Where food and reggae vibes simmer

8 July 2011 2 Comments

If you love music, great food and positive vibes then you’ll love The Reggae Kitchen, a new online cooking show hosted by Juno Award-nominated reggae artist Wayne Passion. Each episode features special guests who reveal their favourite recipes and the secrets to making them. Sway spoke with Passion about his love of cuisine and composition.

Sway: How did you learn to cook?
Wayne Passion: I started cooking with my grandma when I was about seven years old. By the time I was 13, I was cooking for the whole family. We have a huge family back home. I migrated to Canada when I was about 14 or so and, at that time, I was cooking for my mom and sister every day. I wasn’t shy about taking social studies and those things in school. I wanted to learn the simple pleasures of cooking. When I started the music group, I always had a large crew around me, everybody was always in my home so I cooked for them, too. They didn’t want no pizza! They wanted good cooked food!

Where did the idea for The Reggae Kitchen come from?
Seven years ago, the music industry was following closely behind my heels and people were always telling me to record and do something with what I was doing in the kitchen. I was always cooking and singing, and people enjoyed it. When YouTube was started, I really didn’t want to put it up there. I wanted the production to be perfect, but ultimately we just had to get it up there for the people to see because we had everything together.

What has been the response to The Reggae Kitchen?
We just put it up two months ago and we have over 50,000 views and counting. The stats are there to prove it. Right now, when you type in anything that has to do with food and reggae, we are the first ones to show up. I believe God will bless me and we are going somewhere.

What is the next step for the show?
We’ve interviewed great Jamaican and Canadian artists like George Nooks, Gramps from Morgan Heritage, Jimmy Reed, and Ron Nelson. I’m going to be interviewing Baby Sham soon. A lot of people are requesting to be in the kitchen to celebrate culture, heritage and food.