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Join hosts Anastarcia Palacious and Renaldo Dorsett as they sit down with the people who shape Baha Mar: the chefs, the artists, the visionaries, and the guests to uncover the moments, the culture, and the quiet details that turn a destination into something unforgettable.
Because the real story of Baha Mar isn't in the brochure. It's in the people who live it!
Chef Tevin: Lime should be in everything.
Anastarcia: We do. Yeah.
Chef Garrette: Yeah. Yeah.
Anastarcia: We put lime in everything.
Anastarcia: Welcome to Beyond the Stay. Now, before we get into this episode of Beyond the Stay, live at Baha Mar, I want you to close your eyes and think about the food that feels most like home. Okay, let’s open our eyes. Then I want you to close your eyes again and think about the most exciting food you’ve had on vacation. All right, as you can guess, our conversation today is going to be all about cuisine here at Beyond the Stay, live at Baha Mar. We take you to the exceptional experiences, leaders, team members that bring you something far beyond your stay.
I’m Anastarcia Palacious, your host, and I’m looking forward to our conversation today because we’re talking about my favorite thing, food, and I’m joined by three of Baha Mar’s most celebrated chefs for the work that they do in our kitchen, bringing Bahamian cuisine to the forefront. I’m talking today to Chef Garrette, Chef Gabbi, and Chef Tevin.
Chef Tevin: [laugh].
Anastarcia: My love. So, guys, welcome to Beyond the Stay. We’re so happy to have you. And the first thing I need to find out from you—each of you—is what does it mean to bring Bahamian cuisine to guests here at Baha Mar?
Chef Garrette: Well, for me, I think it’s so important to bring it here. A lot of our visitors, they never get the opportunity to leave the property, so they stay here, they go to the pools, they go to the water park, like, they’re fully stationed here from the airport straight to Baha Mar. So, they rarely get an opportunity to explore outside of the hotel, so we have to bring the food to them. So, I think introducing them to items like conch, fish, peas and rice, macaroni, the things that we eat, I think it’s so important for them to just get a taste of what we eat here in the Bahamas.
Anastarcia: All right, thank you, Chef Garrette. And for you, Chef Gabbi?
Chef Gabbi: For me, I think it’s my job as a Bahamian to celebrate my culture. So, I’m very happy to tell them about how we eat things, not just the name of it, but the history behind it, the story behind it. So, I think it’s my duty as a Bahamian. They come here for that culture. It’s my job to let them know.
Anastarcia: I love that connection, culture and cuisine, and how much they fit. For you, Chef Tevin, why is it important?
Chef Tevin: It is important to me as a Bahamian because it’s important to tell the story of those who created it before us, those who came about with their history on how they used the resources they had just to develop great flavors, whether from the voyage, whether it was from our grandparents, our great-grandparents, I believe the fact that it’s still passed down, it’s still here, we can still taste the flavors. It depends on which island you go to; you get their unique flavor. I think it stems from those before us, so I love the storytelling part of it, as well as I love the culture and the depths of flavor that we produce.
Anastarcia: I love that, and I think that’s so, so critical to the idea of culture, to the idea of having people come and what hospitality means, right, just sharing that part of yourself with people. So, I have the privilege of knowing you, but I want our guests to get to know you a bit better. So, this time I’ll start with you, Chef Tevin. Could you just give us a brief, very brief synopsis—
All: [laugh].
Anastarcia: —because we have a long conversation ahead—of who Chef Tevin is and how you got into culinary and what you do here at Baha Mar.
Chef Tevin: Starting off first with my life, especially as a child, I grew up using—just like many—the resources that we had based on the family that I had. As a chef, it reflects in my life now as a chef. I’m a disruptive. I believe that when it comes to flavor and how I produce, how I run the kitchen, how I showcase experiences through food, through culture at Baha Mar, at the kitchen, I feel that is different, very different, very not normal. Using the flavors that were taught to me, using the flavors that I eat every day, whether on a Sunday, whether on a holiday that I look forward to, whether visiting [Freeport 00:04:02], of course, or should I say Grand Bahama, the flavors that are produced through our culture truly amazing.
So, stemming back to when it comes to how I got into the field, I started at another hotel across the way in grade 11, and I was doing job training. They kept me on, and from there I saw exactly what someone else was doing, and I said, “Oh, I could do that too.” And from there, I just started to love cooking. I started to practice things at home. I went at College of Bahamas, at that time, and just came in this field.
Now, I stand as the guest experience at the kitchen that produce not just program and food and culture and experiences, but also lead an exceptional team that also produce the same. So, I look forward to, like, keep on showing who I am through food, through culture, definitely through resilience.
Anastarcia: Yeah, I love hearing that story. We’ve talked so much throughout the season on Beyond the Stay about the importance of interacting with interns and bringing young people on board, and to hear that you got your start at another resort through an internship-like program really shows you the importance of that. Chef Gabbi, what’s your story? How did you get into food?
