‘I sold Caribbean cakes and juices on street and now have a restaurant’

Leaving your home and coming to a new country is a story many in London can relate to. Students and workers come to London in the hopes of more opportunities to further better their lives.

That was the case for Curtis Gibbons who came to London from Jamaica in 2003 in hopes of furthering his aspirations. After studying didn’t work out due to other circumstances, Curtis decided to help out in Caribbean restaurants. This gave him a chance to test his hand in the food he had been around his whole life.

A few years passed and Curtis decided that it was time for him to make his own way. He said: “I’ve always been someone interested in sales. I’m a social person and enjoy that part. My mum was also a salesperson, she would create her own stuff and go and sell it in the market back home. I guess that appetite for self-employment was always in me.”

READ MORE: ‘My 50-seat Caribbean restaurant is almost always empty’: Owner fears impact of Covid and soaring costs

In 2012, Curtis, 38, decided he would take to the streets of Hackney and Edmonton. He became known as the ‘cake and juice man’. He would get up every Friday and Saturday and sell his traditional cakes and juices to locals.

He said: “I was out of work for a few months and I needed to do something as my wife was paying all the bills. I told myself there’s no work so create your own. I’ve always had a passion for baking and was something I always knew how to do. However, I didn’t know how to do the icing and decorating so I enrolled at Hackney College to learn the basics of designing a cake.

“After three months, I started making cakes, cutting them up into slices and going out on the road from Hackney to Edmonton. I became well known in the barbershops and salons around the area if you asked people who Curtis is, they would say the cake and juice man.”

People in shops would request food from Curtis which he wasn’t making at the time. He would listen, take their response, take to YouTube and learn how to make it. If he didn’t know, he would find a way. “I never know how to make certain puddings. A customer would say to me they want it and then by the next week I would have it”, he added.

After four years of establishing himself as the ‘cakes and juice man’ Curtis was finally in a position to do something bigger. He opened up a shop on Middle Lane in Hornsey, Curtis Caribbean Grill and Speciality Cakes. Even though most of his customers were based around Hackney, the chance to own his own store was too good an opportunity.

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Curtis understands the name is a bit long but he sees the cake side as a big part of the business. He makes speciality cakes and takes requests from customers who come to Curtis to commemorate occasions.

Opening the shop at first was an adjustment. Curtis had been so used to going out on the street to sell that not doing that seemed impossible.

He said: “When I first got the shop it was a surreal feeling. I missed being out on the street and going into shops so it was a hard adjustment. At first, I tried to do both and keep selling on the weekend but it became too hard to maintain. The first day of opening the shop people came to support and it was a great launch.”

Curtis Caribbean Grill and Speciality Cakes offer everything from traditional jerk chicken to cakes such as Jamaican Fruit Cake. Their curry goat is their best seller and it has been described as ‘delicious and full of Caribbean flavours’.

In 2017 he was even tasked with being chosen to provide food for a Member of the House of Representatives and the Jamaican Prime Minister’s wife, Juliet Holness when she visited the Jamaican embassy in London.

He said: “Most of the thing I’m doing right now, I never thought I’d be doing. When I look at my wife I always say I don’t know how I’m here doing this. I think it’s down to determination and self-belief more than anything.”

Curtis hopes to eventually be able to separate the cakes from the restaurant and have two shops proudly displaying his work.

I’m Ayokunle (Ayo to most) and I’m a Community Reporter at MyLondon covering community stories around London and positive human stories. I started in October 2021 and since then I’ve covered a range of topics spanning all of London.

Three stories in the last month that I’m particularly proud of are:

I was born and raised in Hackney and I came back from living in Sydney, Australia in 2020 which was a positive but stressful experience (Due to Covid). I do love London but as you can see, I needed to get out after being here for so long and the grey skies.

You can contact me at [email protected].

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