Riaz Phillips Brings the Caribbean’s “Hidden” Food to the Fore in His New Cookbook ‘East Winds’

Vogue: First things first: why did you want to write East Winds?

Riaz Phillips: In the past, Caribbean cookbooks in the UK have largely been focused on Jamaican dishes, which makes sense, given that the majority of the Windrush generation came from Jamaica, but many people migrated from other Caribbean countries too, like Guyana, Trinidad, Grenada, and so on. Each place is so different. Certain foods that are everywhere in Jamaica are impossible to find in Trinidad—Port of Spain doesn’t have jerk chicken on every corner the way that Kingston does, for example—but if you go to a “Caribbean” restaurant in London, you’re going to see jerk chicken, saltfish, ackee, and roti all on the same menu, even though they’re native to different islands. I wanted the book to show the full breadth of culture and recipes in the Caribbean.

Photo: Riaz Phillips

Tell me a bit about your research process.

It started with a lot of reading. If you look at the bibliography at the back of East Winds, it’s massive. Mainly, though, I spent a lot of time out in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname. Social media made it easier to connect with people and reach out to them to hear their stories and get recommendations. When I wrote my first cookbook, Belly Full: Caribbean Food in the UK, I got to know so many chefs and people like Brian [Danclair, owner of Fish Wings and Tings] who told me about different places.

Still, there’s definitely no substitute for being in the Caribbean. If I wanted to see somebody making roti, I didn’t research where to go and watch that. I waited until I got there, then started talking to people and asking questions. The Caribbean is great; everyone knows someone who knows someone who can help you out. I was told stories about what food their parents would make when they were younger, where they got their ingredients from… Often, I didn’t even have to ask questions.

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