Chef Gabbi: So, I got into food simply because I was a greedy kid. Out of six children, I was the greediest one, and everything that I got in trouble for, it was food-related. So, I knew it was going to be food and hospitality, and I got the opportunity to apprentice at 17 years old at a hotel, and I eventually wanted to transition to be a restaurant manager, but I loved it so much that I never looked back. So, I did about five years, went off to culinary school, loved it. Switched over to pastry, so seven years savory, about four years strictly pastry, and the last four years have been a mix of both.
And I just love everything about food. It surprised a lot of people because I was an academic in high school, but where I’m at now, I feel like it’s a good fusion of the creative and also the academic. So, that’s my journey, how I got started.
Anastarcia: All right. So, if you are watching and you love food, there may be space for you in the kitchen just yet. Chef Garrette, talk to us about your journey into culinary.
Chef Garrette: So, my journey for culinary, it started growing up. So, my household, we cooked food. My mom cooks food [laugh].
Anastarcia: Good food, right? I just want to throw it in there.
Chef Garrette: So, I was always around food, and I graduated high school a little bit uncertain of what I wanted to do. And I moved to Nassau. I went to College of the Bahamas, at that time, and I did the culinary program. And what’s interesting, we all have the same trend because I did an apprenticeship program where I did part-time school, part-time work, where work actually paid for school. So, I was kind of using it to pay for college [laugh], and I fell in love with it.
And I got my associate’s degree, and then I moved to Chicago, which really opened my eyes about what this industry, all your love of food, could actually do for you because, like, in the Bahamas, you work in hotels, and some people work and it’s a job, but to see the industry, the food industry in Chicago, I was like blown—like, it’s so serious—and I was so blown by it. And I had to bring my talents back home [laugh].
All: [laugh].
Chef Tevin: [unintelligible 00:07:21]
Anastarcia: Well, Thank you, thank you, [unintelligible 00:07:21] part two for bringing you guys back to the Bahamas, you know, because it’s so important that we do get that exposure, but then we also come back home and take what it means to be Bahamian to the world. Is there a favorite ingredient that you have, Chef Gabbi, that you love to use in food, and it really stands out for you in terms of bringing Bahamian flavors together?
Chef Gabbi: It’s probably the basis of the Caribbean, it would probably have to be coconut, just because it has so many applications. There’s savory, there’s sweet, there’s beverages. I think it can take on many different flavors. So, I would say, definitely coconut. Goes with everything.
Anastarcia: And for you, Chef Tevin, is there a local ingredient that you think deserves international recognition?
Chef Tevin: I believe that whenever you think about the Bahamas, people think about conch and people think about conch salad, of course, conch fritters and all those conch and stuff, which is amazing. And to this day, we love it, to this day, we eat it every day. However, I feel that what we eat is kind of different than just conch every day. I would showcase some breakfast item. I love me some tuna and grits, so I really feel that tuna and grits is something that when people—when people are like, “You eat grits and tuna together? With pear?” Which is avocado—
Anastarcia: Oh, my goodness.
Chef Tevin: I think that is a staple that you could be able to smell the most homes, whether early in the morning, 7o’clock, you know exactly what’s being cooked. So, I think that one of our breakfast items, that being tuna and grits, deserves some more international recognition.
Anastarcia: Yeah. I agree with you. I had some guests come down, and my entire experience with them was let’s eat Bahamian breakfast.
Chef Tevin: Yes [laugh].
Anastarcia: Right. Because Obviously, most restaurants, if it’s breakfast, they’re going to serve, like, traditional American items or international cuisines. You got pancakes, you got french toast, and very well done, mind you, but I wanted them to experience corned beef and grits. I want them to see what—you know, conch yes, but let’s steam it down and see what that’s like. So, I agree. I think our breakfast is definitely bar-none and something that we should expose people to more.
Chef Garrette, one of the things I heard you say—and I have to let you all know, I’m a bit biased. Chef Garrette is my good God-sister.
All: [laugh].
Anastarcia: We grew up together. I was in her mom’s kitchen when she was cooking the food. Even now, when she comes to Garrette’s kitchen and cooks food, I still get some. So, I know how good her mom’s food tastes. And you said that was a part of the influence of what got you into being a chef, that you would cook at home, and you said, “Okay, I’m not sure what to do, but I like to cook. Let’s try this out.” Are there methods that you would have learned in the process, from your mom, from your sister, from your grandmother that you still use in the kitchen today?
Chef Garrette: Yeah, I mean it’s been so interesting because my mom was here about two weeks ago, and she had to make pea soup for me—
Anastarcia: And me.
Chef Garrette: And [unintelligible 00:09:59] get her own pot, right? So, she made pea soup. And like, a fond memory growing up was my mom would make soup, but we would always participate in the dumpling and rolling it. So, we would put our initials or do a circle, and then when it was done, we’d look for it.
Chef Tevin: Look for it, yeah.
