With her family operating a thriving public relations business and her mother as an icon in the profession, Anita Chin thought it wise to stick with the family trade. She graduated from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus in 2009 with a double major – in marketing and business management studies. The plan post-graduation: help build ProComm, the PR firm run by her parents, prominent practitioner Jean Lowrie-Chin and engineer Hubert Chin. But while Anita was for the most part, intent on not shunning Mom and Dad’s well-meaning career advice, she had long harboured a desire to be involved in the culinary industry. Little wonder then, that Anita, who “was such a picky eater from age 11, I took it upon myself with my mom’s supervision to prepare my own meals”, went to Le Cordon Bleu in Miami, Florida for an intensive nine-month course of study.

Returning to The Rock, Anita interned at the Courtleigh Hotel for six weeks at the height of the state of the emergency last year. She lauds Mark deKrines, the executive chef at the hotel, as being an inspiration. “Mr DeKrines, Colin Hylton and Jacqui Sinclair (Observer’s own Juicy Chef) and my grandmother Ruby have given me much inspiration and made me want to challenge myself to be a better chef,” she shares.

As for her future in the culinary industry, the 27-year-old Chin says while she would love to stick with the family business, her true desire would be to open her own restaurant that offers Jamaican fare with a European flair. “With the help of my younger brother Noel, I would get him to be the face of the PR company as I would want to do my own culinary business,” she informed.