New book launched   Discover Seychelles Creole Cuisine…   |22 February 2022

Mr Andre accepts a copy of the book from Mr Chetty

A new book about the Seychelles Creole cuisine has been launched by author Arnold Chetty and the secretary general of new Institute of Culture, Heritage and the Arts, David Andre, at the Mayor’s office, Victoria.

Also in attendance for the launch of the cookery book featuring authentic creole dishes were members of the Chetty family and the project team collaborators.

This book is a collection of 62 recipes – starters, main dish and desserts ‒ with amazing and colourful photos taken by Mr Chetty himself.

First the app ‘Seychelles Creole Cuisine’ was launched and viewing the growing popularity of the app, they decided to publish a book.

Introducing his book, Mr Chetty noted that the recipes reflect the dishes made by the Chetty family of Saint Louis, Mahé, Seychelles. “I have two passions – the Seychellois cuisine and photography. Over the years I photographed the dishes prepared by my family and then we started compiling the recipes. Then we set out to make this venture a purely Seychellois one and we did achieve our objective. Even our designer is a Seychellois living in Australia, Olivia Michaud. My editorial team is composed of Dr Marie-Reine Hoareau and Mohamed Kanté for the French edition, soon to reach the market and Kate Carolus for proof reading. Our team worked diligently and patiently producing what we believe is a great publication featuring authentic classic Creole dishes of the Seychelles,” said Mr Chetty.

“We also claim total ownership of all the photographs contained herein,” added Mr Chetty.

Secretary general David Andre noted that “culture belongs to everybody and our Creole gastronomy is well represented in this book. I hope this book will help more people cook traditional Creole food. The book will also help our visitors to learn more about our gastronomy”.

For his first book, Mr Chetty got the full support of his family members here and abroad.

He also told the press that he is an economist and entrepreneur by profession and he has been retired for the last two years. In his book he pens: “The book would not have been possible without one person whose delicious dishes ‒ prepared from her unwritten large repertoire of recipes ‒ graced the family table each day, while we were growing up. We learnt what great Creole cuisine is all about from Josephine Lesperance, the family’s live-in house help, originally from La Digue. Her amazing culinary skills produced delectable results each time and this was assured under the watchful eyes of our mother, Wilhemine Chetty who had a difficult task – that of pleasing the head of the household, our father Artoff Chetty. My siblings, Chrystold Chetty, Fabiola Horner (Chetty), Lyderic Chetty and Gervais Chetty and myself were fierce critics of each dish presented to us and this ensured that the quality was always maintained. Now that the first book is out, I have another project in mind regarding the Seychelles gastronomy.”

The recommended retail price will be R550 and once negotiations with institutions here are finalised, they will be available on the local market and will also be sold on some 38,000 stores online.

Vidya Gappy

Photos by Louis Toussaint