I suppose you could say our journey began back in 1957 on
an ocean liner sailing from Jamaica bound for Southampton England. On that ship was my Dad, a young man eager to play his part in rebuilding England after the war. Even though my Dad was Jamaican through and through he would often talk of
England as being his mother land. Once here in England he got a job on the railway and over a short time managed to save up enough money to buy a ticket
for my mum to come and join him.

Roll on to 1958, my Mum was expecting my eldest sister. My
Dad went to work one day, as he did every day, to his job on the railway. Later that day my mum got some dreadful news, my Dad had been involved in a terrible
accident at work resulting in him losing both of his legs.

It took a long time but eventually, with the love and
support of my Mum, my Dad went back to work, only now in an office. Both my Mum and my Dad loved to cook, my Dad particularly loved cooking and now was one thing his disability didn’t stop him from doing. One of our favourites was his Jerk chicken, rice and peas!

As of most Jamaicans of their era they learned to cook and how
to season food from an early age. It didn’t matter if you were a little boy or girl, everyone learned how to cook. I guess my parents never really thought about it but they literally had hundreds of years of knowledge, passed down to them
by their parents and fore parents. In the same way my parents had learnt to cook, would be the same way I was to learn. I have great memories going back to the 70’s of being in our modest kitchen, my Dad giving me tips on how to get the water content just right for rice and peas. While my Mum would show me which spices she used on her Jerk pork (I can smell the amazing aroma right now). A pinch of this and a sprinkle of that was how they would measure each ingredient. Never following a written recipe, just calling on the vast amount of knowledge that had been handed down, it was all stored in their minds. I suppose it was my Dads’ sheer determination to just get on with things, my Mums’ fantastic sense of humour and above all their insistence that if you were going to do something, make sure you do it properly that has been forever etched in to my heart and soul. In my adult life I’ve been very fortunate to have had a profession that’s taken me all over the globe. From the Caribbean to South America, from Europe to the Far East, I’ve travelled the
whole world tasting amazing food. I absolutely love dishes from all over the world, however my passion is, and always will be Jerk. This is the reason I started
Black Ass Jerk Co. Our mission is to get as many people as we can to have the Jerk taste experience, hence our tagline

“Jerkin’ All Over The World”!

Thanks for everything Mum and
Dad! xx