Chef Garrette: So, we’ll be like, we’ll look for it. Like, oh, did I get the circle I made? And I rarely eat soup, only when she makes it. So, when she came, I was like, “Okay, you have to teach me how to make soup.” Like, that was our mission. So, her and my sister went to the store, they got all ingredients, they spent a lot of money—because soup expensive actually—and we were making it.
And as she was making it, like, she’s doing her technique, and I’m like, “Oh, you making a roux?” And she’s like, “I just thickening it.” Like, so—I put the culinary terms to it as she’s making it, and I’m like, now that I—okay, I get it. Like, it’s a no-brainer. But growing up, you just see this big operation happening in the kitchen. And it was so interesting what she did with the soup because, like, when she thickened it, she used some of the liquid that she had, like, [unintelligible 00:11:02].
Chef Tevin: Flavors.
Chef Garrette: So, she’s like layering flavor on top of it, and then, like, it’s basically a stock that we make in the kitchen. So, it’s not the… it’s the same techniques, but I don’t think, like, growing up and learning food, they don’t know that it’s this technique called roux or you making a stock—
Chef Tevin: Natural flavors.
Chef Garrette: But it’s the basic same techniques. And just, like, drying out the conch. And so, now when I cook, it’s like okay, it’s not just getting ingredients. Some of these things require a two-day process. Okay, I’m going to fortify this flavor. I’m going to dry the conch because dries conch have more flavor than just fresh conch. So, I try to incorporate that in the food that we make today. Some seasonings. Like, no one can season fish like my daddy. All right? Nobody. I don’t care what you say. Nobody.
Chef Tevin: Are you ready, [unintelligible 00:11:49] are you ready [unintelligible 00:11:50][laugh].
Chef Garrette: Not—no. That salt and pepper, [gold 00:11:53] pepper, and he chop up and he let it sit. And he’s like, don’t touch it. Nobody’s to touch it, like, a day. And I’m like, okay, guys. So, when I do the work, nobody touch it.
Anastarcia: Okay.
Chef Garrette: So, they’re like, “Why not?” I said, my daddy said, “Don’t touch it, don’t touch it, don’t touch it.” So, these practices come into food, and I’m able to put a name, an actual culinary term, on it. So, we’re cooking the same methods and techniques, but it’s good to explain it with the staff, with my team about oh, you do this, but you don’t know why you’re doing it. You just know mummy made it or daddy made it. So, it’s interesting how to bring it over into the next generation.
Anastarcia: And I know about the salt and pepper. Whenever Good Friday [unintelligible 00:12:28] Good Friday is a holiday here in the Bahamas, and traditionally we have fish that day. And my mummy, much like your dad, right before, she’s taking out the salt, she’s got the gold pepper, she’s mincing it down. There’s a bowl there, and they have it on the countertop to the side, little piece of foil paper or—
Chef Tevin: Muddle that together.
Anastarcia: —[unintelligible 00:12:42] to the top, that muddled together, Tavin, and that’s to the side until it’s time to cook that and put that in the fish. So, you know, we have to disagree here, Garrette, because I think my mummy fish is the best. We’ll go with your daddy for the purpose of the show. Gabbi, you know, I know you said you were one of six and food was your life because you just love to eat. I imagine that your parents could probably cook relatively good. Any techniques you learn from them?
Chef Gabbi: There’s a lot of techniques I learned from them. Like her daddy makes the best fish she ever had, my daddy is a grill man. The best grill I’ve ever had—
Chef Tevin: The best.
Chef Gabbi: And what he does—
Anastarcia: Tavin, that’s the best, too?
Chef Tevin: Listen to me. The fact that he’s getting them wood—[unintelligible 00:13:16] finish.
Chef Gabbi: He goes literally in the bush, he gets guava, he gets strong bark. There’s a lot of different types of wood in Exuma that he uses, so he gets it. He has it out for weeks, just drying it, getting it to the right stage, and that’s when he starts to grill. So, anything you can imagine, from chicken to fish to vegetables. There was a thing we did growing up, it’s kind of weird, but he used to grill onions, literally just some onions.
He used to make barbecue sauce from scratch, and he used to, like, glaze the onions lightly with it. It was so good. And my mummy, she was, of course, the main cook of the kitchen, but basically, all Bahamian food I learned from my mother. So, salsa and johnny cake, pea soup, sky juice, everything you can imagine, it came from her. So, anything Bahamian, I got it from them, and I try to pass it on as well because I think that’s so important with Bahamian cuisine. I don’t have my grandparents around anymore, but we have to pass it on.
All: Yeah.
Chef Garrette: We have to pass on.
Chef Tevin: Definitely.
Anastarcia: That’s the truth. Like, so much of what is left of our grandparents, not just lives in us physically, but in the food that we eat and how we prepare it. And so, for you, Tevin, is there a method or a way that you do something in particular, even at the kitchen here at Baha Mar, that goes back to the ancestors?
