Many Dutch people celebrate Easter with a large breakfast, brunch or lunch. Cape Verdeans often eat couscous and Fonghino these days. Alice Fortes from Rotterdam wants to preserve these traditional recipes with the Cape Verdean Cooking Workshops.
More and more young Cape Verdeans want to go back to their roots, while the authentic cooking skills sink in. Normally Alice tells stories about Cape Verdean cuisine, but since the lockdown that is no longer possible. Now she streams her workshop live from a cooking studio in Katendrecht. With a fresh package delivered to your home, people can join Alice and ask questions.
“The dishes are actually not written down anywhere, now you can find something on YouTube, but it is very often passed on orally from generation to generation,” explains Alica. “So you have a mother or a grandmother who can pass it on to you. But if your family member explains it, it sometimes goes too quickly or you are sent out of the kitchen. I am very happy that we have set this up. ”
From cooking studio Poffa’s, Alice cooks delicious Easter treats together with Chiquinho and Ninny Duarte Lopes. The Cape Verdean couscous from Chiquinho and Ninny is super popular among Cape Verdean Rotterdammers.
“My mother came to Rotterdam before the corona crisis,” says Chiquinho. “When the pandemic broke out here, she was unable to return to Cape Verde. Then she decided to cook a lot. Ninny and the kids love couscous. But they were not alone. Ninny had put it on Facebook and the editors poured in. ”
According to Chiquinho, people were asking for the recipe en masse and she really wanted to try her couscous. “Before my mother goes back to Cape Verde, she told me to learn the recipe from her.”
Chiquinho and Ninny’s couscous contains a secret ingredient that they do not reveal. But during the workshop they explain the basics of the traditional dish.
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