Jamaica’s finest caterers take centre stage from October 30 to November 5 as the Jamaica Observer, in association with Victoria Mutual Building Society, Jamaica Public Service Company and Best Dressed Foods, present a weeklong celebration billed ‘Order In.’ Thursday Food encourages our readers to invite any of the following 10 culinary geniuses to wow your palates.

Colin Hylton

Colin Hylton’s name is synonymous with creative cuisine. Dinner at his Guilt Trip restaurant is sure to awaken your senses. “Fun, fearless, fabulous fare,” Hylton responds when asked to define his culinary offerings in four words; and we have to agree. A certified accountant by training, Hylton had long harboured an affinity for food, but his parents would have none of it. “It was in my gut, but my parents were scandalised when I made my intentions known and forced me into the cruel arms of an accounting profession,” he shared. Nonetheless, while living in Toronto, he completely immersed himself into the artistic crowd. “That’s where I met the fashionable chefs, artists, fashion and interior designers who opened my eyes to a whole new ultra-glamorous world… I taught myself through osmosis,” Hylton said. Travel opportunities would follow and see The Rock-born Hylton jetting to over 25 countries, developing a serious case of sensory overload along the way. “I discovered fresh Kaffir lime leaves, cardamom, star anise, fenugreek, gar am masala, lavender, fleur de sel, tillicherry black pepper, and herbs de Provence,” he said, adding that Norma Shirley served as an instrumental presence in his career. “She was ever so crazy and temperamental, similar to working with chocolate, and we had an intense love/hate relationship,” he admitted.

Let Hylton tantalise the taste buds of your dining party in your home. Ring him at 990-1259 or email guilttriplimited@yahoo.com

Jacqui Tyson

While her food creations have consistently dazzled plates and excited many tongues to near orgasmic delight, Jacqui Tyson said she’s never fancied herself the title of caterer. “I see myself more of a culinary and transformational artiste,” Tyson reasoned. She said her company, From Thought to Finish/Jahmento Productions’ most immediate goal is to “create and transform the environment to ensure a successful moment, whatever the occasion”.

Though a well seasoned presence in the catering profession for over 15 years, Tyson said she accidentally happened upon the trade by way of European ex-husband chef Andre Niederhauser, who she said used her as a guinea pig when he would experiment with fusion dishes that incorporated Jamaican ingredients. She got a full-fledged baptism in the kitchen when the chef for the restaurant she and her husband ran failed to show up for work. With her hubby absent as well (but on cellphone), Tyson was left to fend for herself but acquitted herself well with fabulous results. Though the couple’s relationship would peter out, what didn’t dim was Tyson’s growing passion for food. She went abroad to study in Lausanne and Lugano in Switzerland and the New England Culinary Institute. Armed with increased knowledge, Tyson returned to Jamaica and would go on to establish a name on her own culinary merit. Asked what she believes her most significant achievement to date has been, Tyson said for her, there’s no specific moment to pinpoint. “As you complete a culinary execution and guests are wowed, that’s your finest moment, but the reality is always that you are only as good as your last job,” she explained.

Let Tyson excite your appetite from yardstyle to gourmet. Call her at 322-3869 or email fromthought_tofinish@yahoo.com

Michele Williams

It was during her student years at the then-College of Arts Science and Technology, CAST (now the University of Technology-UTech) that Michele Williams had her epiphany. “I discovered I really wanted a career in the culinary arts,” she recalled. The road towards accomplishing Williams’ professional goal actually began much earlier. As a young girl, she envisioned herself as a hotel or restaurant manager and always felt a sense of fulfilment in the kitchen helping her parents with Sunday dinner or the annual New Year’s Day family gatherings. These home events stoked the early flames of desire to prepare meals. The London-born, Rock-reared Williams would go on to attain a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from the Eastern Michigan University followed by internship at the Croydon Park Hotel in England. Upon her return to Jamaica from studies abroad, she went through a series of interviews at hotels before being accepted for a position as a restaurant manager. But her innermost thoughts were not at peace. “My gut feeling was that I wanted to be a private chef catering for my own clients,” she said. Fast-forward 20 years later and Williams is living her dream. Her company, Moveable Feast Caterers, is a qualified success. “I focus on creating home-cooked meals in a gourmet style. Local cuisine is presented with an international, yet homely flair. In a nutshell, my team and I provide elegant comfort food,” she explained. Her cooking gene has also apparently been transferred to teenaged daughter Samantha, who, like her mother, finds joy in the kitchen. Cooking aside, Williams considers Sam “my greatest accomplishment”.