Chef Tevin: Yes, so I would say that the way I was taught how to cook good peas and rice.
Anastarcia: Yes.
Chef Tevin: I must say, peas and rice, people don’t understand the fact how rice and this position rice is in our diet. We eat rice so much and in so much ways. And I think, you know, a Bahamian can always identify when rice is good or bad.
Chef Garrette: Yes.
Anastarcia: [laugh].
Chef Garrette: Fact.
Chef Tevin: That’s one thing, we can tell you if it’s parboiled, or we can tell you if it’s long grained. Or we can tell they use tomato paste or they use ketchup.
Anastarcia: Or canned tomatoes.
All: [unintelligible 00:14:58].
Chef Tevin: So, I think that’s one gift. If you was a true Bahamian to know how to cook good peas and rice, you know good Bahamian food. So, my parents, which is my father as well as my Grammy and my aunt, would have taught me how to cook good peas and rice. And people don’t understand the secret. The secret is unhealthy, I will say this, but it’s oil, or should I say oil?
The base of a good piece in rice is that lard, that amount of oil, that oil you use. That got to roast down and, kind of, lightly stew down with those aromatics and tomato paste. What soy sauce is to Asian food, tomato paste is to Bahamian food. I always say that. The way we use tomato paste in most of our diet, so many dishes that we cook, like, we know good food when it comes to how we add tomato paste in our food. But the method of it is how to you caramelize that. People just don’t throw in the pot. That got to roast down in the oil, in the tomato, in onions and bell peppers and thyme.
Anastarcia: As you said it, I could see my mom’s pot cooking, and I see the onions and stuff going in first, I see the oil, I see the tomato paste, I will tell you that I could taste when—like, for example, steamed sausage and grits—when it’s ketchup instead of tomato paste. Come on.
Chef Garrette: Yeah, you can taste it.
Anastarcia: I could taste the difference.
Chef Garrette: Or when they don’t cook it down properly.
Anastarcia: Yeah, I could taste the difference. All right, so Chef Tevin, you know, you took us down the memory lane with the peas and rice, and the fact that has to be done a particular way. I’m wondering, Chef Gabbi, you know, talk about your dad and all the woods that he would use to grill. Is there one particular dish that takes you home every single time, anytime you see it, anytime you taste it?
Chef Gabbi: It’s so basic Bahamian, but it’s salsa and johnny cake. I love a good salsa and johnny cake for, you know, when you have gas when you had—
All: [laugh].
Chef Gabbi: A late night out and you need it the next morning. Something my mummy used to do, we traveled a lot growing up, so we would be in the states, like, for a month at a time, and the first thing we always stayed in the house, she would knock up a [bakewater sauce 00:16:54], we would have johnny cake. We would invite friends over. So, that always takes me back to home because it’s the nostalgia of it, and it tastes great. It’s very flavorful. You get to dip your johnny cake in that liquid, you get to add in extra pepper, extra lime. That, to me, is home, just because of the nostalgia that’s associated with it. Yah.
Anastarcia: All right. How about you, Chef Garrette? Any dish takes you home?
Chef Garrette: So, this, this—[laugh]—unpopular opinion, but fire engine, corned beef and white rice, which is so underrated. I feel like it’s lost now. People don’t make it anymore.
Anastarcia: [unintelligible 00:17:27]
Chef Garrette: Like it’s fire engine, so it’s so crazy. I had fire engine in April for my sister. We do this whole elaborate thing for our birthday, and we dress up, like, okay, where we going to eat? And we were like looking, looking, and she’s like, “You want me cook some corned beef?” I say, “Please.” And we sat there, full regalia, makeup, and we ate corned beef and rice with some corn, and it was the best meal we had.
Anastarcia: Oh, my gosh, you’re taking me back home. It was so—because—
Chef Tevin: Leftover corned beef, though. Leftover corned beef.
Chef Garrette: —because we—like, I’m a family of six. It’s four of us, two parents, and both of them working, and the soup and stuff would be, like, big elaborations, that’s a Saturday day, but on a regular through the week, when you have to cook food for four kids and everybody have to eat, it needs to be a fast production, and corned beef or steamed tuna with rice? Oh.
Chef Tevin: Amazing.
Anastarcia: And she took me home just now. I can see my mummy making that corned beef and grit. And you know, my sister literally asked that the other day. She said, “Mummy, I don’t want a baked Sunday meal, you know?”
Chef Garrette: No.
Anastarcia: “I want”—fire engine is what we call it, but that is corned beef, and I would let y’all tell me the technical terms of how y’all do it down in the pot because that’s what I call it, doing it down in the pot.
Chef Garrette: Yeah, you cooking it down [laugh].
Anastarcia: Cooking it down. Okay. And white rice, and then you say the corn on the side. And if you have avocado, you’re extra special. [unintelligible 00:18:39].
Chef Tevin: Piece of pear. But pannycake. [unintelligible 00:18:41] leave a pancake?
