the Gregoire STORY
Our
STORY
Agatha and Joseph Gregoire came over to England during the 1950's Windrush from the beautiful Caribbean Island of Dominica which lies in the West Indies. They finally settled in Preston and had four children. Despite leaving the Island and starting a new life in England,
one thing they didn't leave behind was their delicious
Dominican Recipes and Cooking Skills.
For us it started nearly 30 years ago when our children were visiting their Nana Agatha (Known as Nana London as she retired down there ) during school holidays. They were always fed with Dominican style food which they absolutely adored. They would always bring packed containers of Fried Chicken and Bakes back to Lytham St Annes from their
visits in London.
Gerry always remembers watching his Mother in the kitchen as she spent most of her time cooking for her family. However he never knew the recipes as his Mother, Agatha never wrote them down -
So we decided to go on a quest to try and master the recipes and imitate Nana Londons' food. After literally years of frying chicken and trying to make Johnny cakes we gave our effort to our children and EUREKA !
They said
'Ummmm it tastes JUST LIKE NANA'S !'
The best and only compliment we had been looking for. So in 2016 we decide to fulfil a lifetime dream and bought a street food trailer to cook and serve our Caribbean food . We started with corporate events and had great success . However, this came to a halt as we suddenly acquired a derelict community centre ! What, I hear you say ?? Yes we are founders of a charitable youth organisation called Streetwise Lancashire which we have been running for the last 20 years providing youth clubs and
positive activities for all children and local communities.
Check out our web page at www.streetwiseyouthcommunity.co.uk.
Anyway, not to bore you with too many details we had for nearly 15 years been looking for our own base so we could do much more and didn't have the restrictions of hiring halls . We got our derelict community centre in September 2016 and renovated it and opened it in February 2017. We have been very blessed with this project and have won many awards for the Centre . BUT it did put a halt on our food business. At the community centre we have put on many events and weekly groups where we have been trying out our Caribbean food for the last four years and have done a lot of taste testing in this way giving us the feedback we need.
2020 = Oh what a year !! A year of stop ! A year of Change ! A Year of Soul Searching and Reflection! A Year of realising what really Matters !
Therefore we have had extra time and are determined to finish what we started and pursue our dream of Just Like Nanas !
Enjoy our Freshly Cooked Caribbean Meals
God Bless
Gerry and Elaine Gregoire
