Street Food Stories: Meet the Guyanese cook who came to London for love
Behind the chaos of the Elephant and Castle roundabout resides Castle Square, a retail space developed in 2020 following the demolition of the town’s old shopping centre. Within it, visitors can find Kaieteur Kitchen Original – a compact, intimate restaurant serving traditional and reimagined Guyanese fare.
At its helm is Faye Gomes – as Kaieteur Kitchen’s owner and head chef, she is the heart and soul of the business.
“This is my little world”, she says of her modest, brightly-coloured restaurant. “It's homely, it's welcoming, and it just makes people feel like they can always keep coming because of the atmosphere, the food, and the welcoming that we gave them.”
Kaieteur Kitchen is one of the food businesses featured in the Standard’s new video series Street Food Stories. It looks at the lives and businesses of immigrants who have moved to London and diversified the capital’s food scene.
Faye moved to London from Guyana in 1992. “Somebody brought me here”, she recalls wistfully, “the person came to Guyana from London, saw me and fell in love with me and brought me here”. But, the relationship faced difficulties and it ultimately didn’t work out – nevertheless, Faye stuck it out in the UK and pursued her dream here.
Kaieteur Kitchen started out as a food stand in the Elephant and Castle shopping centre. Faye says the business “started beautifully” and that she achieved great things at the old site, but that it’s been a “long journey” which has had its ups and downs.
“We had a very bad experience with people coming to vandalise our premises. The shopping centre would get so untidy, people would do all sorts of things there. Drugs, robbery, killing, stabbing, everything…And then is when I started to feel frustrated and actually wanted to give up.”
Despite these difficulties along the way, Faye didn’t let go of her dream. “I was encouraged by some of the management of the new shopping mall that we're in now to just hold on.” she reflects. “You know, so that I would wait to see what I would get over here. And that is what kept me going.”
In terms of the future, Faye has high ambitions.
“I would like a bigger restaurant because there's so much more I can do when it comes to my cooking, I'm limited right now. I still have a long way to go because I know that I haven’t stopped here.”