King of the ital food business
“Rasta man yuh deh pon stupidness”.
Those harsh words uttered in the midst of a national crisis changed Keith Hutchins life forever. Hutchins, known as “Rasta” or “Uncle Keith”, is a veteran in the ital food business. Operating from his van, he can be found parked Monday to Saturday on Barima Avenue, close to Vlissengen Road.

One of six children, Hutchins grew up in a single parent home after losing his father when he was only seven months old. Born in Wortmanville in 1957, and growing up in the neighboring Lodge community, he says that he spent much of his childhood days in D’urban Park, engaged in racing, swimming and other sports.

After “Brown Betty”, the food court business he was employed at, burned down in 1975, Hutchins began operating a confectionery stand at the head of Barima Avenue, where he is still located. Seven years later opportunity struck during a fuel shortage. Hutchins recalls the long queues of people waiting to buy kerosene, some of whom needed food. After the “Rasta man yuh deh pon stupidness” comment, the enterprising young man began to provide meals from his stand and his popularity spread.

Twenty-eight years later, his clientele includes the management and staff of several organisations and businesses located along Vlissingen road and its environs, as well as persons from further areas who actively seek him out. Indeed, on any given day, persons in vehicles pull up for a tasty soya burger or some other delicacy. Hutchins is ably assisted by his childhood friend, Lennard Arthur, who also grew up in the Lodge area.

The menu is extensive, offering a variety of vegetarian choices every day. The mouth watering range of snacks includes satisfying and delicious cornbread, flaky and enticing pastries, yummy macaroni and cheese, tempting pizza, flavorful stews, tasty dhol puris, scrumptious cheese scones and other treats.

Hungry for more than a snack? Well then you’re still at the right place because you can partake of the “Special of the day”  and choose from a  selection of stews: black-eye peas  on Mondays, bora on Tuesdays, curried soybean  chunks on Wednesdays, eggplant (boulanger) on Thursdays, stewed soybean chunks with cook-up rice and dhol on Fridays, and fried rice on Saturdays.

Ital Cooking

We chatted about ital cooking, which is a way of preparing and cooking food that is consistent with Rastafarian beliefs and practices.

My curiosity about ital cooking had led me to a website called eatjamaican.com. I discovered the word came about due to the Rastafarian practice of deriving words by replacing significant syllables with the character “I.”

Ital cooking is an eclectic form of cooking, which when strictly followed, excludes the use of salt, meat   preservatives, colorings, flavorings or anything artificial. A good ital cook thus has to be skilled at using available herbs and spices to produce food that is tasty.

The site said that coconut is a basic ingredient in ital cooking, a fact that Hutchins agreed with me on. Coconut milk often serves as the base for many delicious ital dishes.

Though pimento (allspice) is listed on the site as a key ingredient in Rastafarian cooking, Hutchins said that that is not one of the ingredients that he relies on, citing instead more common herbs and spices such as thyme and married-man pork. “The way we prepare food in Guyana is totally unique”, he said.

And it’s good for you, he says, stressing that he never gets sick. “I have been eating this food since 1974, it’s pure, no fat”, he says. He firmly believes the food you eat is your medicine and your medicine is your food. He boasts that he has been waking up at 4:00 o’clock every day for the past 28 years.

So how does he do it?  Hutchins says that being in the food business is not easy. The entrepreneur built an industrial kitchen next to his Fourth Street Albertown residence and employees two assistants to help out.  The father of three says that he works 16 hour days, since being in the food business entails not only selling hours, but a lot of preparation time.

What’s a typical day like for him? We already know that he has to be up by 4:00 a.m. “It takes six hours of preparation before work” he says. And who actually does the cooking? He cooks, while his wife of 21 years, Deborah, does all the baking. After doing business between the hours of 11 to about three in the afternoon, it’s time to go shopping. Fresh produce is an essential part of his food preparation, Hutchin’s says. “I go to the market for fresh produce every day”, is his boast.

Then there are lots to do before actually going to bed, as certain preparations have to be done to make work easier in the mornings.

You are hungry right? Well today is the one day of the week that Hutchins isn’t out. He gets some well-deserved rest on Sundays.  But check for him tomorrow, rain or shine, he’ll be there with his delicious black-eye peas stew for lunch.