Cooking her way to success... Anna Seepaul is a ‘Special Person’

“It’s [cooking] something I love doing. I don’t think I can give up on it and do something else…This will carry me to my grave. This is what I will do until I die. I feel that it was always in me—-to be a cook.”

By Leon Suseran, July 6, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under News, Source

Anna Seepaul is her name and cooking is her game. From a small ‘food-stall’ in front of her home, this entrepreneurially-driven young woman harnessed her culinary skills, gathered ideas, made optimum use of them and worked her way to success — cooking success.

Anna Seepaul

Today, she operates one of Berbice’s popular catering services. She primarily credits this accomplishment to the many days watching her mother, Izelle Seepaul, cooking in their kitchen at their Stanleytown, New Amsterdam residence.

Her father, Randolph Griffith, was a police officer. Anna spent all of her childhood and teenage days at Stanleytown, until the age of 24 when she got married and moved on.

Anna attended St. Therese’s Roman Catholic School, following which she was awarded a place at the Vryman’s Erven Community High. Spending five years at the latter, she then wrote the Secondary School Proficiency Examination (SSPE) where she attained the marks to attend the Berbice Education Institute (BEI). She could not have done so since she did not make the required age. As a result, she did not get the opportunity to write the CXC Examination.

“I just had to settle with being at home. My mother couldn’t afford it at the time to send me to a private institution.”

Perhaps, though, this was a blessing in disguise, as being at home truly allowed her to develop and cultivate her culinary skills. She related that at the age of 17, she started to make “little eatables” (fudge, mittai, pholourie, etc) and sold these at her home and “right at the street-head in my neighbourhood.”

She gave credit where it was due. “I used to watch my mother. She was a very good cook. She cooked for a lot of people – and popular establishments like the Church View and Penguin Hotels. I could say that I inherited that attitude from her.”

“If I visited friends and neighbours—older folks, I would look and learn—I was very interested in being around people and I always looked to see what they were doing (in the kitchen). I would then attempt these things on my own at home.”

The sweets stall that she operated proved to be an avenue for financial earnings, both for herself and her mother. This continued for a few years.

Interestingly, Anna also acquired cake-icing and decorating skills from her brother, “a mentor”, Courtney Liddell, and she would make good use of this. “He used to ice cakes for people and I learnt quickly from him. My brother then migrated and people used to still call and want cakes, so I decided to get into that field.” She started this in 1999.

Posing with some of her creations at the Carnegie School of Home Economics (2006)

Anna also obtained Certificates in Food & Nutrition and Cake Decoration at the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education (IDCE) in 2002 in 2003. Her tutor was Ms. Catherine Archer.

She then registered at the Carnegie School of Home Economics in 2006 and 2007, where she completed several courses in Basic and Advanced food-preparation, catering and cooking. She remembered learning to “make different kind of food that you don’t usually do in your home—food for vegetarians, and working a lot of tofu—unflavoured gelatin…to make cheesecakes from scratch, instead of using the box-cakes…casseroles…things that I had never made in the catering…Also how to debone a chicken—I never did that on my own.”

“The training benefitted me a lot — for instance when I had to cater for vegetarians, I knew what meals I could prepare and there were many options. I also made a lot of friends—those courses are very beneficial for anybody.”

Anna continued to do small-scale catering over the years from her Lad Lane, New Amsterdam residence. Then she and her sister, Claudette Watts, decided to pool resources and ideas to establish their own catering service.

“We would cater for small groups of people until we became very popular, whereby we catered for banks, the government, schools, private people, lawyers, doctors, etc.”  Wattsan Catering Restaurant and Bar was born on December 24, 2010—an acronym of her sister’s surname and part of her (Anna’s) name.

Receiving a certificate after completing a Food course.

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ust imagine, a young and inexperienced, out-of-school girl, with very little cooking and food-preparation skills, now co-owning and managing her own food-catering business. Looking back today, Anna noted that she might have been a Post Mistress as well today, if she had taken up an opportunity to work with the local Post Office in New Amsterdam just after finishing high school, “because I was supposed to turn on the job, but after having a child at a very young age—you never had day-care—so I had no one to take care of my child and so, because of that I had to forget about that job offer.”

In fact, she is a proud mother of five loving children: Royston, 29; Tomika, 26; Lauron, 16; Daniel, 9 and Condoleezza, 6.

And perhaps it was divine providence in the initial stages that she continued to be at home, taking a peek every now and again into her mother’s kitchen, because “now I have staff—like ten—they mostly do the cooking. I would do more decorations of cakes… I have cooks, but I would cook if one of them happens to be absent or so.”

She was able to acquire her own home and even a new car which she recently purchased.

“It is a very successful business. It’s [cooking] something I love doing. I don’t think I can give up on it and do something else…This will carry me to my grave. This is what I will do until I die. I feel that it was always in me—to be a cook.”

Hot out of the oven: Anna removes some delicious looking pine-tarts before the cheese rolls

Anna still has her inspiration around today – her 77-year-old mother – a very happy and supportive mother who still gives “kitchen advice”.

Our special person’s days are very busy – spent preparing, supervising and managing. She would have to cater sometimes for as many as 1,000 persons, a responsibility that requires waking up very early, putting in hard and long hours, and a commitment from her staff. “You need to have adequate and appropriate finger foods and three-course meals and complete that job in the desired time. Your reputation is on the line”

Anna says she would love to pass on her knowledge; however, time does not permit. A few years ago, she was able to teach some courses on cake decoration and icing.

“There are still people behind me up to now, wanting to learn, but there is so much to do in the business, and sometimes I have to fall in to help the workers…and it’s hard, because when I am finished working I would be too tired to teach people in the afternoon—maybe some time in the future.”

She recently returned from an overseas vacation. It really rejuvenated her. Apart from relaxing with her family and friends abroad, she was able to observe unique culinary customs and dishes and, of course, took in a lot of ideas.

Some of the staff members of Wattsan Catering and Restaurant: from left, Anna Seepaul, Abigale Sandiford, Candace Wallace and Simone Thom.

“I got a lot of new ideas in terms of grilled food, jerk meats, fruit-filled tarts and cakes. Interestingly, many eateries abroad weigh their food for sale. This is something I’m not too fond of, since the plates would already carry much of the weight.”

Apart from listening to soul and oldies music, she loves attending weddings, parties and other social gatherings, where her eye for strange and interesting culinary preparation, foods and arrangements, remains ever so present. “I am always curious to learn different things. These are places I get my ideas. You never stop learning; you always yearn for more knowledge.”