Street Food Stories: Meet the Guyanese cook who came to London for love

Evening Standard

Transcript

00:00Hello. How are you?

00:02Hi, how wonderful. How are you doing?

00:04Welcome to Kaichor Kitchen.

00:06My name is Fago, and I'm from Guyana, South America.

00:11The name Kaichor is originated from our famous waterfalls in Guyana.

00:18I have been a trader for many years.

00:23This is my little world.

00:25This is beautiful. It's homely. It's welcoming.

00:29It's just to make people feel like they can always keep coming because of the atmosphere, the food, and the welcoming that we give them.

00:43I came here in 1992.

00:45Actually, somebody brought me here.

00:47The person came to Guyana from London, saw me and fell in love with me, and brought me here.

00:55It wasn't what I expected.

00:58It wasn't beautiful, and it was hard. It didn't work at all.

01:03And I gave up a lot at home to come here because I had my business at home.

01:07And I was doing really, really, really rare.

01:10Just the same food business.

01:12So when I came here and saw what I had to go through, I felt disappointed.

01:22But I didn't give up, and I didn't go back.

01:25I did odd jobs, really odd jobs.

01:28And then I heard about the little chaos in the shopping center for sale.

01:35I decided to take a chance, and I bought it.

01:40It's been a long journey over there, a very long journey.

01:43We had very bad experience with people coming to vandalize our premises.

01:51People would do all sorts of things there, drugs, everything, you know, robbery, killing, stabbing.

01:58And then is when I started to feel frustrated and actually want to give up.

02:02But I was encouraged by, you know, some of the management of the new shopping mall that we're in now,

02:08to just hold on and hang in, you know, so that I would wait to see what I would get over here.

02:13And that is what kept me going.

02:15So you really had to fight to make it, and still fighting to make it here.

02:23You know, Guyana is made up of six races of people.

02:26Each of the race has got their own dish.

02:29So I tried my best to bring out all of that here.

02:33Everyone can come and eat something beautiful here.

02:37They got a taste of everything.

02:41The pepper pot, the oxtail, the coconut lamb,

02:44spinach rice, my wonderful fried rice.

02:48Those are the things that stand out.

02:52I would like a bigger restaurant.

02:54I would like a bigger restaurant.

02:56Because there's so much more I can do when it comes to my cooking.

03:01I'm limited right now.

03:03And I still have a long way to go.

03:06Because I know that I haven't stopped here.

03:10I know there's another level for me to get to.

03:14I know there's another level for me to get to.

03:20I know there's another level for me to get to.

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