The Diva Chef

In keeping with our Food Month personality features, Outlook presents chef Simone Walker-Barrett.

The diva chef

Nashauna Drummond, Lifestyle Coordinator

From as early as age eight, Simone Walker-Barrett knew she wanted to be a chef. She was the inquisitive one in the family and her father was the cook. As daddy's little girl, she was always around him watching whatever he did.

"He moved so fast. I remember one evening I saw him roasting peanuts on the open fire and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world," she told Outlook over lunch at the historic Lillian's restaurant on the campus of the University of Technology. Walker-Barrett is a certified hospitality educator, lecturing at the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the university. As a chef instructor/lecturer, she teaches culinary modules, which include general catering, à la carte, culinary demonstrations and practical classes.

Growing up on a farm in west rural St Andrew, she notes that her dad has something to do with everything they ate. From then, she was sure she wanted to be a chef, but not only be called a chef, but to also have it on paper. What she now has on paper is Simone Walker-Barrett CEC (Certified executive chef) PCIII (pro chef level three).

Right out of high school, she applied to the HEART Trust/NTA academy in Runaway Bay, St Ann. When she first applied in 1996, she was not accepted to the Runaway Bay campus. Not daunted, she bought the book Professional Cooking by Wayne Glissen and began teaching herself her craft of choice.

With some resistance, she enrolled at Boulevard Baptist Skills Training Centre in 1997. "But I wanted to go to Runaway Bay because I wanted to practise in a hotel. I didn't want to go to any skills training centre," she recalls with a chuckle.

During the course of her study, she came across as a teacher and excelled in her studies, so much so that after leaving the HEART-affiliated institution, she was called back as an assistant instructor. Within three months, she was a full-blown instructor, a position she held for seven years. "With culinary education, you get the best of both worlds," she notes. "You touch the lives of so many in a positive way and get to be a chef at the same time."

A certified executive chef since 2009,
Walker-Barrett has one final step in her culinary journey. "There are
four levels to chef certification. I have three which is the executive
chef, after receiving the fourth one I will be a master chef. I just
want to wear that other title," she beamed with anticipation. There are
only two master chef-certified kitchens in the world - one in France and
one at Culinary Institute of America.

But while she
has her sights set squarely on that title, she is quite at home with her
students doing what she has been doing for the last 12 years -
teaching.

"I love teaching," she gushes. "It keeps me
so much smarter. You don't just cook, you have to teach the art, the
science behind food. The French say you cook with your five senses and
you really do."

Outside of the classroom, she tries to
make 'ordinary' housewives chefs as well with her line of seasoning -
HomeChefs. She developed the line in 2005 while studying at the American
Culinary Institute. To make some extra cash, she made the curried goat
seasoning which she sold at farmers markets and to friends and family.
When she returned home, she teamed up with her former student Delareese
Mills.

HomeChefs now has seven flavours - all-purpose,
curried goat, oxtail, chicken, herb and garlic, pork and grilled/roast
meat seasoning. The all-natural products, which contain no salt, are a
wet seasoning of local herbs and spices.

Jamaican
Food

Walker-Barrett is also happy with how interested
Jamaicans are getting in food. "More Jamaicans now have the opportunity
to eat out more and become more adventurous with food. With all the food
events going on, it's changing. I love it! Chefs are also being more
creative and the only limit now is their
imagination."

She explains that her cooking style is
Jamaican with Mediterranean and Asian influences, and notes that
Jamaican cuisine is coming of age, especially on the international
scene.

"Jamaican cuisine is 'bigging up itself'. I
love the way people are accepting it. It's like backyard to gourmet,
that's how it is now, people want ethnic food and there is so much that
can be done with our spices." She notes that the mindset about Jamaican
food needs to change to complete the transformation as no ingredient is
universal. "If you go to France or Italy, rice is rice, potato is potato
and chicken is chicken. It's how you cook it."

The
only downside she sees it that maybe by virtue of the fact that more men
than women are in the industry, female chefs don't get the respect they
deserve. "It's like they (women) are invisible." Culinary educators
also receive the same treatment. "They (culinary educators) are
underutilised and don't get the respect they deserve. Because you teach,
you are called a teaching chef."

But that will not
faze Walker-Barrett from doing what she loves. "I live through my
students, they fuel my creative form. It's a lot of physical and mental
work because you are responsible for future culinarians, so it's not
easy." But she notes the success of her students means the world to
her.

Most recently, they were successful at Taste of
Jamaica held at the Montego Bay Conference Centre in St James. "One of
our students got Junior Pastry Chef of the Year, and one for best use of
cheese. We got 18 medals and three trophies. When you see the smile on
their faces, it makes you want to do it all over
again."

nashauna.drummond@gleanerjm.com