Origin of the Creole Cuisine of the Seychelles (Post 1 of 5- The French)

The Creole Cuisine of the Seychelles was born from the fusion of five major contributions, the French, African, Indian, Malagasy and Chinese. All these nationalities brought with them their little culinary secrets that have been handed down to generations and helped shape the repertoire of dishes that make up the islands’ gastronomy, adding the numerous distinctive spices, savours and aromas along the way.

Ingredients in the Creole Melting Pot

The French Contribution

The first contribution is drawn from the French, the islands’ first settlers who arrived in 1770. They disembarked on St Anne Island and the prime purpose of the settlement was to grow spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and chillis over which the Dutch had established a trade monopoly. The small group was made up of 27 men consisting of 15 whites, 7 Africans and 5 Indians , and one single ‘negress’ African woman.

The population gradually grew and by 1789 it had reached 591 persons; 69 French settlers, 3 soldiers, 32 coloured persons and 487 slaves. In the 1790s the population was further strengthened by the arrival of refugees fleeing the turmoil in France and by the time the census of 1803 was done, the recorded population was at 2121 persons, including slaves. There were also 812 pigs, 250 cows and 4971 chickens and 350 goats and lamb with the main crops being coffee, cotton and cloves !! From then on the population kept on growing aided by the influx of about 2500 slaves liberated by the British and resettled on the islands.

Census 1803

About 45 percent of the slaves that were landed in Seychelles came from the sister-island of Madagascar, while another 40 percent came from East Africa (mainly Mozambique) and Central Africa.

The Landing of First Settlers- Illustrative Purposes Only

The Landing of First Settlers- For Illustrative Purposes Only

The new settlers, made up of mainly French who had been living on Mauritius, Reunion, or in French settlements in India, and those who came afterwards, had to adapt to their new living conditions and adopt new dietary regimes. The conditions they experienced at sea would have prepared them well for this change to some extent. As soon as they landed, they would of course have started to rebuild their dietary world. They would have used their rich culinary savoir-faire and cooking skills, which they would have adapted to incorporate the local ingredients, including an abundance of coconut palms, land tortoises, fresh fish, sea birds and sea turtles which prompted Lazare Picault in 1742, during one of his expeditions, to name Mahé Island, ‘ Ile d’Abondance’.

They would also have brought with them ingredients like flour, vinegar and other meats, as well as domesticated animals like cattle, goats and pigs and poultry. The islands in its early days produced rice, corn as well as coffee. In fact, records shows that around 1876, 19,500 kilos of rice, 37,000 kilos of corn were produced locally.

The new settlers also introduced some spices to the islands namely nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. The idea was to start a spice plantation to rival those of the Indies. Unfortunately, the plantations never became commercially successful, but the spices thrived and grew wildly along the hill slopes. They could also have borrowed some recipes and cooking ideas from the passing pirates and corsairs who would in turn would have picked up their knowledge from the Indians of the Caribbean .The recipes that could have been borrowed include seabird omelettes, buccaneered meats, ragout of flying foxes or fruit bats, the use of turtle oil for cooking and marinating meats like dugongs and alligators.

What did we inherit?

From the French we inherited most of our cooking methods, techniques and terminology. These include pot roasting or roti dan marmit, baking or , frying or fri, daube making (sweet and salty) or kwi ladob dou ek sale, and many more. Please click here to read more about the creole cookery methods and terminology.

In the early days of settlement the settlers had no ovens as we know it and pot roasting was the main method of roasting any meat. Pot roasting is a technique whereby meat is seasoned and placed in a cast iron pot or marmit and sealed with a heavy lid and allowed to roast over low heat for a few hours. Sometimes hot charcoal was also placed on top of the lid in order to obtain an evenly cooked roast.

When ovens were available they were made of red earth, granite and cement or lime and were wood fired. They were basic and ideal to bake bread, and gros biskwi. The gros biskwi, currently known as larou saret, because of its uneven roundness, is a dehydrated biscuit that is very popular all over the islands. Every time I eat this biscuit I have flash backs. I grew up with it and had it for breakfast almost every day. This biscuit keeps for ages in a tin and was ideal for island life. It is a biscuit that is unique to the islands and originated from a need by the sailors and settlers in the early years to have food items that could keep for a long time when at sea. Its long shelf life provided an insurance against hunger in the absence of fresh provisions.

