YouSaid · the spoken record

Melissa Thompson

lines on the record: 34
first: 2022-10-31
most recent: 2022-10-31
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Unfamiliar with maybe with some of the produce because you learn so quickly and just getting to understand these things is useful in that.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think that's an interesting point because I think it is that you can't get ingredients where you are, or is it that you have some sort of nervousness about going into the shops where you can get it from? And I think in lockdown, this became really apparent when everyone was losing their minds about kind of things not being in supermarkets. And I was like, just go to like, I've got pench food. It's a Turkish supermarket down in Sydney. And they had everything. They always had everything. But it's just that people wouldn't think to go there. This kind of tried trying to encourage people to actually go into shops. I think I kind of understand in one way because I think I used to feel a bit like nervous back in the day going into sort of Chinese supermarket and asking for certain things or like, you know, wanting to come wanting to come across stupid or ignorant when they've got, you know, so many different soy sources or something. It's like, right, what's the difference? What should I be looking for? But actually, when people are working in food, I think invariably they like talking about it. So just, you know, so actually it's educating people that you can just ask. You can go into a shop that you're unfamiliar with.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It down a bit, and I was like, No, I'm happy to say that's the whole point, it's hot, but it's also got this amazing flavor and just have to tell people, like, you know, if you're, if you haven't got a massive heat tolerance and just kind of tread carefully and just have a little dab of it first and see how you get on with it. And so, yeah, so sometimes I do get a bit of pushback or, you know, having to maybe come up with sort of like Jamaican menus and Jamaican recipes from certain places or working with certain brands. And actually then you go to look at what they have on offer and nothing is very Jamaican at all. And so that's always a bit of a difficult one. What about you? Have you had to do that?”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is the good thing about coming into things a bit. I guess my recipe writing has been, it came a bit later in life. And after kind of a few frustrating careers in which I wish I'd said more. So now if there is pushback, I'm quite, you know, there's been certain things where I've used ingredients and they've been questioned. And I'm like, you know, either I'm doing this or I'm not. Again, going back to that idea of having to be resourceful and use what you have available, I don't mind so much talking about alternatives or offering alternatives, especially, I mean, not everyone's going to have the resources to be able to go and buy lots of ingredients. And so I want to make it as accessible to as many people as possible. And I don't want people to be buying stuff and then it's going to kind of use it half of it and then the rest of it's going to be sort of languishing in their cupboards. I've done stuff maybe with like that had Scottish bonnets in it and there was a bit of pushback. This actually was hot. It was like a hot sauce. And this is like a while back and, you know, can we kind of water?”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Really true, actually, because you look at stuff like quinoa, right and botaga and stuff like that, which people kind of, I guess it's just when they get platformed in magazines and things, I think, like look at the effect that Diaz Smith had on food. And she talked about an ingredient, and then suddenly he couldn't get it anymore. Or Otelengi, you know, him writing about certain ingredients and how that's just kind of transitioned in the mainstream until it becomes ordinary. These things that once seemed exotic become almost commonplace.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh man, like trying to get me to decide, and I feel like in my saltfish fritters, I don't put scotch bonnets in them because I serve them with peppermayo on the side. And because my daughter kind of handled any sort of spice. And so that's just how I do them. And I think they're really good. I think having one down. But I mean, for me, I'm program to go like curry chicken or curry goat. And I think, and explaining how the ingredients work. So with the Scottish bonnet, like just put it in a whole for half an hour and then take it out so you're getting a bit of that flavor or just tell people they can kind of deal with it how they want to if they want something really hot put the whole thing in it's such a kind of unique curry dishes that i think they're just delicious but then there's also kind of oxtail as well which i think is amazing okay so i have in fact no akean saltfish no saltfish fritters i'm doing it as a menu saltfish fritters then curry goat and then in fact i'll have a soup as well”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This should be like a supper club, right? So they came around, or they came round for dinner. What would be on the menu? I guess. Oh, no.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nice, and people there are the people who come up, they're quite geeky about food, and so they wanted to know, like last year I had kind of Scotchies from Jamaica, and I had proper pimento berries, and everyone wanted to know about it, they wanted to know what.