Great Bay:--- From Yvette's Kitchen To Your Table – A Treasury of St. Martin's Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine by Yvette Hyman will be placed in the archives of the Collectivity of St. Martin (COM), according to President Frantz Gumbs.House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) presented the new cookbook to the territory's government head last Wednesday afternoon, said Jacqueline Sample, HNP's president.
At the informal presentation in his executive office, President Gumbs said that he was happy to receive the cookbook, impressed with the content and design, "and assured us that a copy would be placed in the archives of the territory," said Sample.
The cost of the final production of From Yvette's Kitchen To Your Table was sponsored with cultural arts funds from the COM.
"On behalf of HNP and Yvette's family, I thank AMFO for the initial grant and the Collectivity for contributing to the project completion," said Sample on Monday.
"Thanks also to the Tourist Bureau, Caribbean Liquors & Tobacco, and Guavaberry Company for their contributions to the cookbook project," said Sample.
"We're happy that Yvette's family worked with the Book Fair Committee to launch the cookbook at the St. Martin Book Fair on June 4; and we're thankful for the over 250 people who came to the book party," said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.
According to Reiph, "News and comments about Yvette's cookbook are blowing up on Facebook and the tourism blogs."
With Prime Minister Sarah Wescott-Williams and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott in attendance at the book launch, guest speaker Regina LaBega called From Yvette's Kitchen To Your Table a heritage and tourism "treasure." LaBega is head of the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau.
The hardcover book is made up of 13 chapters, including Appetizers, Soups, Poultry, Fish and Shellfish, Meat, Salads, Dumplings, Rice and Fungi, Breads, and Desserts, said Sample, who also served as the book's main editor.
Among the book's 312 colorful pages, classic favorites such as souse, Johnny cake, Conch Yvette's, lamb stew, coconut tart, guavaberry and soursop drink are just a few of the over 200 recipes à la Yvette to be found in this Treasury of St. Martin's Traditional & Contemporary Cuisine, said Sample.
"This cookbook is an important and outstanding acknowledgement of Chef Yvette Hyman's committed service to the culinary development of St. Martin," said Gloria Ferris-Bell, a leading nutritionist.
Yvette' cookbook is now part of the gastronomic landscape of St. Martin. The 37-sq. mi. island, with over 350 restaurants from around the world, is known as the "culinary capital of the Caribbean," according to award-winning Canadian travel writer Melanie Reffes and ABCnews.com writer Kristin Braswell.
From Yvette's Kitchen is available at Shipwreck, Arnia's and Van Dorp bookstores and amazon.com and houseofnehesipublish.com.