Trinidad and Tobago-born Beverly Lorraine Frederick may have lived in the UK for most of her life, but her taste for TT cuisine remains unwavering. In fact, it was her craving for a chilli jam that she was unable to access in the UK that sparked the idea for her small-scale preserves business, and the launch of Tantie Lorraine’s Homemade.
“A trip home to Trinidad,” Frederick told WMN in an email interview, was the spark that lit the idea of Tantie Lorraine’s.
“We bought some pepper jelly from the supermarket (in TT) as part of our ‘stocks’ to bring to the UK. When it was finished, we tried getting someone to help us replenish, but we had no luck. I decided I must be able to make this myself, and I did. It was sold out at a local farmers market and the rest, as they say is history.”
Frederick makes pepper sauces, chilli jams, relishes, green seasoning, and Christmas treats such as pastelles, black cake, sweetbread, coconut drops and ponche a creme – “all based on my Trinidadian heritage.”
She said when she was deciding on a name for her venture, she wanted to separate personal self from the business.
[caption id="attachment_921877" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Beverly Lorraine Frederick has been making sauces for about ten years at her home in Surrey, England. PHOTO COURTESY @remiaphotography [/caption]
“Lorraine seemed the best option. It also chimed with the dame Lorraine character – comfy homely and motherly. I figured I would be a modern take on that image. Skinny with dreads,” she said.
“I’m also an aunt so ‘Tantie’ worked. When Caribbean people hear the name Tantie Lorraine, it conjures up a sense of familiarity, nostalgia and home. The interesting thing is that the name conjures up the same feelings in non-Caribbean people. I’ve had reactions to the name from Dutch, Norwegian, French and Afrikaans. I guess the ‘auntie’ is universal.”
The full-time HR manager for a French multinational construction and engineering firm said she has been making sauces for approximately ten years and the culinary magic happens in her Surrey kitchen on evenings and weekends.
“There were times when I worked from home during the pandemic, but I’m now back in the office.”
She sources her ingredients from local street markets and wholesalers. “You can get quite a lot in the UK from the Chinese/Asian supermarkets and wholesalers. I also buy my peppers from growers in the UK.”
[caption id="attachment_921878" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Tantie Lorraine’s jams made by Beverly Lorraine Frederick.PHOTO COURTESY @remiaphotography[/caption]
And while the covid19 pandemic has not had much of a negative impact on her business so far, she said there was a shortage of cardboard boxes in the early stages of the pandemic due to the increase of home deliveries, but she was able to work around that. Frederick said she is expecting increases in operating costs in the new year and is planning for it.
“A combination of Brexit (the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union) and the pandemic have the potential to aff
