Hartlepool family bring a taste of the Caribbean to town with new business

Duran and Tracy-Ann Ramlochan, both 35, want to share their passion for culture and food with the community by bringing Caribbean cuisine to its doorstep.

Island Flavour 868 will be showcasing Caribbean meals at local farmers’ markets as well as making home deliveries on weekends.

The business has been running for just over three weeks and there has been a lot of interest already, with Tracy-Ann saying weekend orders for the next couple of weeks have been booked.

There’s a range of meals on offer including Jerk Chicken and Peri Peri Pasta and all the food is cooked by Tracy-Ann and Duran themselves.

Tracy-Ann said: "We’ve had the idea for a while, but with Covid, we were like ‘should we, shouldn’t we’. We had to make sure it was something we wanted to do.

"It is small but the fact that we are getting noticed is a good thing.”

The couple, who moved to Hartlepool from Trinidad and Tobago in 2018, have culinary experience as well as being self-taught.

Tracy-Ann, who used to be events coordinator at one of the biggest restaurant chains in Trinidad and Tobago, has added there are hopes the new business could branch out into a restaurant in the future.

"The story of Trinidad is really about food because during the slave times the only thing that kept people going was food,” the mother-of-three said.

"It’s a big thing about our culture.”

Tracy-Ann, who is currently studying travel and tourism at Hartlepool College of Further Education, added that she and quality control auditor Duran decided to take a leap of faith and start the business with much encouragement from neighbours and friends and were up and running in less than one month.

Tracy-Ann has also thanked Julie, from Julie’s Cakes, who helped the family set up the business after meeting them at the Farmers’ Market in July.

Tracy-Ann: "Everything I did, she guided me through the steps.

"It was refreshing, because we were total strangers and she went out of the way to help us.”

You can find Island Flavour 868 on Facebook and at the upcoming Hartlepool Farmers’ Market on August 28.

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