Q&A with the head chef of Sea Breeze Beach House.
WHO: Head Chef Ron Maynard, Sea Breeze Beach House, Ocean Hotels Group.
EXPERIENCE: With the hotel group for 11 years, the chef who specializes in pastry, has worked at Le Gavroche and earned medals as part of the Barbados delegation to Taste of the Caribbean Culinary competition.
Q: Favourite ingredient?
A: Caribbean ingredients. Recently, we won the Nevis mango festival competition with a signature dish of shrimp, mango, sweet potato pudding and mango salsa. For the mystery basket we made fish and chips with breadfruit and red snapper.
Most memorable meal?
Anything local that guests enjoy.
What ingredients are always in your fridge?
Yam, sweet potato, cassava, herbs.
What would your last meal be and with whom?
Anything from my grandmother and with my son, he cooks too. Bajan soup is the best soup in the world, it is pumpkin coloured.
Souse is amazing, it is not a delicacy anymore, it is a way of life. Now, every Saturday around the island in every rum shop, there is pudding and souse. The pudding is sweet potato, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, herbs, onions, browning and hot peppers – grated and steamed. Souse is pig tail, pig feet, lean of pork, ears, snout (all or a combination of, some people just like certain parts) in a sauce of cucumber, parsley, lemon or lime juice, salt and hot peppers – pickled.
Why do you like working in pastry?
Pastry is more technical, an art and craft. You get to do fancy stuff like craquelin on profiterole, ice cream, sorbets and petit fours.
At Le Gavroche, I had the best soufflé I’ve ever come across – it was passion fruit.
Here at De Rum Shop [at Sea Breeze Beach House] we make local pastries and sweets like rock cakes, lead pipes [a sweet bread], sugar cake, nut cake [nuts and sugar] and nut tart [with eggs and corn syrup].
Favourite rum shop?
AA Bar.
This original article first appeared in the Winter 2019/2020 issue of City Style and Living Magazine.
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