PROVISIONS: THE ROOTS OF CARIBBEAN COOKING

The story of Caribbean food cannot be told without telling the story of Caribbean women. The women of our region—the mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts, the caregivers, the homemakers, the housekeepers, and the cooks—are the wheels on which our society turns.

For centuries, our womenfolk have created delicious meals from sometimes meager fare to feed all those who gathered at their table. The food they cooked came from their own toil: from provision grounds and kitchen gardens they planted during slavery; from lands they farmed and produce they sold at market when free; from jobs they worked at all levels of society that allowed them to buy food to feed hungry children.

From slavery through emancipation into the modern day, our feminine ancestors have sustained and nourished their own families and a multitude of others. They cooked everything from simple to more complex dishes over coal pots and open fires, in kitchens modest and grand, across the length and breadth of our islands’ homes. Their meals are laced with the aroma of fortitude, the memory of pain, the spicy taste of resilience, and a legacy of love that continues to nurture us to this day. But for too long these women have been forgotten, unacknowledged, and unseen. We have not told their stories.

Recipes in this story are excerpted from Provisions: The Roots of Caribbean Cooking— 150 Vegetarian Recipes by Michelle Rousseau and Suzanne Rousseau. Copyright ©2018. Available from Da Capo Lifelong Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.