The smile gets there first. Anyone who knows Anne-Marie Leach will recognise that warmth, the bubbly spirit that makes you feel welcome before you have tasted a thing. Then comes the food, and quite possibly a reason to reconsider how much room you thought you had left.
“Come over. Let me make that last mouthful worth it!”
That is her invitation to anyone tempted to call it a night at Liquid Gold Feast. On Sunday 8 November 2026, she will be bringing local coconut and cassava flour to the Barbados Food and Rum Festival’s grand finale, with fresh herbs, bright flavours and a few details she is keeping to herself. You may want to save her a little space.
For all the possibilities she sees in an ingredient, her idea of a memorable meal begins somewhere wonderfully familiar. Home tastes like her grandmother’s breadfruit cou cou, velvety and comforting, with a little cream. What stays with her is the feeling that accompanied it. Someone had made something good, and she was being cared for.
“That feeling of being cared for is something I want people to experience through my food today,” she says. “The dishes may look different, but I want that same warmth and generosity to come through.”
It is an easy sentiment to understand when you meet her. There is a lightness about Anne-Marie, an enthusiasm that makes trying something unfamiliar feel like a pleasure. Her cooking asks you to be curious. What could cassava become? How much flavour can a mushroom hold? What might happen if a dish you have eaten all your life arrived in a form you had never considered?
One festival audience has already had a particularly good answer to that last question. At Rise and Rum, she served a vegan interpretation of pudding and souse using local mushrooms. Afterwards, diners told her they thought they had been eating pork.
It is quite a response to get in Barbados, where pudding and souse comes with loyalties, opinions and somebody’s favourite Saturday stop. For Anne-Marie, the satisfaction lay in knowing that people had enjoyed what she put in front of them.
“When someone who usually gravitates towards meat enjoys a plant based dish enough to order it again, that means a lot to me.”
Her interest in cooking with plants has grown from a longstanding desire to explore different ways of preparing traditional foods. Training at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa gave her a foundation in technique. Finding her own voice meant deciding what she loved to cook and how she wanted people to feel when they ate it.
“I love how much possibility there is in a single ingredient,” she says, describing the different flavours and textures that preparation can reveal.
That curiosity runs through Meraki Mindfully Made, the business she founded. There, she wants the care behind the food to be apparent in the eating, in dishes people enjoy enough to return for. Before Meraki, she developed her work through Yummy Mummies. Her cooking has also taken her overseas to represent Barbados, including as part of the team that won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 DC Embassy Chef Challenge.
Still, ask her which ingredient deserves a little more attention and she will bring you straight back to something grown close to home. Cassava.
She has been working with cassava flour in cookies, exploring its possibilities in baking. Listen to her describe the cookie she would love to introduce to a diner and the appeal is immediate. A crisp edge. A tender centre. A little local spice. Something comforting enough to reach for without hesitation, interesting enough to make you ask what went into it.
The cassava flour will have another opportunity to surprise at Liquid Gold Feast, where she plans to pair it with local coconut. She promises comforting texture and the aroma of fresh herbs, followed by brightness on the palate. Whether you are a devoted follower of her cooking or simply following a good smell, she is offering plenty of reason to stop.
The finishing touches remain a secret. Fair enough. A chef should be allowed to keep something for the first mouthful.
Liquid Gold Feast begins at 7 p.m. at CARIFESTA House, Waterford, with “These Fields and Hills” as its theme. It is a natural setting for Anne-Marie’s fascination with ingredients that Barbadians know well and the possibilities still waiting within them. The wider festival runs from 5 to 8 November, in the month Barbados celebrates 60 years of Independence and five years as a republic.
For her, the response she hopes to hear is simple.
“I know that ingredient, but I’ve never had it quite like that before.”
Somewhere in that little moment of surprise is the pleasure she wants to share. A familiar taste, a new way of enjoying it, and the warmth that began with her grandmother’s breadfruit cou cou.
If you think you have finished eating, look for the smile. Anne-Marie has one more invitation for you.
