Mama Shar’s Caribbean Cooking
Introducing our amazing Foods of the Caribbean columnist Sharmen Frith – Hemmings, who every month whisks us away and transports us to a different beautiful Caribbean Island and helps us experience the culture, the uniqueness of each island and introduces us to the beautiful cuisine.
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e get to learn all about the Caribbean and their traditional but tasty recipes. So far, we have visited Montserrat, Dominica, the Island of Anguilla and Antigua. After leaving the beautiful Island of Montserrat in 1997 because of the devastation caused by a volcanic
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eruption, Sharmen, then a young lady, joined her mother, who was already living in Burnley, Lancashire. After re-educating herself at university, she achieved a degree in law and worked as an Administration Supervisor at the Courts. She then went on to study a Masters in Social Work and practised as a Social Worker for over 10 years. Unfortunately, Sharmen’s Mum became ill during this time and she could only work part-time as she had to look after her mum. Being adventurous as she is, she then trained to be a personal trainer, teaching weightlifting but after receiving an injury she took some time out. But Shar’s passion has always been cooking...so she started making healthy Caribbean food for her friends
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and that gave her the idea of starting her own catering business. In December 2017 she started food prep in Preston and 2 years later hired a kitchen in Burnley where she recycled the kitchen with her family, which took almost 8 months but unfortunately a few months later, Lockdown happened and created a massive setback for business. During the lockdown, she took the time to study again and putting herself through 3 diplomas in Food Production, Team Leading, Human Resources and Infection control. Social Media went from strength to strength during the pandemic, so Sharmen took advantage of Instagram to promote her business. She purchased her van and has had it decorated in vibrant colours to
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