From jerk chicken to rum punch, how to make Carnival favourites

It’s the August bank holiday event that’s been running since the ’60s and celebrates Caribbean culture. This year Notting Hill Carnival takes place 25-26 August.

Can't get there this year? Chefs and Caribbean food experts reveal how you can create the taste of Carnival in your own kitchen.

The diversity of Carnival food

Chris Singham – who started Caribbean restaurants Cottons – says his go-to Carnival dish is “jerk chicken, jerk chicken and more jerk chicken, properly cooked in a jerk drum with pimento and sorrel”.

But it’s not just the food he loves about the carnival. “There is nothing to compare with the free spirits, colour and glamour. Reggae music blasting from every corner, the smell of home-cooked food lingering, the jostling of people shoulder-to-shoulder in good spirits”, he says.

“Caribbean food is so diverse and far reaching, from the French-influenced Martinique and Guadeloupe to the Dutch Antilles and St Maarten; from the Spanish-influenced islands of Margarita and Cuba to the English and Indian-influenced Barbados, Bahamas and Trinidad, and of course the all-encompassing influence of the Arawak Indians in Jamaica that inspired jerk.”

Cooking Trinidad-style

Chef and cookbook writer Shivi Ramoutar moved to the UK from Trinidad when she was 10 years old, and with her mother a costume designer for carnival, Notting Hill played a big role in her childhood. In fact, she was crowned Junior Carnival Queen at the 1995 event!

Shivi specialises in contemporary Caribbean cuisine. Her advice if you’re creating Carnival food at home? “Try to get the big, bold spices that are in Caribbean cuisine and then give it a twist. Something like, jerk pork you can do with a pork shoulder so it’s like pulled pork and it’s got that delicious jerk seasoning. Then with that meat, I throw it with tacos, rice or bao buns.

“Having scotch bonnet pepper sauce in your cupboard is important because a couple of dashes in a stew or curry can immediately give it oomph. You can buy it or make your own.

“We’re all about the spices and herbs, and green seasoning – which is a mixture of parsley, coriander, onion, thyme, lime and garlic – is great. Blitz leftover herbs together and freeze it, then you can add it to dishes. A little touch of allspice in rice will give it a wonderful warmth. And coconut milk always adds a nice tropical touch”.

If you’re making Trinidadian food for the first time, Brian Danclair, the chef behind Brixton restaurant Fish, Wings and Tings, advises “start with something like a curry chicken, which doesn’t use a lot of spice but does use lots of herbs. Many dishes are really straightforward. There are key ingredients like cassava, which is used as a starch. One our most popular dishes (at the restaurant) is the creole Accra – also known as salt cod fritters. Growing up in Trinidad… we were surrounded by all kinds of food: Indian, Spanish, Latino, Chinese, it all comes together there. One dish that characterises the nation is callaloo, and that’s my favourite. It resembles a West African dish, where they put okra and spinach with hot peppers and meats, but we put crabs in it.”

What's Shivi's favourite Notting Hill Carnival meal? “Roti definitely! Between islands, there’s a bit of rivalry over who does the best, so I’d say they’re all great… The roti is filled with curry, and it’s carbohydrate so will fill you up ready for dancing!”

Carnival Jamaica-style

Chefs and brothers Craig and Shaun McAnuff, creators of Original Flava, head to Notting Hill every year. “It’s the only day you don’t worry about your troubles, you just go to have a good time”, says Craig. He told us about the food he loves to eat at Carnival. “Jerk chicken, curried goat. And Jamaican festivals – which is a fried dumpling and is sweet and flour-based – you can have it with curried goat or by itself.

“Oh patties as well! They’re one of my favourite dishes for on the go. So a lot of Carnival food is for eating quickly, but also needs to be filling and flavourful. Because often at Carnival you’re drinking rum punch too, so you need to fill your stomach!”

A good rum punch “doesn’t need to be fancy, you don’t need to have a teaspoon of this or teaspoon of that, it’s just the key ingredients thrown into the mixer. You include grenadine, sugar syrup, bitters, a squeeze of lemon, bit of orange juice, bit of pineapple juicey, and of course white rum. And then you can throw in orange and pineapple pieces as well as lemon pieces just to give you that extra fruity taste.”

If you’re making Jamaican food at home for the first time, “you need scotch bonnets, thyme, garlic, lots of bell peppers and ginger, just lots of fresh ingredients. With seasoning, allspice is good and pimento seeds. There’s also a pimento berry – it’s subtle, like a spicy kick rather than a harsh spice, and you use it a lot for the aroma. It’s a key ingredient in the jerk process as well”. Below they show you how to make their jerk beef burger.

Barbados food is “savoury, saucy and bold”

“Barbados is home to Caribbean-style comfort food like macaroni pie, casseroles and coucou, a fine polenta with embedded okra topped with a spicy creole sauce”, says food scientist Taymer Mason-Marshall. She has published cookery books on plant-based Caribbean cuisine, and has some great ideas for celebrating Carnival vegan-style. “People are looking for portable foods and it is all about street food. One of my favourite things is super spicy fish fritters, aka Bajan fishcakes. To veganize this I use salted eggplant and crushed nori as a stand in for salted cod.

If you’re making plant-based Caribbean food at home, she says you should always have “onions, fresh herbs, plantain (not just for frying), a lot of beans, and Caribbean green seasoning”.

Originally published August 2020. Updated August 2024