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BB's Crabback Restaurant, West
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Island hopping - Article from Waitrose Magazine
The taste of Caribbean food is an amalgam of different cuisines
brought from Europe, Africa and Asia during the past 500 years.
Grenadian chef Brian Benjamin is wholly committed to this
inheritance, which he interprets at his London restaurant BB's
Crabback. Although he is cooking thousands of miles away from home,
his menu reflects the essence of the food that he grew up with.Text
by Cristine MacKie. Photographs by Lisa Linder. Recipes by Brian
Benjamin
Brian Benjamin describes his grandmother as the greatest influence
on his cooking. "Just being around her in the kitchen was a
huge education," he says. "I learnt about different
ingredients and how to use them, and watched her put her character
into the food she cooked."
As Brian talks about those early days when his grandmother prepared
meals for the family, the self-sufficiency of the local people
becomes evident. "Catch it, cook it and eat it" is how he
sums up the way things were done before the arrival of
refrigeration. Meat and fish were slaughtered or caught, seasoned
and cooked on the same day. Ground provisions such as yams and sweet
potatoes, vegetables - callaloo, okra and pumpkin - herbs, spices
and fruit were all pulled or picked just before use. Absolute
freshness was a prerequisite of the cooking and nothing went to
waste.
Homemade coconut oil was the magic ingredient and lent an
intoxicating fragrance to everything fried in it. It could be heated
to a ferocious temperature, when a handful of white sugar would be
thrown in and caramelised. Seasoned meat would follow, and once the
colour became a glorious golden brown, the dish could be varied in
numerous ways. The aromas were unforgettable, as small pieces of
salted pigtail or pork deepened the flavour, along with garlic,
thyme and pungent, fiery Scotch bonnet or seasoning peppers. Part of
the cooking ceremony was that everyone helped to pick the rice,
black-eyed peas or kidney beans free of stones before throwing them
into the pot.
All these things now appear on the menu at Brian's restaurant in
Ealing, west London, which he opened in 1994. The atmosphere here is
distinctly Caribbean and that is its great strength.
"I wanted to carry on the tradition of cooking that I grew up
with," says Brian, "to build on the foundations that had
been laid down by generations. That's how people cook in the
Caribbean. Recipes are passed down through families but also
everyone feels free to try new things."
Moving kitchens from this part of the world to London may seem an
improbable transition. In the Caribbean, the preparation of food can
be a lengthy affair, but in a city environment, time is of the
essence. Brian has selected dishes for his menu that give his
customers a flavour of the unhurried pace of the Caribbean in the
time allowed, but without compromising the taste. "I wanted to
recreate the way the food is prepared there, but to present it here
in a different way, to a restaurant standard," says Brian.
But many of his dishes have a twist, owing to the training that he
received when he first came to Britain 25 years ago. A professional
chef's course at London Transport's catering school, which provided
the food for the company's corporate functions, gave Brian a
thorough grounding in classical French cooking. These influences
show up in dishes including his eponymous BB's crabback - fresh
crabmeat baked with double cream, dry white wine and cheese - a
close Caribbean cousin of the traditional French coquilles St
Jacques. Similarly, chicken and parrot fish are cooked with cream,
stock and wine as well as coconut, jerk seasoning and chillies. But
salted cod is the same here as there, as are the range of dried pea
and bean dishes that Brian incorporates into his repertoire, such as
split pea soup or pigeon pea soup -based on his grandmother's
original recipe. And, as at home in Grenada, fresh pepper sauce is
made in the kitchen not taken from a bottle.
Fresh tropical fruits are treated to dousings of rum imported from
Grenada, and the other drinks offered on the menu induce a mood that
is unmistakably Caribbean. Brian showed me a large bottle of River
Antoine dark rum (known in Grenada as 'rivers rum'), which was being
infused with a doubtful collection of insects, worms and centipedes,
as well as the more familiar sticks of cinnamon, peanuts, bay leaf
and aniseed.
Brian's efforts to bring the colour of Grenada to Britain have paid
off. He freely admits that the number of covers in his restaurant
has risen from adequate to maximum most nights over the last few
years, and in April he won UK Afro-Caribbean Master Chef of the
Year. "Now people in this country can enjoy what my grandmother
gave me," says Brian. "It's hard work, but I want to make
the food that I love as colourful as possible and to give people an
authentic taste of the Caribbean." His customers' obvious
appreciation can be read in the affectionate compliments written all
over the wall and ceiling of the restaurant.
BB's Crabback
3 Chignell Place, London W13. Tel 0181 840 8322.
Source: Waitrose.com
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