Building a culinary media empire, one block at a time… That’s the game plan for former restaurateurs and caterer siblings Suzanne and Michelle Rousseau.

A web series (the Jamaica Tourist Board-collaborated Island Potluck)? It’s been done. A television show (the just-concluded 13-episode first season of Two Sisters And A Meal on TVJ)? That’s under their belt.

Now, the dynamic duo started their foray into the world of publishing with Caribbean Potluck. Yes, the Rousseau women are cookbook authors, and they popped by last Friday to hand-deliver a signed copy of their gorgeously rendered “love story to the Caribbean cuisine that raised them” to their long-time family friend and ardent supporter, Jamaica Observer Senior Associate Editor Novia McDonald-Whyte.

“This book has been a dream of ours for about the last 10 years,” Michelle Rousseau shared in-between filming a segment for the Observer’s online video.

“We had the idea for the book for a long time. We sat on a proposal for many years and shopped it around and spoke to a lot of people. Fate intervened when I met a lovely lady, Robin Moreno in New York, who offered to connect me to her book agent, Joy Tutela of the David Black Literary Agency, and she generously forwarded on our synopsis to her,” Michelle added.

Tutela, she said, was quick to respond and even quicker to offer advice on how to get the ball rolling.

The actual process was a lengthy one, with the drafting of 60-page proposal that functioned as a business plan for the book. The proposal was dispatched to almost 30 publishers.

“We accepted one of the first we got — an offer from, which was a UK-based publisher with a United States editor based in New York”, Suzanne explained. “We had to go back to the drawing board, complete the writing and re-edit. The entire process was intense and took a long time.”

For their cookbook debut, the Rousseau women were fortunate to work alongside a true A-team. The photographer was Ellen Silverman, who lensed actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s first book, My Father’s Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness; the stylist, Christine Albano, who worked as deputy food editor for Martha Stewart Living.

“Everything is divinely timed,” Michelle, the younger sibling, opined. “The book for us is a love story about the Caribbean, where we come from, the culture that has raised us. It’s Jamaican culture primarily, but also Trinidad where we lived for four years, and other islands we also visited.”

As for what’s next for the second season of their runaway hit TV show, Michelle said the culinary duo have already mulled over ideas. “We would love to travel outside of Jamaica to other islands, and do the same for other islands because we are one Caribbean region. We would love to get the right kind of partners on the show, and with this season wrapped, we would want to sell the show into the Diaspora and other parts of the world and have the show on air everywhere. The sky is the limit.”