Anastarcia: Okay, so I’m going to ask you now, Tevin. So, what’s yours? Yours is pannycake?
Chef Tevin: Um… I would say… yeah, pancake, or pannycake, I should say. It would have to be banana pancake.
Anastarcia: Yes. Oh, my gosh.
Chef Tevin: It have to be fried fish and banana pancake, especially when you go down [unintelligible 00:18:55].
Anastarcia: Yeah.
Chef Tevin: When you go down West End. If you from the Bahamas and if, you know, what West End is, and those who visit, it’s a great experience just to stop at to Chicken Nest on [left hand 00:19:05] side, you order your [comforters 00:19:07] first, then you drive down, you get your pickled conch salad on one end, go cross the road, get the grilled lobster and probably some pancake. Then you drive back up by [unintelligible 00:19:16] and get—by Chicken Nest, just to stop your comforters. Then you sit on the beach—
Anastarcia: Yeah.
Chef Tevin: —and you eat it all, right? I think that’s a great experience, but good pancake—
Anastarcia: And we call it pannycake. So, I want to make that very clear. Our guests watching should know the terminology, pannycake. I remember after having my first child, I would just eat banana pannycake. My mummy was with me, and that was just my joy. Banana pannycake.
So yes, I think I have to agree with all of these foods you’re sharing. They are also connected to us. But I wonder, each of you are creative. So, you came into culinary to explore Asian food and to explore Peruvian food. When you think about Bahamian food, you know, Chef Garrette, how do you elevate? How do you say this is the way my daddy did it with the salt and the pepper, but I want to add my own creativity. Where do you balance tradition with innovation?
Chef Garrette: Which is a really good question because I know for, like, the food that we have in Marcus, we have a lot of Bahamian. Our interpretation of dishes, right? I’m not a full purist of food because I think food elevates and food changes. And you have some Bahamians, like, “This is not Bahamian,” right? I think incorporating some techniques, so like the fish and pannycake, I am a Grand Bahama native. That is on our menu in Marcus. We have fried fish and pancake. It’s not pannycake, right? It’s pancake on the menu, and we just make it a bit more approachable for guests.
We have the conch salad, which is a mixture of regular conch salad, tropical kong salad. We’ve added some cucumbers in there, which is not traditional, but we’re making it approachable for people to try. And also, like, it’s not fully—it is Bahamian, if I’m being honest. It’s Bahamian, but it’s our interpretation of what this dish is to us. So, just putting little tidbits in there. This is summer season, so it’s tropical fruit season, and I’ve been eating the most Bahamian fruit this summer I’ve ever eaten in my life.
Anastarcia: It’s been a bountiful year.
Chef Garrette: And soursop is in season, and just adding certain things to the menu because a lot of guests are like, what is sours—they don’t know what it is. So, we’re running a special with hamachi. They know what hamachi is, but they don’t know what soursop is. So, we’re making a soursop leche de tigre to go along with the hamachi. So, it’s like a sauce, like, an acidic lime sauce, but it’s flavored with soursop. So, it’s introducing them to our foods in a way that they know and they understand.
Anastarcia: Yeah, I love that. And Chef Tevin, you know, the entire concept of the kitchen is to give guests a food experience, but that’s hands-on to them making it themselves. And obviously, the three of you talked about lessons you learned from your parents about actually making, creating, using your hands to create this food. When guests come to the kitchen and they work with you, how are you passing on these Bahamian traditions in the way that you all are preparing food and what they’re cooking together? What is that experience like, to be able to have guests not just eat, but cook and then eat?
Chef Tevin: For me, it’s tying along what they already know that being exposed to the Asian market, the Asian food, the European food, and so many different diaspora of the cuisine—of cuisines, I should say. But it’s tying it with the Bahamian food for me because when people come and see the way we they eat shrimp and grits, I’m saying whether you travel the U.S. And they come here and see that you just put conch grits, and you talk, give me a pre-story on what is conch and how is conch used in different preparations, and then we dive into preparing that. We start off by making conch salad the original way, the way you like.
I mean, add the amount of pepper, the amount of lime because that’s exactly how Bahamians eat it, based on their preference. But it’s really tying together what they know and what I know they need to learn from our culture and our cuisine. We are people who, when it comes to creating food, we use what we have and we make the best out of it. We use what we have, and we—like Garrette, piggybacking off what Garrette said, we took what we have and we didn’t even know the real science behind why we did it. The way we use acid—listen to me. The way the Bahamians use acid and spice, we believe that lime should be in everything.
Anastarcia: We do.
Chef Garrette: Yeah. Yeah.
Anastarcia: We put lime in everything.
Chef Tevin: Listen to me, and a good squeeze and a good heavy squeeze. We would make macaroni salad, and the amount of lime that I see in macaroni salad or pasta salad, like, whoa. But it, to us, it’s really good, and it’s the flavors that we produce that we, you know, didn’t really know. So, I love tying in, like, a dish that we would have made, that being the pan-seared blackened grouper, we tie it in with this pigeon peas and pineapple salsa, right? Pigeon peas is normally eaten in three ways, only three ways in the Bahamas: peas and rice, pea soup and dumpling, and peas and grits.
