Sharing local food love on Youtube

KIERAN ANDREW KHAN

Thousands of viewers have learned to cook Caribbean favourites, fusion recipes and international cuisine through Trini Cooking with Natasha. The Youtube Channel, led by Trinidadian Natasha Laggan, keeps attracting fans. And it all started with a simple video camera in her home kitchen in 2015.

“I was born in TT but after I got married in my late 20s, I moved to the US,” the culinary enthusiast noted.

“I learnt to cook from my paternal grandmother and my mom while growing up as a child. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her before school and sometimes after,” she recalled. “I would get up at 3 am help my mom prepare for her food business then change into my school uniform and work with her until it was time to leave for school. I believe this really instilled work ethic and helped me to be humble today. I was never ashamed to do it and I want the younger generation reading this to know... don’t ever feel ashamed because it’s these core values that will shape you into a great human being.”

Laggan's move to the US really solidified her long-held love for local cuisine. “I began making notes of the recipes I missed from back home and would start recreating them during the day while my husband was at work. In sharing the images, people would also ask me to share the recipe, but in today’s multimedia environment, that wasn’t enough. So, I eventually sent friends videos of me preparing and cooking the recipes. The natural result was that one day a friend of mine suggested that I post it to Youtube, so I did,” she told WMN.

The rest wasn’t history for Laggan, at least not yet. “You could tell in my earlier videos, that I wasn’t too sure of myself on video. For the cooking yes, I was sure, but I wasn’t yet comfortable in front of the camera,” she recalled. Soon after that, her first child was born, a few weeks earlier than planned – throwing her schedule into disarray. Laggan spent her day, as much as possible, at the hospital with her son who remained under observation, and her nights cooking – which for her was therapeutic.

“Motherhood added its own demands to my day, but I continued as best as I could with recording my recipes and posting them. In some of those videos after my son came home, you could hear him cry at which point I would cut the filming and cooking, tend to him and return. I started off with a camcorder I had at home but eventually with the help of a friend’s expertise in photography, I would spend a little more time looking at the staging of my finished dishes, the lighting, angles and more. My staging and recording area was created using many DIY projects which inspired me.”

The aim for continuous improvement began to yield benefits soon enough – in the form of views, likes, follows and fans. She later revealed herself on camera for the very first time just a few weeks ago with the help of other social media celebrity food enthusiasts – Eat Ah Food and the Foodie Nation brands. “I have done over 1,000 videos in three years; over 700 recipe videos and the rest a combination of vlogs and reviews and in each recipe video, I try to make it as easy to follow as possible so that people can truly learn by following the channel.

"Recently, I expanded into trying to capture the Taste of D Town – by visiting restaurants and showing support for the local Trinidadian restaurants and food-related businesses like the produce vendor and our street food vendors who cook traditionally. Featuring them on my channel also gives them that free exposure so that they can be discovered so they can thrive and share their delicious foods with us. In my travels to places like the Maldives and Bora Bora I have also come across so many other dishes that I aim to recreate so that if I can help others discover food like I have and the joy of cooking, then that would be enough for me.”

While the beginning may not have been part of a larger plan for the at-home mother, she certainly has outlined bigger action items for the future. “I’m currently working on a cookbook for 2019 which is real labour of love, with some innovative approaches to pairing print with social media. In working with my designer, I noticed that some of my earlier photos of recipes don’t live up to the later ones in terms of aesthetic that I want, so I am currently recreating each of the 250 plus recipes so that they can be photographed to the standard that I want to see in the final print,” she pointed out. Not to be outdone by that commitment, the cookbook will also feature an herb reference sheet so that those not too familiar with West Indian herbs can know to get exactly what is needed and will also feature a fridge, freezer and pantry essentials space as well.

She detailed, “For those who are really committed, my new website, islandkitchen.shop, will be the home to my cookbook and will also feature items like the traditional tools , the tawah , dabalah and spices like turmeric, geera etc that you can purchase and have shipped anywhere you need it along with many other kitchen utensils too.”

What started as a simple exercise in sharing with genuine intention has been met in kind with hundreds of thousands of viewers both in the Caribbean and internationally. Of the journey, she said, “I really just want to pass on the knowledge and skills I learnt from generations before me which are traditional, and I hold close to my heart, as I no longer reside in Trinidad.”

Follow her on Instagram @trinicooking19, Facebook Food page ‘Trini Cooking with Natasha Food and Recipe’s and on Twitter @trinicooking19.