Tasty transitions: One woman shares her life's journey from the law in Trinidad to cooking for the capital

Denah Deen, a lawyer from the Caribbean, recently moved to Islamabad and started a pop-up restaurant at Baithak in Saidpur Village. Ms Deen has also worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Trinidad and Tobago.

Dawn caught up with her in Islamabad to ask her about her interest in food and her latest venture into the restaurant business.

Q: How does a lawyer from Trinidad end up in Islamabad?

A: When I was in the UK, I made quite a few Pakistani friends and I visited Pakistan in 2010 for one of my friend’s wedding. The second time I came was for my own wedding and I have been here since September. I am from Trinidad and Tobago. I was born in the Caribbean and spent my whole life there. I went to get my undergraduate degree from the UK, which is where I met my husband, who is from Islamabad. And that is how I ended up in Pakistan. I haven’t met anyone from Trinidad here; in fact I haven’t met anyone who is from the Caribbean but I’m sure they are around. We’ve made it quite far around the world.

Q: How did your interest in food start?

A: I am a lawyer by profession and I worked in foreign policy for a while. My interest in food developed over the years and I think it started when I was at university and living away from home. I realised I did not want to survive on frozen meals and sandwiches so I did a bit of experimenting and began liking what I cooked.

I also travel a lot and travelling has now become more about food for me. Wherever I go, I look for good food places. I enjoy going to different places and trying to find authentic restaurants and looking for different flavours. I was in Italy last year where I found that when you go to a restaurant outside of Italy, the flavours are completely different. You feel like you have never eaten Italian food before.

I am from the Caribbean and we have an incredibly diverse palate. There are so many South Asians in Trinidad as well as Africans and Chinese, so we have many different foods and the local food is very diverse as well.

In a South Asian household we will make typical African dishes and an African family will have roti for dinner. I love Malaysian cuisine as well, which is similar in diversity and their mix of flavours and spices is amazing.

Q: What was the idea behind your pop-up restaurant?

A: Until now, I had only cooked for friends and family and every now and then someone would say, ‘you could sell this’ so I thought I would try. The people at Baithak were open to the idea and were willing to let me set up a pop-up for a meal a week. We started off small but the response from people has been very encouraging.

Our first menu offered a set four course meal and that was the only option. Then I started to offer the different courses as separate dishes as well. So far we have had Caribbean foods, Mexican, New Orleans and Italian. The response has been more and more encouraging every week. This is the work I love.

Originally published in Dawn, March 24th, 2016