Sunderland firefighter turns up the heat with Caribbean street food business Calabash Tree

Ryan McVay from Washington grew up enjoying the rich and varied flavours of the Caribbean islands where his mum was born.

Coupled with the fact his dad is a former catering lecturer of more than 30 years at Sunderland College, it sparked a love affair with cooking the spices and dishes of Trinidad and Tobago which he’s now turned into his Calabash Tree business.

Named after a tree that’s indigenous to the West Indies, the Calabash Tree took root when Ryan visited Newcastle’s Boiler Shop in 2015 for a street food event and noticed that the melting pot of flavours from the dual Caribbean island were missing.

The following year, Ryan, who juggles cooking with shifts with Durham & Darlington Fire & Rescue service, set up his street food business and pitched his stall at the Boiler Shop where none other than Grammy-winning film director and friend to Bob Marley, Don Letts, sampled his food and praised it for its authenticity.

Ryan, who imports his spices from the Caribbean and won’t use anything else in his dishes, said: “Growing up, my gran and great aunt were always making home-cooked Trinidadian food and it was something that always stuck with me. My dad is a proper chef and he always jokes, because I never weigh my ingredients, I cook curry by smell. I know it’s right when it smells like my great aunt’s kitchen.”

Speaking about how his business came about, he said: “I was at the Boiler Shop and noticed there was a gap for Caribbean food. I don’t know anyone north of Leeds who does this style of food, so I decided to do it myself. People are quite familiar with Jamaican food, but there’s more to the Caribbean than Jamaica.

"My mum always used to speak about liming (a Caribbean colloquialism for eating and drinking) under the calabash tree and it gave me the inspiration for the name.”

Trinidad and Tobago’s dishes are heavily influenced by history and dishes reflect flavours of Africa, India, China, Spain and more.

"I think there is a bit of a fear factor because people think it’s the kind of food that’s going to blow your head off, but it’s not like that at all,” explained Ryan, whose family also help out in the kitchen.

Within three months of launching his business, which does private catering as well as pop ups and food fairs, Ryan was a finalist in the British Street Food awards and has gone on to trade at numerous events across the region.

This year, he was looking forward to a summer of festivals and food events, before Covid-19 struck and the hospitality industry ground to a halt.

Adapting to the change, Ryan began doing a weekend lockdown liming menu, delivering dishes such as jerk brisket, curry chicken, rice and peas and plantain, direct to people’s doors. It proved so popular he sold 3,000 dishes in lockdown.

"Everything that was booked for the summer was gone. But I was just building a reputation so I didn’t want to stop. I’ve never done deliveries before, but I think during lockdown a lot of people were more willing to experiment and the feedback I had was great. Each menu I did sold out within an hour and a half of me releasing it,” he explained.

Building on the success, the chef has now invested in a trailer with a fitted kitchen so he can bring his food to even more food fairs. So far, he’s cooked in his trailer at the Monument Food Market at Our Lady Queen of Peace church in Penshaw and will be returning for the next event there on August 22, between 10am and 3pm.

As outdoor food markets start to pick up again, Ryan is looking forward to booking more events, as well as continuing his private catering, and will be resuming his weekend liming menus in September for those wanting to try his food at home.

See what we thought of The Calabash Tree when we tried it at home.

Supporting local

August is the perfect time to dine on your doorstep with the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Running until August 31, 2020, it means that you’ll get 50% off your food and non-alcoholic drinks up to a total value of £10 per person when you eat or drink out in participating bars and restaurants every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday within the time period.

We’ve compiled some handy guides of restaurants taking part.

::For Sunderland city centre restaurants see here.

::For seafront and local neighbourhood restaurants see here.

::For Seaham cafes and restaurants see here.

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