Taste Derbyshire – Stella’s Kitchen Eyam
It is 11.30am on a blissfully sunny day in North Derbyshire and a pair of holiday-makers have pitched up at a farmhouse restaurant for a late breakfast. A few bites into a ‘fluffy as a cloud omelette made-for-two’, one of them gasps. “Hot, hot, hot,” he manages to splutter. Stella Kisob Knowles, cook and flamboyant front-of-house at Stella’s Kitchen, runs to his aid. “I told you it wasn’t tomato ketchup; can I get you some water?” A few moments later, when the unexpected encounter with Stella’s famous chilli sauce (made with Scotch bonnets) has been forgotten – the couple make plans to come back to Stella’s for an evening meal. It’s that sort of a place, once Stella’s food has been tasted; people always want more. The fact there is lip-scorching chilli sauce on the table (and a milder and sweet alternative) at all tells you this cuisine is unlike anything you’d expect to find at a Derbyshire farmhouse which lies on a quiet road between the village of Eyam and the hamlet of Foolow. You can get tea and scones but the tea is African; often from Cameroon, the country of her birth. While the scones might be fresh out of Mary Berry’s cookbook, they have been given an exotic tweak to turn it into a ‘Stella creation’. “The recipe called for sultanas but I substituted them with crystallised ginger,” Stella says quietly as though embarrassed to admit she’s customised a scone recipe laid down by the queen of puddings. “My ginger scones are very popular. People love the idea of taking an English delicacy and giving it a little West African flavour.” Even a toned-down version attracted local praise; “I entered my scones in the Eyam village show last summer. I just dropped them off at the hall and didn’t think about them again until a lady appeared at the door to drop off a red rosette,” she says. “I thought it was for my son Adey’s sunflower. When she gave me a first prize, I was shocked and thrilled.” These two words just about sum up the reaction of tourists who – on asking in the tourist hotspot of Eyam about good local eateries – are told about the fantastic Afro-Caribbean place nearby. Fortunately, Stella is more than happy to explain how a woman, raised in Africa, ended up running a business from a remote farm in Derbyshire. But first things first. “You must eat,” Stella pronounces as though I am a waif likely to be blown away by the light summer breeze. “Have some hot banana and apricot cake, my recipe. I serve it hot, never cold. It’s gluten-free with almond flour which makes it very light. I’ll give you a good slice. In Africa we have a saying ‘food is never small’. This saying clearly applies to portions but could equally sum up Stella’s childhood during which food was always at the centre of family life. “I grew up in English-speaking North-Western Cameroon. It was just after we had gained independence from colonial rule by Britain. My father, who was a senior divisional officer in the government, took over from an English colleague who also passed on his chef, Mr Philip.” Stella admits she had a privileged up-bringing enjoying dishes cooked by a talented local chef; also schooled in European cooking methods. “Mr Philip was an amazing cook who picked up a lot of ideas from his employer’s British wife. I was the fourth child of seven and we had English delicacies like pancakes for afternoon tea. We’d go to church and when the church bell rang at the end of the service, Mr Philip would put a batch of scones in the oven, we all loved them,” Stella recalls. “From the age of three, I was fascinated by food. I would follow Mr Philip around the kitchen. He called me the ‘kitchen dog’ as I was under his feet all day long.” Stella spent a lot of time making play food; “My mother brought me a fancy doll back from one of her trips but I didn’t want it – I preferred playing in the mud making pies and cakes in old milk cans,” she laughs. “Someone bought me a toy kitchen set and it was my pride and joy. I learned a lot of African cooking from my mother. She loved to prepare certain dishes for my father but – even when Mr Philip was cooking – she’d be in the kitchen laughing and chatting about food and what we were going to eat. If someone is born – you eat, if someone gets married – you eat, when someone dies – you eat. Getting together to share food is central to African life.” Stella was so passionate about cooking, everyone assumed she’d make it her career. “I had sisters but I was always ‘the cook’ of the family. If people had parties or weddings, they used to ask me to do the catering. I even started a couple of restaurants in Cameroon but I didn’t have enough money to make them a success,” she explains. “But my late father always said ‘one day Stella, you’ll make your fortune from cooking’ and I may just prove him right.” In 1996, Stella went to Rundu Namibia to do volunteer work for the United Nations; “Our brief was to talk to woman about gender and reproductive health,” Stella recalls. “But you only get so far giving formal talks about contraception. I looked into ways we could generate some income for the women – like starting up a bakery – and we’d chat more informally while we worked. I loved my time there as I was mixing with people from all nationalities like Australians, Americans and the Portuguese, and learning about what people love to eat. Eventually, a friend and I founded a little restaurant called ‘Afrika House.” Stella, who is now 55, was encouraged by her British UN colleagues to move to England to