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Slowly changing, and I think there are some really good events. I did meet April here for the last couple of years, and Molly, who organizes that, I think is keen to platform people from all over because she knows that these are stories that haven't been told that they are stories that deserve to be told and the food is going to be good and the food's going to be interesting. And I think that's why that event is so successful. Like I get the impression, realize that you're a bit more kind of sensible when it comes to saying yes to things, whereas sometimes I can kind of say yes to things and I then regret it. There's been a few other events I've done over the summer and I can see that I've just been parachuted in because they looked at the lineup and they were like, oh man, this really white, right? We need to get someone who's black. And in that space, I just felt like I haven't really belonged and it's not my space. It's not kind of, yeah, I don't feel comfortable. I'm not made to feel comfortable and I'm there purely on a quota basis. And so that's difficult. Mutopia, we did jerk. We did jerk chicken. And last year we did jerk pork. And it was just, and it's just.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One hand, I can see that that's happening, and I know it's happened, and I can read people who've written about it, who've grown up in London. But then for me, as someone who's come from Weymouth, where it was just overwhelmingly white, those places are still going to be really nice for me to be in because it's kind of, there is still a lot of sort of black culture and black foods, and it is difficult. So I've got this kind of inner turmoil of what I know is happening and what those places mean to me and how comfortable I feel in them. I mean, I feel comfortable in all of London, really, apart from West London. I feel comfortable everywhere. And that's why I love the city more than anything, because it's just there's like a degree of anonymity, whereas if I leave it and I go to, I don't know, we went on holiday to somewhere in the West Country. I come from the West Country, and especially being in a same-sex relationship with a daughter. And I kind of, you know, I just sometimes feel that I sort of stand out. So London's my sanctuary. I think the food scene here, I think, is very...”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I don't think people of Caribbean descent are adequately platformed. I think Britain as a whole, the whole language mindset around food isn't geared up for that at present because there is still this very Eurocentric idea of food and that French food reigns supreme. I mean, look at all the language, right? And one of my friends Mazell from Cewpoint, she said that everyone's having trouble recruiting chefs. And she said, but we're not because the language they recruit them with, they don't use shifter party and sous chef and all this sort of stuff. They just have it. I don't know how they describe it, but they just use sort of British language that is easy for people to understand. So the language itself isn't a barrier to entry. And I think that's really it. I think that's really interesting. For me, and like, you know, obviously I can see gentrification happening, especially in the kind of the areas where there's been kind of a history, sort of a strong Black British history Peckle and Brixton and being in Southeast London. They're the places that are closest to me. And it's really weird because.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For sure, and I don't think it does get celebrated as it should and recognized. And I think with Black History Month, I find myself, I think in some respects it's sort of good things happen, but I think this separation kind of perpetuates that in a way, you know, it perpetuates this idea that black people and black history and black experience exist outside of the mainstream, and that's quite difficult.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Totally. And I always think I get the impression that there's a belief that there has to be a white middleman to present it to the majority or to present it to the mainstream. And that frustrates me because it's ultimately, I think it's theft, it's cultural theft because they have taken that recipe from somewhere and they're not giving the people who are connected to that culture, their Jews.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's really damaging. And also, I find it extremely frustrating. I mean, it's something that you see on social media all the time, but there was another chef and he did a suya recipe. And I was just like, why not take that opportunity? And there's no kind of reference to where he got the recipe from. And I just think, well, why not use that as an opportunity to platform someone who knows this food and be taught by them and have a conversation? Because ultimately, if you're broadcasting this, that's going to be a much more interesting video of someone talking about the origins of SUA and what goes into it and talking about where it's cooked and who cooks it traditionally and kind of getting into the different tribes. And I just review these things as missed opportunities. There's almost an assumption that the audience isn't interested. And maybe they're not. And maybe I just don't understand people, but I find it always a bit sad.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but this is, I mean, because I don't talk about authenticity. I think authenticities. It's not a word that I talk about appropriation. I don't think I said the word authentic, did I? Because for me, food is constantly evolving. And I think often people think that, say, like in this moment, right now on this day, that this is like the end point in it. It's like, no, food is always evolving. Like in 50 years' time, this is going to look different. My grandparents would have had to, I'm sure, use alternative ingredients when they came to the UK because they couldn't get certain dishes like they probably couldn't get Calalua first and things like that. So you might do with what's available. If I'm just making jokes, then if I'm joking something, I will use bay leaves and I'll use pimente berries because that's what I can get a hold of easily rather than trying to get pimento woods to do it quote marked authentically. And I think sometimes people, especially from within the communities, can be quite really.