COOKING CREATIVELY WITH DYNAMIC DISPLAYS

COOKING CREATIVELY WITH DYNAMITE DISPLAYS

In March, 2020, I returned to Trinidad and Tobago after my annual academic visit to Western University. It was the week before the country’s borders had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I was informed that I had to wait 14 days before returning to work and schools had already been closed so my husband was already working from home. Business places started to close their doors and I was wondering about eating the foods that I had grown to love. The world was changing by the day, by the hour, by the second. I was wondering if I would ever travel again. I decided that I should start to recreate dishes and to present the food as authentically as possible, after all, I had been to a few counties and I had some crockery and cutlery in my cabinets. This gave birth to the idea of not only cooking but developing a consciousness about the presentation of the food.

This engagement brought me lots of joy because I had many fond memories of my mother and me. For more than 30 years we shopped together on a weekly basis. We travelled together as well. There were many items in the cabinets that made me smile, just remembering the events which surrounded the purchases. This also gave me solace and peace because I decided that I would not visit my mother on a regular basis because like many, we did not know enough about the disease. All we knew was that every day when we turned on our television, more and more people were dying across the globe! And so presenting the food allowed me to Connect with my mother.

So I started looking at the Cooking channels more intently and my grocery shopping was more focused on buying foods with flavours from all parts of the world.

I would like to write a cookbook that focuses on both the cooking and the presentation of food. Every week I post pictures on my WhatApp profile and my husband posts some of the pictures on his Facebook page and he has a small following.

I was featured in the newsletter of my alma mater, Western University because I also share the food with my neigbours and friends sometimes. I would really like to share the memories of this 2 year sojourn. Life is good!

Jennifer Jones-Morales, PhD, Port of Spain 6 March, 2022