In this episode Hema chats with Rawlston Williams, author of The Caribbean Cookbook, graduate of the French Culinary Institute, and he was the chef-owner of the award-winning Brooklyn restaurant The Food Sermon. He shares stories from his childhood growing up in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where his connection to food began. From cooking in the kitchen of his aunt Gloria to helping the neighbour handmake chocolate from cacao growing in her yard, and learning how to churn butter before moving to the United States to join his family.

Rawlston shares a behind-the-sceens look at developing the cookbook and discusses how Caribbean food is rooted in scarcity, culture, and resourcefulness. This episode is a great companion piece to his debut cookbook from Phaidon, The Caribbean Cookbook.

Connect with Rawlston Williams

Rawlston Williams is a Caribbean chef with a deep passion and knowledge for his region’s food culture. Born in Kingstown in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, he has lived in New York since 1987. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, for many years he was the chef-owner of the award-winning Brooklyn restaurant The Food Sermon, which focused on dishes inspired by Caribbean cuisine.

Instagram I Am Rawlston and The Food Sermon

The Caribbean Cookbook is an exploration of Caribbean cuisine and culinary history, featuring more than 380 authentic home cooking recipes from across the region.

Rawlston Williams, with photographs by Nico Schinco

Book Tour events

Resources

Yan Can Cook

The History of Doubles: Trinidad's Iconic Street Food

Doubles is the quintessential Trinidadian street food, and often the dish that people most associate with Trinidad. In this episode, Hema chats with Vinay Harrichan, founder of The Cutlass Magazine, to talk about the origins of doubles, local lore and stories behind the dish, variations, and they each share their doubles order. It turns out that Hema’s order is what Vinay would describe as starter doubles, or what you would order for a small child!

Vinay shares the etymology of bara and channa, and talks a bit about Bhojpuri and Hindustani words that have become part of the everyday language in Trinidad.

About Vinay Harrichan

Vinay Harrichan is the founder and curator of The Cutlass Magazine. Founded in August of 2020, it is a social media platform dedicated to the Indo-Caribbean community and descendants of Indian indentureship. TCM covers topics such as history, religion, politics, music, dance, and linguistics in the name of cultural preservation. You may follow The Cutlass Magazine (@cutlassmagazine) on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, Threads, and TikTok.

https://linktr.ee/cutlassmagazine

Resources

Book: Out of the Doubles Kitchen by Badru Deen

Movie: Doubles with Slight Pepper - Ian Harnarine

Doubles Movie

NYT Cooking Doubles

This is Doubles IG

Recipes

Trini Cooking with Natasha - Doubles Masterclass

Taste of Trinbago with Reshmi

Cooking with Ria - Doubles Recipe

Episodes Referenced

Tobago History with Devonne Adanna

Exploring the US Virgin Islands: History, Identity, and Cultural Shifts

Stephanie Chalana Brown joined me to discuss the history of the Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States. Comprised of St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John plus smaller islets and cays, it’s often described as laid-back, with quaint towns, turquoise waters, a perfect vacation spot for sailing, divers, and sun-seekers.

In this episode we go beyond that. From its indigenous Taino roots, colonial past with strong Danish influences, and present-day struggles, Chalana shares her personal insights into citizenship issues, her ancestral family history, and the importance of local scholarship, digital archives, and historical narratives.

About Stephanie Chalana Brown

Stephanie Chalana Brown is a Virgin Islands–based photographer, cultural thinker, and public intellectual whose work explores African diasporic history, place, and memory across the Caribbean.

Her practice moves between photography, archival inquiry, and cultural interpretation. She documents everyday life, heritage spaces, and community rituals with an eye toward how history lives in bodies, streets, buildings, and shared traditions. Her work treats culture as a living record, something carried, practiced, and remembered rather than frozen in the past.

Chalana’s interests sit at the intersection of African studies, Caribbean history, visual literacy, and public education. She is particularly engaged in how communities preserve memory outside of formal institutions, and how photography can function as both documentation and archive.

Her work has appeared in exhibitions, publications, and national media, and she regularly contributes to conversations about heritage, representation, and cultural accountability in the Virgin Islands and the wider Black Atlantic world.

She lives and works in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where she continues to photograph, research, and write in dialogue with place.

Instagram

These islands were bought by the US. Now they have a message for Greenland.

Resources

Virgin Islands Taino Welcome Tribal Members from Caribbean

The Danish National Archives

National Museum of Denmark

Society of Virgin Islands Historians

The 1733 Akwamu Insurrection

Fireburn: The Uprising of 1878

The Fireburn Files

The St. Croix Educational Complex Drama Club