By Michael Mondezie
“I still got it!” A supremely confident Denise Belfon made that declaration when the subject of her legendary Carnival stage performances popped up in the early hours of Friday morning.
At 55, Belfon is quickly earning a reputation for her self-professed “sweet hand” cooking in New York, USA, with her Saucy pop-up kitchen.
The Carenage-born singer’s signature red snapper fish broth and T&T traditional menu of coo coo, callaloo, fried and stewed fish, pork, chicken, oxtail and beef pelau, corn and pigtail and curry goat and buss up shot, among other dishes, are writing her new lore in the city that never sleeps. However, Saucy Wow, as she is best known to Caribbean music fans, will forever be remembered as the undisputed wining queen of soca.
“Once yuh born with it, it cyah go anywhere. It could never go anywhere once you are blessed with any talent,” Belfon chuckled.
Radio announcer cum Independent Senator Dr Paul Richards, on live radio, once described Belfon’s ambidextrous waistline as “a national treasure”. The veteran soca star laughed at the reminder, and set the record straight on the correct description of her famous choreography.
“A lot of love goes out to Paul Richards; I remember when he said that. But as I tell people, Saucy don’t twerk. Saucy does wine. Saucy does make her bottom jump and bounce. I shake what my mama gave me!” a giggling Belfon confirmed.
Denise Belfon
Belfon was back in regional music headlines when Jamaican dancehall star Shenseea (Chinsea Lee) sampled her 1998 classic “Work” in the 2022 crossover collaboration with American rapper Megan Thee Stallion (Megan Pete) “Lick”. The “Saucy Baby” singer says while she believes Shenseea marketing team missed a trick by not including her in a bigger way in the song’s promotion, she remains thankful for the new musical doors it opened. “I am still creating. I will always be in studio. What keeps me inspired is the fact that every time I think I’m going to retire and not sing anymore, somebody reaches out to me and asks if I can help them with something or give them some advice. Or somebody reaches out and gives me a wicked riddim and automatically I say yes,” she revealed.
A family of cooks
Belfon has always had a deep appreciation for the culinary arts. The spicy entertainer says she relishes the challenge of guessing the secret ingredients on her plate when dining out.
“I would go out and eat in different restaurants in different parts of the world and try to figure out what is in a dish. I would then go home and try to recreate it by just remembering what it tastes like,” she said.
Her children would especially enjoy these experimentations, she added.
“My son Daniel would say ‘mummy you’re a really good cooker’. To this day all my kids and now my granddaughters love my curry,” Belfon beamed.
Belfon credited her Jamaican great-grandmother and St Lucian and Grenadian grandmothers for her regionally loved cuisine. Two mothers-in-law, Jean and Mona and “a brigade of aunts” helped further sweeten her pot.
“I’ve learned a lot from these beautiful ladies. All the ladies I grew up around gave me the sweet hand, after God blessed me with the gift of being able to make people happy by cooking with the love that I feel when I’m in the kitchen. I cook with my heart, with my soul. I work things out when I’m cooking. When I’m depressed, I go to the kitchen and whip up something tasty. It’s my way of stress relief,” she shared.
The unwavering support of her family instilled the deep self-confidence that serves her well to this day.
“There was one time my mother was in hospital. She had a C-section with my brother Robert. It was just me, my stepdad and my sister Keisha and I decided to make pelau. Now poor Denise doh know when yuh grate de coconut yuh supposed to squeeze out de milk. Denise throw de coconut with husk and everything in de pelau, so we really had a sugar cake pelau that day. My stepdad was so nice and kind to me, he didn’t wanna break my heart, he ate it, and we even took some to the hospital for mummy and she ate it so I wouldn’t feel bad,” an emotive Belfon remembered.
An attainable dream
Having a fixed location in New York and opening a restaurant back home in T&T remain at the top of Belfon’s wish list.
“I’ve always done things to survive. Some will call me ah hustler,” a pensive Belfon nodded.
“As a young girl I used to make fudge, toolum, paw paw balls, sugar cake, suck-a-bags in Gonzales (Belmont) and it was a hit with the school opposite my home. I see kids now that are adults walk up to me and say: ‘I remember when you used to make all dem nice things and its so good to see you singing’.
“They say they does boast and tell people I could real make a fudge and a red mango and that feels really nice to know that they speak about me and about the things that I could do.
“It was a tough time. I just had my first daughter, she is not here with us anymore, she would have been 32 now. I used that money to buy baby clothes, her crib and do things as a young girl who didn’t have her child’s father in her life, to survive. “I’m working towards getting my own place: Saucy Kitchen (in NYC). I will be coming home to do my restaurant. My dream and my whole goal is to be able to come back home and do Saucy on the Avenue. That is my heart desire!” she concluded.
