The road to suc­cess es­pe­cial­ly in the food are­na is no sim­ple task but with hard work, fo­cus and be­lief in one­self is what pro­pelled An­n­Marie Ram­bal­ly com­mon­ly called, “An­nie” to be­come a suc­cess­ful en­tre­pre­neur in the food busi­ness.

An­nie was born in­to the world of cook­ing be­ing sur­round­ed by tal­ent­ed cooks like grand­moth­er and moth­er who passed on their skills and knowl­edge on cook­ing to her. Propa Eats sat down with An­nie for our Ta­ble Talks se­ries to learn more about An­nie, her pas­sion for food and some fun facts about her­self.

Tell us about your­self?

My Name is An­n­Marie Ram­bal­ly and sin­gle mom of 2 sons and a self-taught cook who turned my pas­sion in­to a small cater­ing busi­ness called An­nie’s Culi­nary Cui­sine Ltd, to sup­port my fam­i­ly.

How did you learn to cook?

I’ve been cook­ing since I was 12 . My mom and Grand­moth­er showed me how to do Lo­cal and cur­ry dish­es. Al­so, as a Hin­du, I have per­fect­ed the art of egg­less bak­ing. I pro­vide every­thing from Ap­pe­tiz­ers to Desserts and every­thing in be­tween. I pride my­self in be­ing able to cook all types of foods. My style of cook­ing is us­ing lo­cal in­gre­di­ents, no ad­di­tives or preser­v­a­tives. As they say “Fresh is Best!”

So if we opened your fridge right now, what would we find?

Eggs, bread, fruit and some stale food ha­ha!

Name a dish you al­ways want­ed to try but haven’t had a chance to make yet?

Tur­duckin

What for you makes a good restau­rant din­ing ex­pe­ri­ence?

Three keys to a good din­ing ex­pe­ri­ence: am­biance, ser­vice and good food.

What are you work­ing on at present,

Cur­rent­ly, I am work­ing on get­ting a few of my favourites on the shelves and freez­ers of su­per­mar­kets lo­cal­ly.

What’s your favourite dish to make?

Crab stuffed Red Snap­per

You can in­vite three peo­ple over for din­ner, dead or alive. Who are they?

My Grand­moth­er (de­ceased), my mom and Al­ton Brown

What are some of your trea­sured mile­stones thus far?\

Per­son­al mile­stones thus far will be rais­ing two sons on my own that have topped every ma­jor ex­am from SEA to UWI. Their suc­cess is my suc­cess and it goes to show that sin­gle par­ents can raise ex­tra­or­di­nary chil­dren de­spite the chal­lenges of life. In terms of mtr ca­reer, it would def­i­nite­ly be win­ning 1st Prize in a Pastelle Com­pe­ti­tion last Au­gust with one of my own recipes, plac­ing 2nd in 2 oth­er food com­pe­ti­tions and be­ing a Fi­nal­ist at An­gos­tu­ra’s Bit­ter Ri­vals.

Why do you do what you do?

As long as I can re­mem­ber I’ve al­ways been in­ter­est­ed in cook­ing. It’s def­i­nite­ly an in­tense pas­sion of mine and peo­ple should do what they love in life. You know the say­ing, “When you do what you love you nev­er work a day in your life.“ Al­so, I’m a sin­gle par­ent and bills need to be paid.

What is keep­ing you ex­cit­ed?

What’s keep­ing me ex­cit­ed is my abil­i­ty to cre­ate new dish­es. I love be­ing dif­fer­ent so I put that in­to my food. To see or hear my clients com­ment on those items are all the ex­cite­ment/mo­ti­va­tion I need to go on.

What is your dream for the fu­ture?

Hav­ing things like my spe­cial pep­per sauce, sea­son­ing and cur­ry mix in su­per­mar­kets shelves lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly

What is your ul­ti­mate goal or biggest dream for your fu­ture?

My ul­ti­mate goal will be for peo­ple to hear the name “An­nie “ and know who I am. That my food con­tin­ues to speak for it­self.