In a 2008 interview, Rastafarian chef Minnie ‘Sister Minnie’ Phillips said she had compiled over 300 recipes for a book she tentatively titled ‘Stir It Up’. She died at age 68 in 2018, but the proposed time was never released.

Her children are determined it will be published and released in September 2020 to mark the second year of her passing. Her eldest child, Robert Chin, said the manuscript is being shopped to prospective publishers.

“My brother Mikhail [Phillips] is looking about it as we speak an’ we as siblings are supporting him all the way. The Marleys give us them blessing so everything good,” disclosed Chin, a singjay who goes by the moniker Stanpipe.

Because many of the recipes in the book, like One Love and Stir it Up, are named after songs written by Bob Marley, the Phillips family needed copyright clearance from Marley’s children. Minnie Phillips was a close friend of the reggae legend who died in 1981 at age 36. She was his cook for many years. Her natural recipes were also savoured by other reggae greats like

Dennis Brown and Freddie McGregor, as well as rock legends The Grateful Dead

and Hollywood star Denzel Washington.

Sister Minnie lived in Accra, the capital of Ghana for eight years, where she operated a restaurant. Rita Marley, with whom she was friends, also has a home in that city.

Stanpipe, who lives in South Florida, is Sister Minnie’s son from an early relationship. She later married Peter Phillips (Dr), with whom she joined the Twelve Tribes of Israel Rastafarian group, and had four more children. Peter Phillips was a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies during the 1980s. A decade later, he became a government minister and is currently leader of the People’s National Party. Mikhail Phillips is also a member of the Jamaican parliament.