Jamaican food entrepreneurs grow home kitchens into thriving small businesses

Two Jamaican women featured on CVM’s Small Biz Big Dreams say hard work and community backing have helped them turn modest kitchen setups into growing food enterprises serving customers across the island.

Peter Gay Denson has run Love Live Families — offering seafood, pastries and other meals — for six years. She began in 2020 from her home kitchen, building the venture through effort, persistence and a love of cooking. After her husband died in 2021, she turned to YouTube cake tutorials as a way to heal, then began baking commercially without formal training.

What started as a small home operation now supplies seafood, pastries and homestyle meals. Denson says family support and steady routine have kept the business alive. Her range also includes slushies, custom T-shirts, engraving, wedding bouquets and wedding cakes. She urges other aspiring business owners to put God first in everything they do.

Charnet Anderson opened Chin’s Kitchen in January 2026 along Whitehall Avenue in St. Andrew. The weekend stall sells jerk chicken, soup, fritters, festival and porridge — a move she traced to a decision, made while out with her sister, to try chicken and soup on a stretch where no one else was offering them. She said she bought supplies within a week and launched, drawing customers from the community and passers-by.

Anderson works as a hairdresser during the week and focuses on the food business on weekends. She started with little equipment, buying a pan and setting up with a table and tent. Her soup, she said, is rich with peanut peas, corn dumpling, cow skin, chicken foot, beef, Irish potato and carrot. To keep quality high, she cooks in small early batches and tops up around 5 or 6 p.m. so the food does not dry out. The stall is at 34 Whitehall Avenue.

She told other entrepreneurs that results do not come overnight and that consistency matters — showing up every week, not skipping stretches. Anderson said community backing and good service have helped keep Chin’s Kitchen going as she builds the venture one step at a time.