So, to put it in a salsa, and then you have some island stir fry vegetables, and then ginger fried rice, that’s tying in some Asian cuisine and the Bahamas together. Or how about the spiced lobster ravioli, right, in with the stew lobster gravy, like, a bisque gravy on the outside. It’s so much things that we create, and especially when it comes to Chef Gabbi and her creativity of pastry. Listen to me. I haven’t even got to that.
Anastarcia: [unintelligible 00:24:30] I just want to just let my audience know, if you see my mouth drooling, we’re recording this, and I’ve not eaten, but I’ve literally never talked about this delicious food. And if you’re here on property and watching this, please go and check out how you can book a session with Chef Tevin and Chef Gabbi down at the kitchen. You will not be disappointed. Absolutely, one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
Chef Gabbi, talked to me about adding Bahamian flavors to pastry. I hosted some friends over the other night. They were from Nigeria, and I will say I planned this menu a bit too last minute, so I got a rum cake instead of a guava duff, but I was so disappointed. I said, “Oh, I didn’t let them try guava enough.” So, they’ll have to come back for that. But what are you doing to add flavor to pastry and making, you know, all that you’ve experienced around the world in pastry just a little bit Bahamian?
Chef Gabbi: I think it comes down to technique and seasonality. So, like she mentioned, these are things that we’ve been doing it all along, but just adding in international techniques into the flavors that we already have here. And then seasonality. So, anything that’s in season, we try to incorporate in our menu. So, it is summer. We have a lot of mangoes. We got it from a local vendor. We were in the kitchen grating the mangoes. We made mango sorbet.
Anastarcia: [gasp]. So jealous.
Chef Gabbi: We did things like soursop sky juice. So, incorporating things that are around you, and then talking to the guests about it, telling them why we did it. There’s also a mini masterclass that we host, and we do hot patty. I teach the kids how to make hot patty, and it’s a French technique with making the flaky pastry, but we fill it with things that are Bahamians. In that class, we make twists, show them how to make the twist dough, and we fry it and then we add Bahamian toppings to it.
So, I just think using the ingredients that are around us and being inspired by cuisines all around the world. Some may say, “Oh, it’s not authentically Bahamian,” but we’re using Bahamian-made ingredients, and I think that’s what we can do. It came from somewhere else, you know? Even when our grandparents, our ancestors started it off, it was inspired by maybe those that colonized us. It came from somewhere else, so just using international technique, international flavors to incorporate into our cuisines. I traveled recently to Guatemala, and they make something called—I’m probably butchering it—a rellenitos. It’s like fried plantains with a refried bean in the center, and they top it with powdered sugar. So, already I have in my head—
Chef Tevin: Powdered sugar?
Chef Gabbi: Powdered sugar.
Anastarcia: Yeah. I got to see this.
Chef Gabbi: Already I have in my head, I’m like pigeon peas, it’s the perfect start. So, I’m going to do something with plantains, something with pigeon peas. So, just using what we have around you, but let it be inspired by an actual technique.
Anastarcia: Well, I think plantains is God’s gift to the earth.
Chef Gabbi: Yes.
Anastarcia: So, you had me at plantains—
Chef Gabbi: Yes.
Anastarcia: —because I look forward to seeing the combination that’s coming up. One of the most inspiring culinary events happens in the entire world right here at Baha Mar, the Baha Mar Culinary & Arts Festival. You know, this is year five of the festival. I’m so excited. I’ve been with you all for the festival since day one, and just watching it grow and expand has just been phenomenal for you all as local chefs.
You are going to be bringing in hundreds, thousands of guests coming in for that weekend. You’ll be obviously showcasing your talents, but also working with some of the top—Bon Appétit magazine, some of the top celebrity chefs around the world. What does it mean as local chefs who’ve lived here, traveled abroad, studied abroad, come back here to have something like the Baha Mar Culinary Festival happening here? Start with you, Chef Garrette.
Chef Garrette: I think what Baha Mar has done has been amazing. Like, I tell my staff all the time, I’m like, this is a big deal, guys. Like, when I was coming up in industry, like, you only saw these chefs on TV. And when I saw the lineup this year, I was like, Nina Compton, you know, Esther Choi. I was like, what? I was fan-girling a little bit. So, I was like, okay, I hope we have an event with her. I want an event with her.
Just to work with these chefs because their stories are so inspiring, and they’re bringing the chefs to us. And the chefs come in the kitchen. Like, we had an amazing fifth-year anniversary at the restaurant this year, where chefs, international chefs, came in and worked with the staff. Because I work with them, like they just see me, as, okay, Garrette—
Anastarcia: It’s just Chef Garrette.
