Ameliya, a young chef, leaves her pots to go in search of the sources of Antillean-Guyanese cuisine. Accompanied by experts (historians, archaeologists, anthropologists) and chefs who cultivate tradition and innovation, she undertakes a quest to the roots of her art. The documentary thus tells the story of spices and foodstuffs that meet and mix.
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Ameliya aims to open her own restaurant. To imagine the ideal menu, she travels in search of the origins and evolutions of Creole gastronomy in the Americas.
His long quest begins in Guyana, in the Amazonian cradle of the first cooks of these places: the Amerindians. Accompanied by an anthropologist, a forest hunter and a renowned chef from the city of Cayenne, Ameliya discovers the inexhaustible resources of the three pillars of Amerindian cuisine: cassava, pepper and boucan.
Traveling through the history of migrations, first interbreeding and ancestral culinary practices, it goes from the oldest tradition to the most delicious innovation. She then discovered the surprising modernity of this very ancient culinary art which has established its three pillars at the heart of the diet of the contemporary world.
The young chef thus traces the history of Creole cuisine and its most emblematic ingredients. His curiosity allows us to discover the most popular original recipes that have marked their historical evolution, from the earliest times to the present day.
This “little story” of the spices and flavors of the Antilles-Guyana is part of the great history of the Caribbean and the Americas, and, thus, in that of the world from the great discoveries. This story of flavors, from the past to the present, from the present to the future, enhances a still little-known cultural heritage.
Realization Guy Deslauriers
Writing Patrick Chamoiseau
Production Kreyolimages, with the participation of France Televisions
Duration 52 min – 2022