CHICHI'S JAMAICAN FRITTERS

Experienced chef and sustainability champion Anthea Stephenson shares a recipe for saltfish fritters passed down by her mum Chichi

- TONY NAYLOR

About 12 years ago, Anthea Stephenson cooked an ambitious Mother's Day meal that, she laughs, "was 80 per cent awful". But, that lunch was a watershed for the now 37-year-old.

Anthea's family loved the food and, knowing she was dissatisfied working in corporate recruitment, encouraged her to finally give cooking her full attention. Growing up in Croydon, inspired by her mum's Jamaican dishes, Anthea had been "messing around in the kitchen since I was very small." Then, it was time to get serious.

A year training at Leiths school led to almost a decade cheffing in London kitchens, most notably six years at the River Café. That time, says Anthea, "connected me in a meaningful way with producers; where our food comes from, working with the seasons and, tied in with that, from a sustainability narrative, we asked, 'Why aren't we doing that more?' Not just because it tastes amazing, but because there's urgency, too." After co-founding meal kit service Wild Radish, Anthea now works in sustainability, developing ideas at the interface of the climate emergency, farming and food, which "can drive meaningful change, globally".

It is a path, arguably, that Anthea would never have embarked on had her mum, Marjorie - Chichi to her family - not been such an inspiration in the kitchen.

"My parents are from super-humble backgrounds in Manchester, a hilly, relatively cold, rainy region of Jamaica. They came over to Britain in the 60s as teenagers to join their parents. Dad still works as a financial advisor and Mum was a residential social worker, often doing night shifts.

"Jamaican values and culture were part of life. For example, church every Sunday was mandatory, but we didn't holiday in Jamaica - I have two older brothers and there wasn't the money to take three kids. It wasn't until I was 17 that I went on a seminal trip there, with Mum and her sister."

Chichi's Jamaican saltfish fritters