Full of Caribbean
CRAIG and Shaun McAnuff – brothers, YouTubers, recipe writers – are on different phone lines when we chat and keep tripping up with static, dipping in and out of earshot. Each time, the other shouts: “Bro, you’ve gone again!”
The South London cooks, aka Original Flava – the name of their hit YouTube channel and debut cookbook – were close growing up, even sharing a bunk bed (although not the same football team, which was “quite intense”), and are just as close now, if not more so.
Dishing up Caribbean food to their legions of online fans has “made us very competitive, in a good way,” says Shaun, 32. “We want to make things right and better, and the (recipe) standard has to be really high – it’s brought us closer together.”
The brothers, who have Jamaican heritage, were inspired to cook by their mother and grandmother, and put the increasing popularity of Caribbean food down to “British acceptance of our culture” combined with staple Caribbean ingredients – from plantain to cassava – being widely available, and the likes of Levi Roots and Ainsley Harriott having “paved the way”. “We saw that lots of people loved Caribbean food didn’t know how to cook it,” explains Craig, 29. “So we just wanted to make a page for our friends.” But their first one-minute video racked up a million views “and everything blew up overnight”.
Now they have a mighty 15k YouTube
subscribers and more than 58k Instagram followers.
For Craig though, things could have panned out differently. “Growing up in Thornton Heath, South London, you’re faced with that challenge,” he says, speaking of gang culture. He remembers being on a bus with a group of friends when a guy got on: “He was looking to question us. I got a bit cheeky and then he got a bit rowdy, and showed me his gun.
“It just spiralled out and I
winter 2018, and in the summer, spells of rain helped to prolong the grapes’ ripening period. And so 2019 is a good vintage for chenin blanc from that region.
You might be thinking how come a 2019 wine is now on our shelves? Well, it’s from Stellenbosch in South Africa, the southern hemisphere, so the growing season is opposite to ours. Most European wines from the 2019 vintage won’t start appearing on our shelves until early next year.
It so happens that a red wine
I’ve tasted also hails from Stellenbosch. So I’ll introduce it next to its white wine countryman.
Rustenberg John X Merriman 2016
(£17.99.or £13.99 in a buy six deal at Majestic) is a blend of started to laugh at him; I thought it was a fake gun,” he recalls. “You’re fearless as a young man.”
However, it was a turnaround” moment and has led to both brothers visiting schools, where some of the kids are facing that choice themselves, to talk about their experiences and run cookery workshops.
“We understand the struggles young people face,” says Craig. “We try to teach young people: Have that no-fear attitude, but in a positive place.”
A lot of their own positivity and drive can be attributed to the support of their wonderful sounding grandmother.
“Our nan (Lurline) is our inspiration; she’s an amazing lady,” says Shaun reverently, adding with a laugh: “She’s actually more popular than us now! She literally gets stopped on the street.”
A “big part of our journey”, she spent the summer holidays training the brothers to make staple Jamaican dishes like ackee and salt fish and then helped make their YouTube careers possible “because she opened up her home” – it’s where they still film their videos.
And, like any good nan, she’s always pitching in says Shaun It’s like having an eagle eye, isn’t it? If you go she does offer a helping e wrong,
traditional Bordeaux grapes malbec, petit verdot, cabernet franc, merlot and cabernet sauvignon (which is the bulk of the blend at 52%).
It has aromas of blackcurrant, cassis and spice, and to taste, soft tannins, a fleck of spice and those same fruit notes.
I discovered that the grapes were handpicked in January and March of 2016. Every year the weather has a different impact and Stellenbosch saw a very warm, dry spring and summer and record high temperatures in December and January. The grape growers will have responded accordingly; and just like every year, adjusted what they need to do to pick the grapes at the best time to reflect the hand and tells us off a little bit, but it’s all good.”
Their food encompasses ‘nan-approved’ traditional Caribbean dishes like rice and peas, but also ones with a twist, like jerk-spiced lentil bolognese, green banana potato salad, and their jerk burger.
Talking of jerk, the brothers are sanguine about it being many people’s only experience of Caribbean cuisine.
“It is so nice,” says Craig. “I’m not surprised everyone wants to know just about that, but there’s so much more to Caribbean food.”
He speaks of Caribbean produce, from mangoes to sugar cane that in Jamaica grow on the street ; and how while in Caribbean households dinner will feature a huge amount of dishes but, surprisingly, “most of the time jerk chicken isn’t on the table”.
For the book, Craig and Shaun visited Jamaica, spending time with family and eating their way round the island.
“It was my first time, but it felt like I’d been there for years,” says Craig. “It’s like I almost knew the place already.”
They were both dazzled by how invested and fascinated Jamaicans are by food and ingredients.
“Cooking over there is a lifestyle,” explains Craig. “You’ll see people in the streets selling food and they’ll be with their friends, it’ll be a community. That’s what we’re trying to introduce. It’s about making things together.”
And so their message is: “Don’t be afraid of Caribbean food man, try it out at home, it’s easy.”
Craig and Shaun McAnuff talk to
about their inspirational nan and how they are using cooking to help young people facing tough life choices
expression of wine they want. That’s one of the reasons I love wine. It’s not just about what’s in the glass but the constant ebb and flow of human decisions based on what nature is doing.
Yup, call me a geek.
I hope you’re ready to relax this weekend with picnics or barbecues as the summer slowly retreats.
(£2, 18.7cl) is now available in Sainsbury. It’s a pretty little pink wine and convenient if small sips are what you’re after when sitting in the park or garden. You can also buy them at Ocado and Amazon.
Minivino Rosé