Chef Garrette: Chef Garrette. But when these chefs come in, they’re bringing techniques, and my staff’s like, “Okay, can I work with them tomorrow?” Or, “Chef, can I come in early because I want to see what they’re doing?” And it’s still teaching them of new techniques, and the chefs are excited. They’re excited. And I think what Baha Mar has done with this festival and pairing up the chefs in different restaurants has been so amazing for the culinary industry here in the Bahamas, mostly for the locals. I know I’m not really talking about it on the other side as guests, but from a local that lives here, that works here, it’s been amazing, and I’m so excited. And I can’t wait.
Anastarcia: Yeah, and Chef Tevin, they take over the kitchen.
Chef Tevin: Listen to me—
Anastarcia: Last time, they took over the kitchen and did several master classes. I imagine they’ll do that as well. What is exciting about that for you?
Chef Tevin: I think just to be able to, for them to be on the side of them, to speak hands-on and do hands-on task, when you could be able to ask a question, “Hey Chef, why do you?” And you could be able to speak to me right there and then. It’s that’s such a great experience, and you just feel that, however he taught me is however I can learn. Amanda Fertag, she’s such an amazing person. Looking forward to being able to see her. We have some new faces inside the kitchen this year. We also have Chef Daniel, Daniel Boulud—
Anastarcia: Coming inside the kitchen this year?
Chef Tevin: —coming inside the kitchen this year.
Anastarcia: Oh, my goodness. That’s exciting.
Chef Tevin: So, I’m excited to see his French take on—and also gearing towards Bahamian the cuisine and the dish he’s going to produce. Something I look forward to just being able to connect with them just before they reach. I love the communication just to figure out what you preparing? What you need me to sauce? How you need me to find it? And them taking on the advice on I think you should use this fruit over this fruit. They say, “Hey, well, give it to me. I could use that.”
So, I just love the connection that we—and also Chef Gabbi—have with each chef that pass through the space, not only in the kitchen, but even the dining rounds that happen in different restaurants throughout. You have at Costa, you have, of course, at SLS, you have a Cleo. There’s different things happening around the property. That’s one thing I look forward to as well, [excluding 00:30:46] Marcus restaurant.
Anastarcia: Yeah, Marcus is always [crosstalk 00:30:47].
Chef Tevin: He’s be shooting the Bahamas right now. He does exactly how to do the thing.
Anastarcia: Yeah. Now Gabbi, you know, as I heard Chef Tevin talk about just the idea of what goes into prepping for the festival, right? Because as guests, we’ll come in and enjoy it, and just love the food and talk about it. We may meet a chef or two, take a masterclass, but you all are actually in the background, sourcing it, making sure that the ingredients are there, so they can prepare great food for those of us that come. For you, why is it important that even as we focus on some of the celebrity names that we know—like a Chef Boulud, like a Marcus—that there’s also local talent being featured right alongside them? Why is that important?
Chef Gabbi: Absolutely because again, they come here for our culture, so I think it’s so important that Bahamian chefs also be featured because not only the celebrity chefs want to learn about it, the guests want to learn about it as well. So, I think it’s just a great stage for locals. When you think about the Culinary Arts Festival, it is a grand event, and the Bahamas. When you think about us, we are a tiny nation. So, to be able to have us on a world stage like that, it is so important. I also think that it’s just a great learning experience, you know? He mentioned Chef Boulud. We go there to dine at his restaurant. So, for the opportunity to be able to work with him in the space, it’s an opportunity, it’s like no other.
Anastarcia: Yeah, yeah. No, I mean it’s always so incredibly exciting. And again, I’ve watched it grow. Last year at the kitchen, we had the young people come in—
All: Yes.
Anastarcia: And start to complete. Are we doing that again this year?
All: Yes, we are.
Anastarcia: Yes. Okay, so tell me about that, Tevin.
Chef Tevin: We’re starting first with the prelims that happens in September. I’m looking forward to see what that will be like, where we team eight university students with eight high school students up in the kitchen. They would go ahead by picking numbers, and they would use a mystery basket, and also they would use the things that they held from—not really mystery basket, but more so a spread, a plethora of food we call it the community table. They would choose, create recipes, and then compete until the final person wins, where they’ll be judged at a different time at during the Culinary & Arts Festival week, by those judges from some of the channels that we watch, like Food Network and different spaces, and all those chefs that are coming over. So, I’m big on when it comes to tying young people with those chefs who are coming, and also for us to be a part. I think it also brings space for those local chefs around Nassau who tirelessly put in the time to be able to showcase the Bahamas as well. The connection we have during that time is spot-on, like no other. I’m looking forward to see what that would be.
Anastarcia: Yeah. I love to see it. I watched, you know, Carla Hall last year, and Marcus was there stirring somebody’s pot and showing them the right way to stir it. And it’s so exciting for our young people to see the possibility. And I think that’s what you all have talked about, even in your own kitchens, and having these chefs come in and work side by side behind you, up next to you, that there’s just so much that you learn, and there’s this creativity that flows between people when we’re all in synergy, so looking forward to it.