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Influenced by me and my upbringing and my tastes. And so that's how it came about, really. It's just, I just think food is there to have fun with. And as long as people are respectful of the origins, I've always said this, especially with people talking about appropriation and things like this. It's like I think appropriation is a very real thing, but I think it can be easily avoided by people respecting the origins and talking about how a dish is supposed to be and the fact that they are tweaking it.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I write a lot of recipes anyway. As someone who's quite interested in food, I'm always kind of interested in ways that I can make food, I guess, closer to my palate or like things that I really like. So, you know, I've got the Guinness Punch pie, which is just like I love making custard tarts. I love things like that. Like, I really like a creamy pudding. And so that's how that came about. And it just works. And because I've done it so many times, it's like I can do it quite quickly. And people, especially people who know Guinness Punch, get quite excited by that. So that's quite nice. And then corn fritters are amazing, but then kind of because sweet corn is one of my most favorite things. So then just toasting that corn beforehand, especially doing it in a bit in a bit of butter and just the flavor that in part. So it's just, I don't know if you know Qwasi Breniamensa from Tatele. He once said to me, not to me, to a room for the people. We're at the event. And he was like, you know, whenever you're cooking food outside there, country of origin, you're only ever cooking a version of it. And I guess this version is Jamaican food and the classics, but then also dishes that are massive.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I guess like I had a plan and I guess a rough timeline, I suppose. And I think that was it, really. I think that my approach was very much determined by timeline. Jamaica's timeline. And so I had a kind of a rough outline. And then I think I kind of stuck to it. But then there were some things, obviously, because I didn't know what I was going to uncover. And I had kind of a lot of tidbits that I kind of knew or that I'd read in the past and that I'd heard. And so it was just a case of like weaving them in. and seeing what was true and what I could build upon. And so I was down at the British Library a lot, like reading a lot of their old text there. And then sort of in Jamaica, like looking at the Museum of Jamaica, anything, anything that I could, anything that I get. And I guess for me, it was more about what to exclude because there's so much there. And ultimately, this is a cookbook with a narrative bent, you know, talking about the history.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and I think, I don't know how you found it, but I almost found it quite difficult because writing a recipe and having it so prescriptive is almost counterintuitive to the way that I was taught to cook. Say like curry chicken. So my grandma taught me how to make that. Because I was quite young when she did it. I didn't question the fact that she wasn't using precise measurements. And then my dad, in my dad's cooking something new, he'll obviously follow the recipe. But whenever he's cooking, like he's got my dad is so good with flavors. Whenever he's cooking anything from his mental repertoire, he doesn't use precise recipes. He just knows, he just knows when things are enough. He knows it by taste. So in the book, I did try to have that a little bit where it was like, smell it, like smell your pimento berries. And if you can smell cinnamon in them and clove in them, then they're good. But if you can't, then add a bit of cinnamon and add a bit of clove to it because what you're getting in this country isn't always going to be the same as what you'd get in Jamaica.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think because how they were prepared, and I think that there must be so many different food combinations that haven't lasted because maybe they weren't as nice, right? So acke and saltfish, I guess over years and years and years kind of gets perfected and it lingers. I mean, you look at like Eskovich fish and things like that, which have been around for a long time. And that's why these dishes, I guess, have survived, because they are so tasty. And I think things that have maybe habits their origins and necessity and resourcefulness. That's why I'm just kind of always in awe of the people who first put these things together because it's just they were incredible.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so Aki came to Jamaica from what is modern day Ghana at the end of the 18th century. Oh, that's just kind of the recorded, I think there might have been movement of accuracies before then, but that's kind of the first recorded transportation. I think it was in 1778. And then it just flourished there. So it became like a sort of an integral part of the diet. And then saltfish, so saltfish was huge, you know, widely consumed in Europe and in the Americas. And stuff that ends up in Jamaica was a quite poor quality and it had its own name, West India Cure, and some of it can be quite putrid. The evolution of that day hasn't been recorded, but because Aki was so abundant, it would have been used a lot the same with planting, prepared in lots of different ways, and then put together with saltfish, which was part of the rations, the kind of the protein element of the Russians. And it's still around today. And it's incredible.