My name is Viburt Cooky Bernard, here at Sybil’s Bakery and Restaurant. It’s like the beginning of the business district on Liberty Avenue. So my mom’s name is Sybil Bernard. She started this business back in 1978. It was kind of a drug infested area, and really run-down, and now it’s totally transformed into a beautiful community, and I feel proud that we were part of bringing it to where it is today. My mom is of Indian descent, but she grew up in a mixed-race home, and she also has siblings that are of Chinese descent. So she’s learned all ethnic dishes, and that what we bring here. – When you were coming up, did your family used to come out to Sybil’s, and this is one of the staple places, right? – Yeah, you’d come over here to get bread on the weekends.
– That’s a native Amerindian dish. We have the regular beef parts in there, the oxtails in there. Then we add other things, the spices, and we add also hot peppers to it. The Amerindians use this extract of Yucca. We call it cassareep. And that’s our main ingredient in there. Pepper pot. Predominantly a Christmas dish, mostly, but we have it all the time here, because– – People want it all the time. – People want it all the time. – You have any bread? – Yes, we have the bread to go with it, sure. As they say in Guyana, this is the boy for the girl. (laughing) – Wow. Almost like a challah, or like a– – It’s like a challah bread, yeah, it’s like a challah bread. It’s called plait bread. When I came I remember we were eating Wonder Bread. So, bread is what we started out with originally in my moms home to.
My mother migrated to come to make a better life for us in this country. She had no choice but to leave us, nine children, living in a little shack, with no parental guidance. I was only 12. My dear uncle, Neville, came and rescued some of us, took us to his bakery, where we worked very hard. So eventually my mom got all her children here. We all lived in a basement, nine of us. She said, “You guys want to make bread, and stuff, “so let’s make some and sell to our neighbors.” The recipes that we use now are the recipes that my uncle taught us 45 or 50 years ago.
– The next generation, how do you make them understand the hard work, and the hustle, and do they get it? Or is it, what do you think? – If you’ve never lived in poverty, you don’t even know what it is. So you, know, when you have, you don’t want to go back. The children here, they’ve never really lived in poverty, some of them, so they know what they know. It’s not their fault. They’re alright, they try, but you know, they were not there as deep as I was. Because I’m trying to dig from way, way down.
– That’s a good way to put it. And now, by the way, you’ve been in business for 30 years. Wow, over 30 years! – Over 30 years. For 40 years, 40. – Congratulations. – Thanks a lot man. – And the food is good! This is my favorite so far. Pepper pot– – Is it really? – especially dipping it with the bread, (laughing) and by the way, bless your mom, I’m glad we’re not doing it with Wonder Bread. (laughs) I’m glad we’re not doing it with Wonder Bread! – Thank you bro. – Thank you very much.
Thank you
