Home cooking has always been something that brings people together - whether it’s sharing a meal around the dinner table or leaning over a stove in the kitchen to make your first meal.
For Adolphus King, home cooking was the foundation of his own business Sunshine Graze, a fusion Caribbean food stall that makes everything from scratch. Best known for its patties and cakes, it has built up a loyal following in Bristol despite only being in the city for two years and has thousands of followers on social media.
Born in Birmingham, Dolph has been working as a chef since he left school at 17, working in restaurants, industrial kitchens and as a corporate chef. Now 49, he recalled when his passion for cooking was first sparked - at home, cooking with his mum.
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“I grew up in a Jamaican household and being Jamaican, part of the tradition is that men have to learn how to cook. My mum used to leave me sometimes on a Sunday when she went to church and I used to prepare dinner for everyone. I learnt how to cook when I was really young and I will try and teach my sons when they start to get a little bit older.”
In his youth, Dolph started with the basics, preparing simple dishes like brown stew chicken, jerk and curried chicken along with rice and peas. “It was all from my mum’s recipes and the way she used to do it, so I picked it all up from there.”
He first launched Sunshine Graze as a moonlighting gig alongside working as a full-time chef, securing permission to use his home kitchen to prepare food boxes and bake cakes.
Pressure mounted on Dolph when lockdown hit the UK. He was running a kitchen and preparing fresh meals for residents in a care home in Birmingham, a sector under a lot of strain throughout the pandemic.
“It was really, really stressful because I was running the kitchen and getting no time off. It was exhausting. People who work in catering, sometimes you’re underappreciated. I would get home after a long day and try and spend time with the kids and the phone would ring and someone hadn’t come to work, and you have to go straight back in.”
His partner, Kirsty, encouraged him to focus on Sunshine Graze full-time, and so he quit his full-time job two years ago. She helps with the admin side of the business and steps in with the baking at busy times.
“I thought ‘life’s too short, go with what you love and do it’ so I now do this full time.” The couple focused on selling their products at farmers' markets sourcing ingredients from local producers and offering a catering service.
The family relocated from Birmingham to Bristol, Kirsty’s hometown, so they could be closer to her mother. “I really liked the city, it was so laid back and ‘me’. It suited me better,” he explained, settling in the north of the city after finding a kitchen unit in Thornbury two years ago.
“We had no idea the local area was going to treat me and accept what I was doing,” he said. “The feedback you get. When someone tries something for the first time, you see them come straight back and tell you that was great. That gives me the best feeling ever.”
Dolph said he always pays particular attention to the way his bakes and dishes are cooked and spiced. “It’s important to concentrate on your audience and who you’re cooking for,” he explained.
“I have Black and white customers. There’s a very fine line to how things taste. I find my Black customers like it really spicy, but my white customers like it in the middle. I also use familiar ingredients, keep it Carribean, but use things that people will recognise.”
He makes some familiar dishes fused with Caribbean ingredients, like his popular Victoria Sponge, made with mango and rum cream at around £3 a slice. His famous handmade Jamaican patties are made with traditional meat fillings - including lightly spiced beef, mutton and chicken - but Dolph has introduced vegetarian and vegan fillings like jerk barbecue vegetables, costing around £3.50 each.
“A lot of people I serve have never tried Caribbean food before because they have no idea what to order from menus. I find myself explaining a lot about the food, what’s in it and how we’ve made it.”
While Sunshine Graze is going strong at farmers' markets and a handful of catering jobs, Dolph is conscious of expanding too quickly in the current economic climate as an independent business. “I think I enjoy doing the way I do it,” he admitted.
“I’ve catered a few weddings and parties. I can’t say what’s around the corner though. Catering is something I want to do more of in the future if it keeps going the way it’s going, but when the economy gets better it’s something I’ll look at.”
If you’re looking to get your hands on a patty or two, Sunshine Graze is a regular at the artisan market at Page Park in Staple Hill, where people are often seen queuing up to get their hands on his food.
You'll also often find Sunshine Graze Thornbury Farmer’s Market, held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. They also attend the Midsomer Norton market on the first Saturday of each month.
Sunshine Graze shares the exact locations and timings of the upcoming markets on Instagram and Facebook.
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