Guests dined with Flair at The Gleaner’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness luncheon
Published:Thursday | November 3, 2022 | 12:09 AMKrysta Anderson / Staff reporter
On Monday, breast cancer warriors, survivors and thrivers were fêted with a fabulous four-course meal at The Terra Nova All Suite Hotel for The Gleaner's annual event, Live with Flair.
The day's menu included an enchanting roundup of soup, salad, a main course, and dessert. The luncheon commenced with a cream of pumpkin soup flavoured with honey and cloves and a classic Caesar salad.
Guests were then treated to traditional roasted hen marinated in Jamaican spices with savoury bread stuffing, accompanied with a grilled mahi-mahi with garlic butter sauce, served with Duchess potatoes topped with Parmesan, and cauliflower green beans in roasted garlic sauce completed with candied plantain.
For dessert, there was an assortment of pastries: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, lemon, and strawberry gateau, and vanilla cake with coffee mousse filling. The audience had the option of tea or Blue Mountain coffee as a warm accompaniment.
The talent behind the scrumptious showcase is Sous Chef Jaseth Jackson. She was honoured to be providing this feast for such a significant event.
The sous chef has been working with Terra Nova for over two decades, moving up the ladder from a trainee chef to working the pantry and then the hot range. She was then promoted to junior supervisor, the supervisor, before becoming a junior sous chef, and later a sous chef.
“My specialty is everything. But you won't see me in the pastry shop doing everything. I mostly do Jamaican breakfast like ackee and salt fish, steamed callaloo, escovitch snapper, sautéed liver and onions, and braised kidney. Based on the review, it does well,” she added. Waking up as early as 3 a.m. to get to work by 5 a.m. to prepare for the day, she will sometimes have 200 people to make breakfast for.
Chef Jackson's earliest memory with food included baking a cake at home one Sunday evening. What started as a desired dessert at the start of the week didn't go as planned. As a 13-year-old, she forgot the baking powder, so it came out with a bulla texture. Determined to master the recipe, she would go on the bake every Sunday until she got it just right.
She went on to pursue food and nutrition at Jonathan Grant High School and excelled at the craft. The aim was to branch off into nursing, but food was calling her name, so she answered.
Chef Jackson is all about exciting names for the dishes, so guests were interested to see the roasted hen and mahi-mahi. The Caesar salad, she said, is a signature of the hotel because of its sauce. And all the desserts are freshly baked daily.
“We catered to over a hundred persons for this event,” she said, adding that she felt good to honour breast cancer warriors, “From when I was a child, I would often hear about cancer. My father died from cancer at age 67. But I didn't hear about young persons with cancer. Now, as an adult, I try to ask questions about it, taking into serious consideration the dietary measures that come with it, like what to eat and what not to eat,” she told Food. The occasion stood as the inspiration for her menu selection, combining protein for variety, and shying away from rice to incorporate lighter and healthier offerings that are still flavourful.”
And to cheer the occasion, Bailey's came fully stocked with a bar of their sought after Irish cream, as well as spirited mixes which were inspired by Smirnoff Vodka and Tanqueray Blackcurrant Royale Distilled Gin for guests sipping pleasure.