We also inherited techniques of preserving meat. Before the advent of refrigeration, preserving food posed considerable problems and concern for prolonging the shelf-life of foodstuff and meals for the settlers. This problem was partly resolved by applying the curing and smoking process to the food items they wanted to preserve. These two techniques which we inherited were also well suited to the climate.

Curing or salting was critical for the survival of the first settlers because it was one of the main method to preserve meat and fish and the French were quite conversant with this process since all meat eaten on the ships were salted.

The smoking technique was popular then in French homes specially in the countryside where people always hung smoked meats, as well as strings of onions and garlic, over fireplace or hearth.Consequently, the French settlers would have been well versed with this technique. The food items were placed above a hearth and they will be smoked from the smoke produced by the burning coal and wood while the food was being cooked. This not only preserved the food, but also protected it from insects as well.

Another related method to preserve food is the process of boukannen whereby meat or fish is cured with smoke. This smoke-grilling method was introduced to Reunion ( then Bourbon) and then to the Seychelles by sailors and/or the Compagnie des Indes’ personnel. It has been adapted into the Seychellois creole cuisine and applied mainly to fish dishes. It was initially used by the islanders to preserve their fish for a few days, as there was no means of refrigeration. This has now been extended to smoke-grill fish to be cooked the next day or to consume straight away.

We also inherited a whole series of traditional French processes for preparing pork, along with the consumption of items such as blood pudding, fresh sausages, dried sausages, tripes, salted pork, smoked pork, pork crackling or gratons.

Black coffee in enamel mug

Drinking a strong cup of black coffee early in the morning before breakfast is also a tradition that we have inherited and which we have almost lost. The coffee was locally grown, dried, roasted and pounded using a big mortar and pestle. There was a tendency to add raw sugar to the coffee when being roasted. The coffee was prepared in a percolater called Lagreg. This traditional coffee percolator, was made out of galvanised aluminium, consisting of two main sections. The bottom section is a container with a spout and a handle into which the coffee drips when percolating. The top section has a perforated base, a handle to facilitate its removal from the base when hot, and a lid. Ground coffee is placed in the top section and hot water is poured over the coffee to start the percolation. The lid is finally placed on top to keep in the heat. Derived from café à la grèque, meaning Greek Coffee.

What we did not inherit?

There were however some aspects of French cuisine that did not get integrated into the Creole cuisine of the Seychelles. These were mainly the delicate pastries including croissants, danish etc. The reasons here were, may be, because there was a lack in skills and knowledge among the settlers to produce these items as well as a shortage of basic materials like flour, butter, milk and eggs. Or, may be that the equipment to bake them in were not available. There were however, some local cakes that were popular and they did not require a lot of finesse and some of these were barlafin, lapatsek and toufpiti. The biscuits that were cooked were mainly done on hot plate and made from cassava flour and required very few ingredients. Galet or cassava biscuit, a contribution from our African slaves, is an example of an item that was very popular and consumed a breakfast.

The Traditional Festive Offerings

Up until about 20 years ago it was a tradition in quite a few homes to emulate the classic French dishes in our creole cookery during festive time and on special occasions like first holy communion , Xmas lunch and dinner, Easter lunch . The dishes that were cooked and presented to guests and families were pot roasts with roasted potatoes, or a choice of meat daubes and salads and cakes. Curries and rice, as well as any root vegetables like cassava, taro and yam were not part of the offerings.

The reason for this may have been derived from a subconscious attitude that creole foods was inferior to French dishes and that French dishes were more prestigious and therefore more suited to festive occasions or was it just a simple desire to honor a guest. In other words, a guest may be offered French style dishes instead of ordinary creole dishes. This was the also case at wedding celebrations were almost everything was in French including the speeches as well as the romances. Also entirely characteristic of festive meals was the drinking of a glass of Marie Brizard, a French spirit which until recently it would have been considered improper not to offer to guests.

Click here to read about the second contribution.