Two years ago it was on the brink of bankruptcy but thanks to the intervention of a certain no-nonsense celebrity chef Brighton restaurant Momma Cherri's is now setting its sights on world domination.

Only one in three restaurants survives for more than two years and for a long time it seemed Momma Cherri's Soul Shack would be another failure.

The eaterie lost money for its first four years of operation and only the hard work and determination of the staff, led by Philadelphian chef Charita Jones and her husband Phil, kept it afloat.

All that changed when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey spent a few weeks at the restaurant in December 2004, filming for his show Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

Charita specialises in soul food - an ethnic cuisine traditionally eaten by African Americans of the Southern United States.

Charita and Gordon dreamt up Soul in a Bowl together, a tapasstyle mix of soul food costing £10, which drew in customers during week days.

Brusque Mr Ramsey also tightened discipline in the kitchen but for once had no suggestions for improving the food, which he conceded was excellent on his first visit.

The publicity from the show brought hundreds of diners to the shack, which is now moving to new premises behind the Thistle Hotel. Charita is now something of a celebrity in Brighton. When Falmer High School launched a new £110,000 training kitchen this week she was brought in to dazzle the students with live cooking demonstrations and talk to them about her work running a restaurant.

The kitchen will host NVQ catering courses to help students secure jobs in hotels and restaurants and there will be courses in healthy eating. It will also be open to adult students.

Charita said: "It's great that the youth of today are being given the opportunities to transform their dreams into practical and professional skills."

Year 11 student Daisy Cliff said: "I've cooked since I was a little girl and I love it, but I had never thought of doing a vocational catering course and making it my career."

The kitchen has been paid for by east Brighton regeneration organisation eb4U, The Links Foundation, the Learning and Skills Council Sussex, Falmer High School and the Catering Training Company.

Stuart McLaughlin, head teacher at Falmer High School, said: "The Falmer Plus Training Kitchen is an excellent example of how partnership working can meet community needs.

"We are now able to offer NVQ opportunities to Falmer students, students from other local secondary schools and to the wider community as well."

These days Charita's restaurant is fully booked on Saturdays until April. A fire last October could not stop the progress, and with help from friends the shack was trading again within four days.

Now Charita is looking to a future where Momma Cherri's could become a theme restaurant in the model of the Hard Rock Cafe.

She said: "When Gordon came we were three or four weeks away from closing so it's been a complete turnaround. The menu itself was fine but people didn't really understand what soul food was.

"Being on television, especially on such a popular show, made a huge difference. Since the programme went out we've been booked up every weekend six weeks in advance. That's one of the reasons we're moving to a bigger restaurant.

"We were the first restaurant he visited on the show where he liked the food.

"Usually he finds a way of tearing chefs apart but when he came here he cleaned his plate."

The new premises will double capacity from 45 covers per night to more than 100, and Charita plans to keep the old shack as extra capacity and a place to teach people how to cook soul food at home.

Soul food was created by slaves in the Deep South who had to create meals out of left overs, using herbs and spices they grew themselves and the heads or stalks of root vegetables.

Charita said: "Anybody who has been to a fried chicken restaurant has had a sort of soul food but they probably don't realise where the recipe came from.

"Now I'm there to show them how to do it right.

"Our problem was that in Brighton and the rest of the UK people are used to Caribbean cooking and that was the main problem we had.

"As soon as they came in and saw a black person doing the cooking they expected curried goat and spicy foods. They didn't get that that's not what American soul food is about."

The new Momma Cherri's will be three doors away from the original shack, where Choy's Chinese Restaurant has been for around 40 years. The owner is retiring and has agreed to sell the site to Charita, whose mother, the Rev Daisy Thomas, a Baptist minister, is to fly over and bless on the opening night.

She said: "We're all really excited about the move. It means I can book in large parties for three or four tables at a time.

"I'll be able to do what I used to do and bring in live musicians.

"This is the first time since the restaurant opened five years ago that I've turned over a profit. We were dripping in debt but I think now we're at about zero, making a profit and looking for private backers to finance expansion."

Eventually she hopes to expand the business along the same lines as famous restaurants such as Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood but she would want to make sure any franchise branch maintained her standards.

She said: "I could imagine having Momma Cherri's in Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles. There's a gap in the market for this food and there's no reason the restaurant couldn't work - but it would have to be done properly."

Monday, February 27, 2006