Big Mama has soul food recipe
Features
June 11, 2004
Big Mama has soul food recipe

She cooks soul food and boasts, “Anyone eating it would be instantly healed of any inner wounds they have”.
That’s just one way to say, “It tastes real good.”{{more}}
Lydia “Big Mama” Cambridge has been cooking since she was thirteen, so there’s no doubt that there is experience in her recipes. But according to her, what keeps people coming back is not just the quality but the good price and friendly face. Big Mama is also known as “Sweet smile”.
Her establishment is operated out of the kitchen of her home in Block 2000. Although she has been producing food for sale just over three weeks now, Lydia says she can’t really complain about the flow of things.
“I don’t really cook a lot of food, but it sells and helps to make some money,” she said.
Lydia told SEARCHLIGHT that her culinary skills were passed on to her by her mother Esther Cambridge.
Her menu consists of, among other things, soups, rice and peas, macaroni salad, fish, liver and chicken dishes and even a herb sip in the morning. She also sells fruit juices and hopes to soon get the knack of making quality sandwiches.
“God has been great to me and so far everything is going fine,” she says. Lydia is somewhat of a philosopher as she acknowledges that a lot of the bad things that are going on in the country is a result of people not having love in their hearts.
“You have to have love and faith and that’s what I put into my cooking that’s why it’s so good,” smiles Lydia.
Lydia also prides herself on being environmentally conscious. She commends a group from Block 2000 known as Cloud 9 for their ongoing clean-up process. She says they are currently seeking donations from business places to aid in the clean-up campaign.
Lydia’s decision to cook and sell food was in an attempt to support her kids, Yasmine, Clinton, Akeem and Andy.
“Come and eat my food and you will come back,” she says as she is hoping that very soon she will be able to offer treats for the kids that will include ice cream. Lydia has experience cooking for the Prisons and commercially at a restaurant located in New Montrose.