A step-by-step demonstration in making pepperpot created a stir on the pages of the newest online cuisine publication: ‘Taste Guyana Magazine.’ as American-based Guyanese Dionne Jones-Jones prepared for the grand launch of her website at www.tasteguyanamagazine.com dispersing Guyana’s brands of food in restaurants and kitchens the world over.

Recipes of dishes native to Guyana and those added to local menu cards are more easily accessible and even as the demonstration of cooking up Guyana’s hottest dish, its national ‘Pepperpot’ cuisine, which is most popularly created on hinterland grounds in a massive fireside setting. persons anywhere can now learn the art of pepperpot making.
“Pepperpot is a rich meat stew that has been handed down to us from our Amerindian ancestors (Ameridians are the indigenous people of Guyana). It is traditionally eaten with bread (I prefer homemade) on Christmas morning,” Jones-Jones posted.

She reflected on a Guyana December where the smell of the irresistible meat concoction fills the atmosphere in communities throughout the country.
“My favorite childhood Christmas memory is waking up to the smell of pepperpot and bread on that special morning. Pepperpot-making is a real labor of love. The best tasting concoction simmers for hours, even days before being served. Mine takes about 6 hours, but most of the time it’s on the stove simmering away and you don’t have much to do,” she reflected.

As she updates her ‘Taste Guyana Magazine’ Facebook page, which is an extra on the online food mag, a non-stop flow of recipe requests like Keiateur pour into her inbox, and so she keeps posting.
Jones has gainfully blended her skill of cooking with website-designing and a love for photography, and has launched an exciting interactive venue for Guyanese food lovers and those big on culinary art.

Features of ‘Reminisce Guyana’ founder Indra Mekdeci and how she artistically slices and arranges fruits and other attractive packages of goodies, the values of home-grown fruits and vegetables like psydium and breadfruit, and restaurants and recipes galore flood the pages of the magazine.
A Georgetown girl, who migrated to the USA some five years now, Jones-Jones said she observed that Guyana is emerging high on the world tourism market and embarked upon a new avenue to take its cuisine culture to new levels.

Tasteguyanamagazine.com will be launched next week, and recipe books will be available for sale through an amazon.com linkage.
Jones-Jones in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine said, “Guyana is on the cusp of becoming a tourist destination, food is an integral part of this industry, while we have many recipe books and restaurant guides in print or online, I prefer not to reinvent the wheel but to add another option to it. Most, if almost all of the Caribbean Tourist destinations have a food and dining magazine, I thought Guyana should have one too.”

The website is all-inclusive when it comes to food in Guyana and even give details about spices and ground provision as they unfold from the experts’ tables.
The website also features a ‘foodography’ section where photographs of Guyana’s dishes can be submitted for display.
“In this magazine I am creating a section called Guyanese Foodography, where I would like to showcase the food/fruits/vegetables photography from Guyana/Guyanese photographers. The works of art will be promoted in a professional publication and all credits given including a short bio,” the invitation reads.

Jones-Jones has always had an interest in food and from a tender age wanted to become a dietician. Her tomboy nature did not keep her out of the kitchen with her mom, who also worked in the food industry. She said cooking had become more interested since there had almost always been a ‘new experiment’ in her family’s kitchen.
“Especially during the time when there was a ban on flour and the other food staples, my mom became a ‘food scientist”. I could still remember all the different recipes she created using rice, plantain and cassava flour (and she made her own).”

In final year at High School, she successfully applied to the Guyana Agency for Health Sciences, Education, Environment and Food Policy (GAHEF) for a work study program.
“It was an experience that I would always remember. Even though eventually my area of study differed from that of the food industry, it seemed that anything I was involved in led me back to the culinary industry.”

Being a ‘Marketer’ and ‘Website Designer’ by profession, and a lover of photography, a blend of her photography and food passions led her to ‘Foodography’, and she invests much time observing similar work in glossy publications and websites featuring professional “food-ography”.
“Now I have decided to create my own, showcasing the many culinary delights of the country of my birth – Guyana. Guyana is a land of six peoples, this is a melting pot for a culinary “mash up”. Many of the foods that are native to Guyana were brought by our forefathers. Taste Guyana Magazine, will not only highlight those dishes but also trace their history.”

The magazine will also highlight culinary business in Guyana featuring interviews with Guyanese chefs, cake decorators, cooks, food establishment owners and others who are making a name for themselves. Business spotlight, restaurant reviews, musings, recipes, Guyana food news, and a glossary. The magazine can be found at www.tasteguyanamagazine.com and on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tasteguyanamagazine