Have a moveable feast brought to your table. Telephone Williams at 927-0817 or email michele_sam@yahoo.com

Multiple Observer Food Awards Caterer of the Year (and winner in 2000) Michele Williams is one of the talented caterers participating in next week’s ‘Order In’ as part of the three week long event billed Salut! Compliments of one of Salut’s corporate sponsors, Best Dressed Chicken, Williams shares the recipe for her oh-so-delish roasted chicken with orange glaze.

Roast Chicken with Mango Orange Glaze (Serves 6)

Ingredients:

1 3lb Whole Chicken

A few pimento seeds

2 Limes Fresh black pepper

1 /4 cup vinegar

1 tsp salt (extra to taste)

1 medium onion, finely chopped Garlic powder

1 sweet pepper, finely chopped Soy sauce

Olive oil

1 /2 head of garlic (chopped)

Dried or fresh herbs

2 sprigs thyme or Rosemary

2 sprigs escallion

Mango Orange Glaze

Ingredients:

1 /4 cup water

3-4 tablespoons mango chutney

2 tbsp honey

Juice of half an orange

Method: Combine above ingredients in a small saucepan and cook on high heat until reduced and appears like syrup. Set aside for basting chicken during roasting.

Method (Roasting Chicken):

Preheat oven to 375°F.

*Cooking temperature 350°F Rinse chicken with water, drain. Wash again with lime juice and vinegar, drain thoroughly and pat dry.

Combine chopped onion, garlic, escallion, thyme and sweet pepper in a small bowl.

Stir in pimento seeds, cracked black pepper, salt, garlic powder and some fresh or dried herbs.

Rub seasoning all over chicken. Use fingers to slide seasoning under the skin of chicken as well.

Sprinkle a little soy sauce, olive oil and salt over the chicken. This step may be done immediately before roasting in oven, overnight or 2-3 hours before cooking and refrigerated until cooking commences.

Place chicken in a greased ovenproof dish (grease with olive oil).

Cover with foil and roast chicken for approximately 45 minutes.

Remove foil and baste chicken with mango glaze. Return chicken to oven and roast for 1 hour, during that time keep basting the chicken every 15 minutes.

When the chicken is cooked the juices run clear when a knife or skewer is inserted in the thickest part of chicken with bone.

Place cooked chicken on a serving platter and encircle it with sautéed red onion, mushrooms and fresh herbs on a serving platter.

• Serve with Scalloped Potatoes and seasonal vegetables such as julienned cho cho and carrots or steamed garden vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower florets with brussel sprouts for an elegant touch.

Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese (Serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

4-5 medium-large potatoes (thinly sliced) 3-4 tbsp butter 1 medium onion (thinly sliced) 1 /4 cup All-Purpose flour 2 cups milk Salt, black pepper (to taste) 1/4 cup Shredded Cheddar cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 375°F Bake 350°F for 1 hour 30 minutes — 45 minutes Grease bottom of a casserole dish with some butter. Layer 1 /3 of sliced potatoes in dish with a few slices of onion. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter. Continue layering potatoes, sliced onion and sprinkling with salt and pepper and dotting with butter. Finally, whisk flour into milk and pour all over potatoes in the casserole dish. Cover with foil and bake for about an hour and a half. During the last 15 minutes of baking remove foil and sprinkle cheese of your preference on top. Bake until golden brown.

