Rave reviews for Kareema Beckles 'funky & fancy' Caribbean menu
February 10, 2021
While many small and medium-sized companies have closed because of COVID-19, some bold entrepreneurs have summoned the courage to start a business during the pandemic.
After volunteering for nearly eight months preparing thousands of meals for seniors in the Greater Toronto Area, Kareema Beckles launched a takeout/delivery food service just three weeks before Christmas.
“This was something I was working on before the pandemic hit and then I had to push the pause button,” she said. “While making hot cross buns for Easter, I received several calls asking if I was still making food deliveries. I told the callers I thought they were home because of the pandemic and their response was, ‘We aren’t cooking’.”
Beckles resumed cooking and delivering food to clients in the Greater Toronto Area between Wednesday and Friday. On weekends, she volunteered at the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA).
“One day during the summer, I decided to look for a space,” she said. “I needed my own kitchen because it was too costly to rent.”
Through the Royal Bank of Canada, Beckles secured a $40,000 loan to start her business.
Finding a location took a few months.
“I was looking at Scarborough and mid-town, but the prices were a bit high,” she said.
Beckles settled for space at 203 Dundas St. E. at George St.
With no other Caribbean cuisine outlets in close proximity, she expects her business to thrive.
“There are several condos nearby and a few more are going up, “Beckles pointed out. “In the first 19 days leading up to Christmas Day, I had many repeat customers which is very encouraging.”
With a focus on Caribbean Fusion cuisine, the mouth-watering menu includes jerk chicken or jerk vegan lasagna with homemade garlic bread; oxtail/curry goat with white rice & coleslaw; Escovitch Snapper topped with pickled carrots, onions, sweet peppers & scotch bonnet; Sautéed Portobello Mushrooms with garlic herb mashed potatoes cornbread and coleslaw; BBQ Chicken or BBQ cauliflower with coleslaw and cornbread and gourmet spring rolls infused with ackee & saltfish, pepper shrimp and callaloo & pumpkin.
“When I get funky and fancy, I have curry goat, oxtail, rice & peas and macaroni pie with stew chicken all in spring rolls,” she said. “I take the things that I love and put them together.”
Beckles has received rave reviews over the years.
“Everything Chef Kareema makes is amazing,” said Pastor Janette Wright Grosvenor in a 2017 Facebook post. “She not only has a passion for very unique and creative flavourful cooking, but her love for people takes it one step further. She truly cares about her customers.”
The first generation Canadian interest in cooking was fuelled by her mother who died in 2002.
Both of her parents migrated from Trinidad & Tobago.
“When I was 10 years old, mom told me to take the chicken out of the freezer and I said I wanted to do more than just thaw it out,” Beckles recalled. “While she was at work, I started the food preparation that she completed when she got home. I wanted to learn how to cook because I love food and I eat a lot. My mom was very adventurous when it came to cooking, she opened my eyes to different cultural cuisines.”
Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse was also an inspiration.
Utilizing catchy phrases like ‘Bam’ and ‘Kick it up a Notch’, the product of a French-Canadian father showcased his personal cooking style and flair for the dramatic through a TV show, ‘Emeril Live’ that featured a live studio audience and a four-member band.
“I just loved watching his shows on the Food Network,” said Beckles. “I loved seeing him cooking with the band playing. His shows were engaging. I told myself I could do that for a living as I had been entertaining people at my home for many years.”
With encouragement from her ex-husband, she enrolled in a private culinary school.
A few years earlier, Beckles quit after a year in Seneca College’s Business Administration program.
“If I had known I would become a business owner, I would have remained in the program,” she said. “Sometimes, life throws you lemons and you make lemonade with it which is what I am doing right now.”
Beckles has been self-employed since graduating in 2014 from the Ontario Self Employment Benefit (OSEB) program that was closed five years ago. It was aimed at individuals with a business concept who required financial assistance and professional guidance to assist them throughout the initial phase of the start-up process.
The program’s assistance lasted 42 weeks.
“That was an amazing period in my life where I got to learn how to run a business,” the mother of four children ranging in age from 29 to 17 said.
Before the pandemic outbreak in mid-March last year, she rented kitchens to prepare food.
“I did that for about two years,” she said. “Prior to that, I had a restaurant for about 11 months. When that closed, I cooked out of homes and did catering.”
Chef Kareema Beckles (Photos by Ron Fanfair)
When the JCA and Community Strong collaborated to start the Meals to Go Initiative co-ordinated by real estate broker/radio broadcaster Elaine Thompson and Danae Peart who is the Emery-Keelesdale Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic lead administrator, Beckles willingly jumped at the opportunity to use her culinary skills to give back to the community.”
“We thought it was going to be for just two weeks, but it turned out to be much longer and I didn’t mind,” she said. “For the first four months, we prepared meals for Saturday and Sunday and after that, we did it for just one day a week for the remaining three-and-a-half months.”
Beckles along with Tony Scott and Dwight Boswell cooked and packed the meals for volunteer drivers to distribute.
They prepared nearly 12,000 meals in seven-and-a-half months and 600 on Christmas Day.
JCA President Adaoma Patterson said Beckles is passionate about cooking and food presentation.
“Kareema is creative, generous and fun,” she added. “There were ‘nuff’ jokes between her and the other chefs. JCA is grateful for her willingness to contribute in this significant way.