Chef G, you know, you’ve been with us since the very first year of the festival. What should guests hope for? What should they look forward to experiencing, or they might not have thought of it, but they should consider really getting into this time around for the festival?
Chef Garrette: No, we have a lot going on, but I think the underlying—one of the greatest satisfaction is sometimes it’s small experiences that you just connect with a dining experience or you connect with a vendor at the expo. I think the expo is a bit underrated for me. I think that’s one of the best things they have here at the festival, because they bring in local vendors. And last year, like, I walked around, and they’re telling their stories to guests. They’re telling stories to visitors about the handcrafts that they make, or the clothing, or anything that they’re doing, or the food that they’re making, and it’s in those small connections, and like, oh, I’ll take my card.
Or some of them, I think, a lady met her—the first year—a vendor, and she came back to the Bahamas a year later, and she went to another island with them.
Anastarcia: Oh wow.
Chef Garrette: And when they told me that, I was like, “So, you guys just met?” She’s like, “Yeah, we exchanged contact and we kept in touch. And she took me”—I think she took her to Lutra. She took her to Lutra, and I was like, “Wow.” I was like, a little risky, but I was like, wow, you know? But it’s the connection, I think, to be open to it. It’s not a cookie-cutter dining experience, festival experience. Oh, this event starts at this time. And you know, really interacting with the people, interacting with the vendors, and overall with Bahamian culture.
Anastarcia: All right. Well, I’m looking forward to it. It is already in my calendar, the dates are all the way locked in, and I hope that you will join us. If not this year, next year, around the same time, definitely the same place. It is always just such a phenomenal experience, and these are just some of our good-looking faces behind the scenes making it come to you.
All right, so before we end our episode today, we got to do a quick-fire round. All right, I don’t want you all to overthink this. I’m going to shoot you the question, and you got to respond. All right, y’all ready? Gabbi [unintelligible 00:35:42] would start, so we’re going to start with Gabbi. Okay, one Bahamian ingredient you could never give up?
Chef Gabbi: Cliche, but guava.
Anastarcia: Okay.
Chef Gabbi: Love me some guava.
Chef Tevin: Conch.
Anastarcia: Conch? Yeah. Okay, so we got guava. We got conch. Chef G?
Chef Garrette: I mean, it ain’t Bahamian, but we use it a lot. I would say thyme.
Anastarcia: Thyme. Okay. I can’t cook without thyme, so I have to agree with that. All right, Chef G, start this time. One Bahamian dish every visitor should try before leaving the Bahamas.
Chef Garrette: Sauce. Any kind of sauce.
Anastarcia: All right, Chef Tevin?
Chef Tevin: Tuna and grits. Tuna and grits and piece of pear [laugh].
Anastarcia: All right, Chef Gabbi?
Chef Gabbi: Peas and rice, especially if you’re coming from America, they just use the white rice, cilantro rice. It’s the most flavorful thing you will ever eat. Peas and rice.
Anastarcia: So, we got peas and rice, tuna, grits and pear, and Chef G said sauce. Okay, okay. What is one Bahamian dish you would love to put your own spin on. Chef Tevin?
Chef Tevin: Stew.
Anastarcia: Stew.
Chef Tevin: Stew. The way we create stew.
Anastarcia: Okay.
Chef Tevin: The flavors behind stew. The story behind it.
Anastarcia: Okay. Okay. All right, Chef Gabbi?
Chef Gabbi: I would say corned beef. Not everybody loves corned beef. I would love to put a spin on it that just blows people’s minds.
Anastarcia: Okay. Okay. All right, Chef Garrette?
Chef Garrette: I would say fish, like snapper or grouper, but in a raw capacity.
Anastarcia: Mmm. Raw snapper or grouper. Okay, we got some things coming up.
Chef Tevin: Love it [laugh].
Anastarcia: Whenever we all decide that y’all need a taste tester—
Chef Tevin: [laugh].
Anastarcia: —remember your lovely host. I know that she’s available. Listen, I’ve had an amazing time talking with you all about the flavors of the Bahamas, but more than that, just what you’ve created here at Baha Mar. Since this resort has opened, the way that you’ve taken the kitchen and turned it into this marvelous celebration of Bahamian culture, and people can connect, all that we can do with Marcus, and Marcus just continues to expand. Like, there’s always something new and exciting happening, and that is largely driven by your leadership and your creativity. So, thank you all so much for all you do for Baha Mar and for joining us on the podcast today.
And if you are watching, remember that food tells a story. The flavor comes right from these flavorful people and their history and what they’ve learned and all the love they pour into everything you eat here on property. So, we hope that you’ll join us at one of our fabulous restaurants at the Kitchen at Marcus, or of course, at the Baha Mar Culinary & Arts Festival that is on its way. I’m Anastarcia, and it’s been a tasteful day. Let’s chat again soon. Bye.