LONDON, England — There is a zinc fence mural at the back with a painting of a black woman in a head wrap. On the fence was a menu that reads rice and peas, curry goat, and coconut water.

There arecooking pots, ice coolers, condiments, sodas, juices, you name it.

The scene has a look of somewhere in Jamaica, but in fact, it is inside the food court of Westfield Mall, Stratford, London. The eatery is Rhythm Kitchen, operated by Jamaican Delroy Dixon.

Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre that was opened on September 13, 2011 with a total retail floor area of 1,905,542 square feet, making it one of the largest urban shopping centres in Europe. It’s located just beside the former Olympic Stadium.

Tucked away neatly in a corner is Rhythm Kitchen, there were not much space to manoeuvre as customers, mostly decked in the black, green, and gold colours of Jamaica, flocked the venue.

“The Usain Bolt effect is massive,” said Dixon, who was born in London to Jamaican parents.

Dixon’s father is from St Elizabeth, but grew p in Mathews Lane, Kingston, and his mother is from Chapelton in Clarendon.

“A lot of customers are from Jamaica as I can see the black, green and gold all around. Whether Usain told them he liked my jerk chicken that’s why they come here, I am not 100 per cent sure. But it I’d like to think that it could be possible. But whenever there is a championship here, we get overwhelmed with customers from Jamaica and any part of the Caribbean,” said Dixon.

The concept of Rhythm Kitchen came about in 2010 after Dixon, who was a television producer, got disillusioned and wanted a new challenge. At the same time, space was being made available in the mall and he tentatively applied thinking he would not be considered, having no experience as restauratuer.

“I sent in a concept to open a Caribbean Jamaican-influenced food outlet in May 2010. And at that moment in time, I really thought that I would not get it because I never had a restaurant before and I was asking to get a place in the largest shopping mall in Europe,” he explained.

Dixon said he pitched the argument to the lease executive that Caribbean food is under-represented in major shopping places mainly in London and that the need for an authentic Caribbean restaurant in Stratford, East London, in particular, was urgent.

So in just over six years whipping up Jamaican favourites, Rhythm Kitchen has been doing very well mainly because of the Bolt and Bob Marley effect, claims Dixon.

“We have benefited (from them) because more people travel to Jamaica because of Usain Bolt and athletics, and there is a lot of effect that Jamaica has around the world that makes people want to sample the food,” said Dixon.

Dixon, who has not been to Jamaica for 10 years, says he only uses authentic Jamaican seasoning with jerk chicken and curry goat.

“Those two dishes are synonymous with Jamaica (and) we get a lot of tourists who have that experience going to Jamaica, and I want to replicate that. They always say ‘I want some jerk chicken with some rice and peas and that funny looking banana (plantain)’,” said Dixon, laughing.

But despite the high volume of customers the Bolt effect has brought to Rhythm Kitchen, Dixon will have his hands full as Bolt’s food franchise, Tracks and Records, will be setting up 15 branches in England.

“We have survived for six years. Economically, if the business wasn’t surviving I would close. So from a point of view of economics the business is working. It could be doing better but I am happy where we are at the moment,” he added.

“You just have to keep a high standard so people can turn around and say they enjoyed our food,” said Dixon.

— Howard Walker