What’s Cooking?

Chefkoch Patrick Williams bringt den süß-scharfen Geschmack westindischer Gerichte nach Großbritannien. Von LORRAINE MALLINDER

Patrick Wiliams’s brown stew fish

Patrick Williams is one of life’s characters. On screen or at London’s Borough Market, where he used to cook up a storm, the man has a big personality.

Williams has had a bold career, working in haute cuisine, before returning to the comforting Caribbean soul food of his childhood. All along, he has kept his focus on the food — fresh and real.

It all began in home economics lessons at his east London school. Soon, he was working in some of the city’s most exclusive restaurants, training under Marco Pierre White, before setting up The Terrace in central London.

It was a steep learning curve. Working in kitchens is a bit like being in prison, he says, laughing. “You’re working in basements, not getting fed, constantly getting shouted at, running around like an idiot, with burn marks up your arms that make it look like you’re self-harming…”

Running The Terrace in one of London’s most exclusive areas was high stress. So, Williams went back to basics and set up a stall at Borough Market, the city’s mecca for global cuisine.

Drawing on his Jamaican background, Williams served jerk chicken, ripe mangoes and fresh coconut milk. He remembers his family getting together for special occasions, bringing patties, mac and cheese or curry— “as well as a container to take stuff away!”

Caribbean cuisine is mostly unknown in the UK and Williams wants to change that. “There’s such a variety of food no one ever talks about,” he says.

Take crab and dumplings from Trinidad. Or jerk chicken cooked the traditional Jamaican way, in a pit with pimento bark and coals, with a sheet of corrugated iron thrown over the top.

There’s a sense of community spirit in everything Williams does. He plans to set up a mentoring scheme for disadvantaged teens in London. Mental health issues among kids were a problem even before Covid. Now, he wants to give youngsters training in a specialized cookery school.

“We want to get the kids ready for action,” says Williams.

Williams’s book The Caribbean Cook presents a modern interpretation of food from the West Indies.