Celeste Gordon

“I love food; the more I was around it, the more I wanted to be involved in it,” caterer Celeste Gordon confessed. Initially working on the north coast hotel circuit, and then at the now-defunct Ciao Bella restaurant in Kingston, Gordon made the choice to fly solo — first as a personal chef, and subsequently as a caterer. “I like the creativity it affords me,” she explained of the catering profession. “Every event is different and so I basically do something different every time I work and this helps to keep my job always interesting and never boring,” she continued.

Gordon, a graduate of Boston University where she received a bachelor’s in hospitality administration, also holds an associate degree from the Culinary Institute of America. She considers her culinary signature her ability to fuse different styles of cooking. “With weddings, the couple sometimes want to marry their food preferences and backgrounds, so I have had to come up with combinations that accomplish this. I really enjoy this because it really feeds the creative side of my abilities,” Gordon said.

Make the super-talented Gordon your caterer for the day. Reach her at 869-5717 or email chef_cee@hotmail.com

Brian Lumley

What the baby-faced Brian Lumley lacks in age he compensates for with a clear focus on leaving an indelible impression on palates. Little wonder he named his catering company Foodie Focused Limited. Established three years ago, he said: “It was a natural progression since I love food and have always valued great time with family and friends.” A Level Four graduate — a certified chef de cuisine — from the Runaway HEART Hotel and Training Institute, Lumley was prompted to become a caterer after being presented with the opportunity to cater for a client’s 40th birthday party. “I haven’t looked back since… it was at that moment that the catering bug bit,” he revealed.

Lumley sums up his culinary style as being fusion-based with elegant and contemporary flourishes, and having sampled his food fare on several occasions, we concur.

The 24-year-old chef, who told Thursday Food he’s honoured to be seen as a contributor to the evergrowing local culinary scene, said: “I am forever experimenting with ways to promote Jamaican ingredients and put a lot of emphasis on presentation since it has been scientifically proven people eat with their eyes first.”

Feast your eyes on and satisfy your appetites with Lumley’s food creations in your own home. Reach him at 898-4114 or email: foodiefocused@gmail.com

Julius Chin Yee

Not one given for self-exultation, we’ll just say Julius Chin Yee is a food genius. Recently forming his own catering company that he named Passionfood, Chin Yee, who radiates the easy-going aura of a hippie (haircut included), has been in the catering business for 30 years. Catching up with Thursday Food last week, Chin Yee said he felt it was destined for him to be in the food industry. “My family was always in the food business from HTB Bakery and Mee Mee Restaurant,” he said, fingering Confucius as his source of inspiration. The seemingly always mellow chef revealed that he attained his culinary training in Toronto and the Far East nations of Hong Kong and the Philippines. So what does he consider his calling card? “I make food fantasies real,” Chin Yee noted with a dry, but obvious sincerity.

Want a taste of the food fantasies Yee creates? Give him a buzz at 383-9488 or email jahmystic@flowja.com

Gariel Ferguson

To consider Gariel Ferguson a veteran is not much of a stretch given his 22 years in the catering business. Most famous in foodie circles for his succulent roasted pork, Ferguson and his family have long had ties to the food business. “My mother had a pastry and patty delivery business and my father started Golden Bakery, which my eldest brother Trevor, modernised and expanded to the United States. We were one of the first Jamaican products offered in the Winn Dixie chain,” Ferguson told Thursday Food. The food industry, however, was not his initial profession of choice. Migrating from The Rock to live in Miami, he recalled: “I wanted to pursue automotive technology at first, but taking the school bus every day I passed a Tony Roma’s and always dreamt of having my own rib joint when I grew up.” He would eventually see his wish realised when he opened Rib Kage. Largely self-taught, Ferguson counts the late Norma Shirley and fellow caterers Colin Hylton and Lorraine Fung as persons who have served as sources of inspiration for him along his twodecade culinary journey. A new chapter is set to unfold shortly when he and wife Gillian open a new eatery — G’s BBQ — in Market Place next week.

