Bon Appétit, Sans Souci!
Published:Thursday | July 11, 2024 | 12:09 AMJanet Silvera/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Eight chefs, a fusion of local and international cuisine, and an unforgettable gastronomical experience.
This was the Chaine Des Rotisseurs, dubbed ‘Live Well and Be Without Worries’, that was held at the historic and beautiful Couples Sans Souci Resort in Ocho Rios, St Ann last Saturday.
It was a spectacle that invited guests into the heart of gastronomic creativity.
There, guests did just that – live well without worries – as they indulged in a melting pot of Jamaican and international flavours dressed up and presented with aesthetic brilliance. All of this in an elegant and sultry white glove dining ambience at the resort.
The experience marked the intersection of a visual symphony, where the sizzle of pans and the dance of flames were as enchanting as the flavours that graced the plates.
“We were able to put together some very good executive chefs in Jamaica; and to have these chefs here with a willingness to work as a team produced the wonderful experience that we had last night,” boasted Pierre Battaglia, general manager of Couples Sans Souci, last weekend.
“The vision was to create a gastronomy event with fusion. So we had an Asian chef, and the entire team, and the plan was to give to our guests and members a combination of Asian flavours with Jamaican flavours, and using European techniques of cooking; and that’s why we put together all these talented young chefs,” noted Battaglia, who for 40 years has been a member of the Chaine Des Rotisseurs culinary movement that started out of France decades ago.
Couples Resort, he explained, has been a member for some 36 years, and noted that the event and location gave guests an opportunity to eat, meet friends, and taste great wines. New members of the Jamaican chapter were also pinned at the event.
The dinner was followed by brunch the day after, and both events were among four put on by the Jamaican chapter of the culinary movement this year.
Last weekend’s events included chefs Tyrone Jackson from Sans Souci, Valentine McKenzie from Couples Tower Isle, Martin Schmied from Sandals Royal Plantation, Mark Cole from the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, and Volea Williams from the ROK Hilton Kingston.
There were also presentations from Anish Kumar, a speciality chef from India, and from acclaimed pastry chef Linval Green from Couples Resort. Liliana Quiroz Sanchez from Moon Palace Jamaica also made offerings to the line-up.
Among their many creations was a ‘Creative Salad’, which featured salmon in a spicy chocolate cup, sweet onion, parsley, gastric crayfish dust and salmon roe, and there was a main entrée featuring Red Stripe cured lamb, rack-smoked Italian sausage, spinach stuffing, Shiitake mushroom reduction, smashed breadfruit, plantain and coconut ginger caramelised baby carrots, honey and rosemary.
The meals were washed down with some of the finest aged wines, including a 2018 Château de Fesles Anjou, which also came with a history lesson and an invigorating sensory celebration.
Chef Volaé Williams, who won several awards including Chef of The Year at the recently concluded Jamaica Observer Food Awards, described the experience as one way of elevating the Jamaican cuisine and presenting the island’s culinary offerings in a posh, clean way.
“My brain is always kicking, trying to find ways to modernise Jamaican food. If you look at a traditional Jamaican breakfast, you will have ackee, steam callaloo, and so forth. That is what we were aiming for,” said Williams. “I believe we have so many bold flavours here in Jamaica, and we need to revolutionise it and let it evolve on a more gastronomical aspect.
“With that, you have to factor presentation. It has to be refined, first-class, exclusive, and in the category where you can look at a Michelin concept. And that is why the presentation of the dish I did last night was different than every other dish,” said the Jamaican chef who was drawn to the craft after his mother exposed him to cooking at a young age.
Meanwhile, Sans Souci’s executive chef, Tyrone Jackson, explained that the Chaine Des Rotisseurs events force chefs to push themselves, “step outside the box”, and find new ways of presenting traditional Jamaican flavours.
“It pushes you to think, get creative and present Jamaican food with a twist. So what you have is an international influence with local ingredients, and that’s what makes it pop. Who would have thought that Red Stripe could cure lamb, when Red Stripe is brewed in Jamaica but yet we don’t have sheep here?”
“And everyone knows the Jamaican ‘run down’, but can we use run down with breadfruit, and then we put some plantain with the fresh, toasted crunchy coconuts. So it highlights how we can utilise things that we come in contact with on a day to day,” continued Jackson, who argued that Jamaicans need to move away from the Jamaican mindset, where a steak, for example, needs to be “cremated” for it to be considered properly cooked.