My family and I are from the Caribbean, Trinidad and Barbados to be exact, and we love to go ALL OUT! We are full of life, and celebrate this beautiful life (we call it ‘liming’) as much as we can. Celebrations have always been a big deal for our family, and these get-togethers were where I started planning events and making food look and taste amazing. My daughter’s first birthday was where it all started, with a lemon basil clown cake and a dream.
I wasn’t always a chef, though. Non-profits have always had my heart, and that’s who I was working for, as a college and career specialist in an alternative high school, when my then four year old daughter asked me about my dreams. “What’s your dream, Mommy? Are you living it right now? Why not? You told me to live MY dreams…” I remember being stunned. As the old folks would say, “This child has been here before!” As her mom and role model, I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could do, for her, including taking, as it turns out, my own advice. I thought back to when I decided that I was going to make her first birthday cake (never mind that I’d never baked a cake before), and realized that creating food, creating experiences, was the dream I hadn’t yet realized.
Taking my baby girl’s advice to follow my own dream, I enrolled in culinary school, and when I was done...the most amazing thing happened. My career began to take off. Aside from working with a plethora of clients, I was featured in the pilot episode of Rocco’s Dinner Party, starring chef Rocco DiSpirito, as well as on Food Network’s Chopped. I had the privilege of cooking for Michelle Williams, of Destiny’s Child, and for the cast and crew of Chicago: The Musical. I was growing and expanding in ways that I never would have imagined.
Growing into my dream had become rather whirlwind, though, and I soon realized that it was only two weeks before my daughter’s 8th birthday. Crap. I asked her how she wanted to celebrate, and she told me she wanted to invite all her friends over for “ a dress-up spa rockstar day.” What was a “dress-up spa rockstar day”? And in two weeks? I starting asking her all kinds of questions and showed her pictures and sketches. I had no clue how I was to pull all of the things she wanted together. Then Irealized...it was her first birthday cake that started it all. So, I set out to bake her the best rockstar cake I could, pulling out all the stops with all my daughter’s favorites. But nothing compared to the look she had on her face when she saw her very own rockstar cake.
My daughter’s words echoed in my head as I realized - my dreams could become reality. Armed now with multiple culinary and event planning experiences, boundless creativity, and a hunger to connect people to communities, celebrations, and Caribbean culture, I began to dream and design The CaribDiva Company.
Nine years later, I am in love with the well-rounded, vibrant, soulful boutique food and event curation company I have designed that authentically connects communities through creative experiences that my clients and I dream and design together. When I hear my clients walk away in awe and joy...I know that my team and I have done my job right. We are proud to be working towards becoming a Caribbean-centered immersive experience connecting even more communities with multi-cultural foods, events, and self-love products sourced from around the world.
We’d love for you to come and join our CaribDiva community. Come and ‘lime’ with us!