Feeling a yen for ribs? What of divine roasted pork? Call Ferguson @ 819-9550 or email gariel_f@hotmail.com

Anna Kay Lazarus

Anna Kay Lazarus was in for a rude awakening when she returned from culinary studies in Toronto. Armed with a diploma in food and beverage management from George Brown College and a bachelor of applied arts degree in hospitality and tourism management from Ryerson Polytechnic University, she got several interviews with Kingston hotels for a job. The prognosis was not promising from the interviews. “The salary they were offering me could just about have paid to put gas in my car for the week,” she recalled. It was then that Lazarus decided to venture into the catering business, with a helping hand and financial assistance from her father. That was 1994; now, 17 years later, Lazarus recently formalised a company — branding it Pineapples & Onions — bringing her uniquely inspired, fantastically flavourful creations to ever-appreciative clients. Labelling her culinary offerings as stylish and exquisite, Lazarus, widely acknowledged for her decadent desserts, remains passionate about food, but it’s not what she considers her finest accomplishment. “I would have to say raising my two awesome children, Todd and Zach, is what I’m most proud of, and I don’t say this because they are mine, but because they are both amazing human beings each with their own unique personality,” the proud mother said.

Entertain guests with Lazarus’s oh-so-fab meals. Call her at 995-4840 or email aklaz@cwjamaica.com

Lorraine Fung

Perhaps one of the most in-demand caterers on The Rock, Lorraine Fung possesses a quiet confidence that belies her tremendous achievements as a caterer extraordinaire. The daughter of a Chinese-raised father and a Jamaican mother, Fung grew up in her parents’ grocery business, where food was a constant presence, as three meals were prepared daily for the staff. “My father would purchase the Chinese grocery items from China Town at Barry Street, downtown store and he would show my mother and the cooks how to prepare the dishes. I soon mastered the art of blending sauces to get the authentic flavour and the patience in making spring rolls, wontons, dumplings and other Chinese dishes,” Fung explained. While she would later ace home economics in school, when she graduated from secondary school, she ventured into the food business. “In the 1970s, the career choice was secretarial or cosmetology, unless you were from a family with medical, legal or construction background, so I opted to do a secretarial course at Duff’s College which was rewarding in and of itself,” she divulged.

Fung landed her first corporate job at the Insurance Company of the West Indies, but the desire to whip up meals remained. While her adventurous, youthful spirit would see her doing courses in interior designing, fashion designing and pattern making, as well as grooming and modelling courses, the itch to create food never waned. “For my children’s birthdays and special events, I was always cooking up a storm, so their friends would request that I cook at their parties. Those friends today are my clients for personal and corporate functions,” Fung said. She readily admits that while she has had no formal training in the culinary arts, “travelling extensively, eating at the best restaurants and the best hotels and investing in cookbooks” have served to make her that much better at her craft.

Fung’s addictively fabulous cuisine can be yours for the taking. Call her at 564-8008 or email catering_by_lorraine@yahoo.com

Christian Sweeney

“A matrimony of unique international flavours” is how Christian Sweeney sums up the ever-so-appetising fare he whips up. The charming Sweeney, who operates his own catering company, Fuzion Foodservice, traced his love for food to “ever since I picked up a knife for the first time, I knew that this was something I wanted to do”.

“In some way, shape or form I had to be in the kitchen and have pushed myself in that direction ever since,” he added. Heading to the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in 2003, Sweeney earned a bachelor’s degree in culinary management. “I attained a world of knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of cooking, starting most importantly with the classical French approach to food… schooling there gave me a hands-on outlet to apply theory in a real-world setting and the experience was irreplaceable,” the chef shared with Thursday Food. Pointing to the challenges faced in following his career path, he noted that there was a less-than-positive stigma attached to becoming a chef. “A lot of persons were not supportive of my decision, but with confidence I went forth passionately.” It’s a choice he makes no apologies for. Sweeney, who is set to branch out into his own eatery business soon with a restaurant named Smoked Republic, credits his professional triumphs to several persons. “There are many inspirational people who have pushed me in my journey, many chefs and caterers who have seen promise in my abilities and took time to teach me trade secrets, but I have to say my mother has been the biggest inspiration in my life as she has been one of the main driving forces in my life,” he said.

Experience Sweeney’s fusion cuisine. Call him at 815-6131 or email fuzionfoodservice@gmail.com