent to school with Caribbean food when all I wanted was a ham sandwich like
everyone else! But then, the idea of everything revolving around the kitchen became just wonderful to me.’ Shivi has since then published two cookbooks, with a new one in the pipeline, and is the resident chef on ITV’s Martin & Roman’s Weekend Best on Saturday mornings. ‘My heritage is very important to me,’ she says. ‘And the way I do Caribbean food now is authentic to me. Authenticity goes hand in hand with your own experience, and Caribbean food is “authentically inauthentic” because those beloved dishes from each island have taken form from so many different origins around the globe. This journey is evident in my style of cooking.’ Today, these influences are alive and well in Shivi’s attitude to cooking, recipe-writing and raising her young family. Shivi wants her cooking to be a celebration of great flavours, colour and life which she intends to show on Arvia in The Beach House. ‘All our happy memories seem to revolve around food,’ she says. ‘I want my menu to hug the nations that have come to the Caribbean islands over the years. It will be colourful because you eat first with your eyes. And for me, colour is Carnival and Trinidadian culture. I hope guests will look at my dishes, smile and want to dive right in.’
SHIVI’S CURRY CHICKEN ‘This curry chicken recipe evokes memories of lovely Sundays in Trinidad, of being with the family and enjoying great, warm, plentiful food. I always want to make this when I need a little reassurance; it gives me that feeling of comfort. The recipe can be adapted, depending on what you have around your house, so it’s always a little loose. Tweak it to find your own style.’
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