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Caribbean food, they're very tropical in their design and they're very kind of they don't talk about any of the origins and I you know I really didn't want that I wanted a book that wasn't non-threatening I think sometimes especially with Jamaica the presentation for white audiences can be very tropical and I didn't want that I wanted to have a book that actually explored the stories and the origins and also spoke about the bad stuff as well as the good stuff”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm too, I wouldn't even almost bother trying to trace my family history on my dad's side because I think it would be too difficult. But actually there was a lot of things that have been recorded and including these tidbits about sort of the origins of Jamaican food and then the people. And just there are sort of so many different threads that all came together, you know, like Columbus and my dad always being annoyed about him whenever his name came up. Well, I couldn't really get it. I just thought dad was being a bit grumpy. And then he sort of realized that actually that his annoyance was very valid. And I think when the narrative that you've been brought up on outside of the home differs very vastly to what you've been fed inside the home, you kind of yearn to find the truth. And so that's kind of, I guess, how Motherland came about wanting to kind of celebrate Jamaican food. And they'll also talk about it, its origins, talk about the history. And just, you know, I guess celebrate it for what it was. And I didn't want to write a book. I think sometimes publishers, I feel kind of want to have books about the Caribbean.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That always brought me comfort, and I just don't know. It was just quite nice. And I think with Motherland, in lockdown, I was cooking loads of like, it was really interesting actually because I didn't really notice I was doing it until kind of it. I think it was a bit of a, a lot of people were doing it where you cook food from your cultural foods and your heritage foods because you're kind of, I mean, one I had more time to do it. I mean, it's like you're in community comfort, right? It wasn't just me doing that. A lot of people were doing it. And then I think it was just like a kind of curiosity. I've always been interested in the stories of Booz and trying to place food within the context of history and the people who made that food. And I guess it kind of bothered me that I knew that tata-tan, for instance, was created through an accident in a kitchen. And yet I didn't know how Achi and Saltfish came to be. And it was like, well, why is that? And then I started looking online and you kind of find these little nuggets. And actually, I guess there's always an assumption.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Children and all of these things kind of helping to realize that history wasn't unique. And I guess you can kind of get take maybe some comfort in that. For me, I think it's just like a sort of a natural curiosity as you get older. And as I got into food. So when I was younger, when I went to your uni and I went back to Weymouth and I worked on the local paper there and I got like this kind of core group of friends from that time, we're still really, really good friends now and having that independence. And, you know, like, so they'd come around. I had a partner and they'd come around to their flat and I cooked like Curry Goat and I can't remember think what the vegetarian option would have been like sort of curry chickpeas or something. And you know, my grandma's curry chicken, which was like legendary and just always like trying to perfect that. And then cooking other little things. And I think it's just that kind of desire to connect. You have lots of life events that I think makes you want to, that maybe kind of speed that up. And then I think cooking in Jamaican food was always just a bit of a thing. And then kind of like these things.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's interesting, isn't it? I suppose that the degree of separation that second generation have where you don't have the emotional baggage, I guess, of anything. Like, you know, my dad, I know from his stories, but when I was younger, it was interesting, the stories that he told of Jamaica were only ever kind of positive, not so much about the people, that he spoke about his grandmother, but he would speak about the food and especially kind of the fruit. And he knew I was obsessed with mangoes because, you know, I'd come up to London from Weymouth and then we'd buy, I don't know, like four mangoes, one each. And you like, you know, you would save that mango because they're expensive and you knew that you weren't going to get one for it for a long time. He'd tell me these stories about just kind of sitting in the tree and just feasting and gorging until like you fell asleep. And I guess you kind of like it just sounded quite an idyllic childhood and it was only until I got later. And actually the process of writing the book has opened up a lot of conversation. And I think especially from my dad, you know, there's like Nadine White who did that documentary about Windrush generation and children being like Bow.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ask you a quick question, Rouse, just on the basis of that because you grew up in London. So did you have a similar, because I guess I've always got this idealised vision of what it would be, what it would have been like had I grew up grown up in London or another area with a kind of stronger Jamaican diaspora. And I don't know if that, you know, since I've spoken to other friends and actually some friends, even if they've grown up in London, still kind of have a similarity of experience. In terms of this separation and what you were saying about having this kind of the dichotomy of people who showed the diaspora, but then other people who maybe have access and the means to be able to travel. I mean, I guess from what I know about you in your books and the reason that you wrote Belly Bull, that part of that was because this is the food that was kind of all around you, but you didn't really see it celebrated in the mainstream.