Who We Are
Claudias Kitchen UK is a range of traditional specialist foods. An inspirational cook and love to mix it up by blending a pinch of British and Caribbean fusion with a cup of Jamaican personality. if you can’t keep up with my pace or you are trying to track me down, you will always find me in the kitchen or touring looking for inspirations. Claudia Yap, Chef, and Innovator develops recipes in collaboration with manufacturers. The Jerk flavor has never been created on a pork rind, and this is the first snack of a British product that has been created with sunshine flavors There are plans to expand into more products and beverage which is currently under development. Our recently launched products new exciting flavors of Pork Crackling Jerk & Sweet Chilli, Simply British Roast Pork & Bramley Our original Mr. Jamaican Jerk Pork Crackling received a 1 star Gold Star Award and featured in the local press, BBC Radio 1.
Claudia started cooking from an early age by watching her grandmother and mother cooking in the kitchen. Claudia was born in 1962 in the City of Birmingham Uk from Jamaican parents who arrived from Jamaica during the Windrush era. Whilst growing up life was mainly around music as her stepfather Laurel Aitken was named as the godfather of Ska and was always surrounded by music. Her grandmother MIss B who lived closed by in Gordon Road, had weekly reggae sessions on a weekend where she had loyal customers would come and dance eat and it expanded so much that a converted cellars was converted as a live venue for live bands who played regular live sessions. This is where it all started with cooking, marinading and baking, my aunts baked lovely Caribbean cakes to.
On leaving school I continued to do a range of administrative and secretarial jobs and later went on to get married and have five children. As time went by my love for cooking continued and I did a number of festivals and various events which including catering for offices, funeral and birthday catering, buffets etc. As time went on I noticed that there was chinese and indian chilled meals and always thought that they could be a demand for Caribbean chilled meals in the supermarkets. I had this idea from 1988 and always wished that I could sell my chilled meals in Supermarkets. I almost got a break from an investor who was keen to invest in my idea and put the necessary funding in place to start the operation with the help of his Accountants. However, that investor died suddenly and the project never went ahead. Eventually I had the opportunity to set up two catering operation and ran them as a Caribbean Takeaway for 3 years but decided that my dream was to produce and develop my own branded products.
The journey of Claudias Kitchen started in 2019, prior to this Claudia was awarded an innovation Award from University College of Birmingham to develop a range of Caribbean Style Chilled Soups and Caribbean Jerk inspired ready meals. At that time I was keen to develop a quicker market of pork snacks and got in touch with a Pork Crackling company to develop my flavours as there was no such flavour on a crackling. After consultations, sample testing and tastings Mr Jamaican Jerk Pork Crackling was created and received a Great Taste Award from the Guild of Fine Foods. We started off locally by gaining accounts into local independent stores and pubs and we began to get repeat customers. In 2020 there was a dreadful Coronal Virus which affected our manufacturers and ourselves. So, during lockdown I was determined to create more flavours and now have three flavours one that has been improved.
I was eager to look at other avenues and enrolled myself on two online programmes one which was Innovation and the was Diverse Supply Chains where I received funding for development of two flavoured drinks one which is Hibiscus flavour Pink Ginger Beer and the HIbiscus Ginger & Rum low alcohol Hard seltzer which has been developed ready for market. We have three sauces that are in development that include Jerk Spice Tomato Ketchup, Mango Ginger Scotch Bonnet Sauce and Jerk & Sweet Chilli Sauce. So, my dreams are now coming to reality after so many years. We bring you Claudias Kitchen a brand of bold, innovative flavours to the market and our products that cover different categories both niche, foodservice. and retail.