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess it was always for me because I grew up in Waymouth, it was always quite compartmentalised, it was either in the home, in families, homes. But it was always we would go to have Jamaican food somewhere and we would have it cooked at home. It was never kind of, there wasn't any Jamaican community in Weymouth but whatsoever, I don't know any other Jamaicans who were in Weymouth. And so it was kind of very much something that we had at home or we had our relatives homes.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, well, let's go to Jamaica. And that was the first time we went, and it was quite a fraught trip. It was quite emotional. And I mean, obviously as well, the cost of going to Jamaica as well. We would go to Malta all the time because it was cheap. We had like free accommodation there. And so there was kind of quite a few obstacles going to Jamaica. And it was just I'd been to Antigua before then and I'd loved it. It was the first kind of first time that I'd been to, you know, like a black majority country and it just felt nice and it just felt good. And Jamaica was a bit more fraught because of all the emotions. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of it. That was my sort of my earliest relationship. My dad would cook a lot of Jamaican food all the time. And obviously when you go to gatherings and stuff, they'd become like Jamaican fry fish, you know, your patties and things like that. And it was just always.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And he just remembers having to walk miles and miles to go to the kind of different fields, having to go and dig up stuff and being sent to go and do this or catching Janga down at the stream down the bottom of the land. So he came over to England when he was nine and didn't have a great time here either and had siblings who were now straight who were strangers to him. He'd never met them. And then he joined the Navy at 17. And because of his experience in Jamaica, it was really weird, like because we went to Malta a lot where my mum comes from, but we never, there was never really much discussion about going to Jamaica. And I think, well, now we've had lots of discussions about it. And it's because he didn't have a fond memory of it because it was just kind of, you know, his memory of it was quite violent. And so then we ended up going, I think I was about 30 when we went. And it ends up being a bit of an accident because we were meant to be going to Japan for my brother's wedding, you know, our sister-in-law's Japanese. And then there was the tsunami, so the flights got cancelled, but we couldn't get a refund and we could only kind of transfer them somewhere else.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In my dad's Jamaican, my mum is Maltese, and my dad's family came over in the 50s and they settled in Darlington in the northeast. And my dad joined the Navy at 17, so I kind of moved around and was stationed abroad that was on ships and things and then ended up settling in Weymouth in Portland actually, Portland and Dorset, where there was a naval base. And he never, because of, which I think is quite a common story actually, and I'd be interested to know if you've got any kind of similarity. So his parents left him in Jamaica and then sent for him when he was nine years old. And at first he was with his grandmother, but he loved it, like she was really loving, and it was great. And then when she passed away, he was put into the care of his paternal grandfather. And he didn't have a very great time. His paternal grandfather was quite violent. And my dad, you know, he never went to school and only recently I heard him describe himself as a farmer because he'd help kind of, you know, like digging up stuff, like planting things.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Melissa Thompson is a columnist for BBC Good Food and her first book Motherland A Jamaican Cookbook is Out Now. Her conversation partner is Riaz Phillips, author of West Winds, Recipes, History and Tales from Jamaica. Let's join them both now to hear more.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Welcome to Intelligence Squared. I'm Connor Boyle, Jerk Chicken, Curry Goat, Aki and Saltfish. These are just some of the famous dishes which make up the patchwork of Jamaican cuisine with influences from across the world, from West Africa, Spain, China and East India. Each dish can tell a different story of the arrival of settlers, colonialists and enslaved people who lived on the Caribbean island throughout history. Today on the podcast, we're joined by two cooks and food riders, Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips, to explore the historical roots of Jamaican cuisine and its place in the world today.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hi everyone, Connor here. If you don't know already, we have launched Intelligent Squared Premium for bonus content, early access listens, and exclusive extras, just head to IQ2 Premium.supercast.com or see the link in the episode description. And if you're an Apple podcast person, hit subscribe for the bonus extras from your podcast's app too. Thanks again for all your support.”
2022-10-31 · Intelligence Squared · Jamaica's Culinary Journey, with Melissa Thompson and Riaz Phillips · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT