Q: Are you where you’ve always wanted to be?
A: No I am not. There is lots more that I want to do and one of the things still on my list is owning my restaurant, bed and breakfast.
Q: What is your biggest professional challenge?
A: The biggest professional challenge would be going to a workplace and when you get there it is almost like having to teach students in school because the skill set is not what it really should be, especially for the people who have been in the industry for a very long time. I always find that the skill set is not what it should be and you have a lot of work to do, and then the whole work ethic and attitude that comes with change. So that is the biggest challenge: when colleagues just almost get up in arms against you rather than fall in and do what is necessary to make the place go forward.
Q: What is your biggest life challenge?
A: Everybody who is interested in cooking wants a place when it comes to selling food and so on, but I don’t just want to do that. I want to really make a difference. It’s okay for people to say “Just set up something”, but I don’t just want to set up something. I want to do it properly. I prefer to wait; sometimes the wait seems like it is forever but I . . . am really interested in the changing the face of food and I have always wanted to be seen as a person who is stepping outside the box rather than taking everything everybody else did and copying it.
Q: When you look to the future what do you see?
A: Looking into the future I am seeing that things are going to get better out of the rough times that we are going through. I believe that the one thing that I really want is going to come to fruition shortly when it comes to owning my own place. I have started my own television show and that is exciting. So I believe everything is working hand in hand, one thing at a time. Walking up stairs it’s one step after another so that’s what I am doing so I see myself being closer to where I want to be.
Q: What is your favourite pastime?
A: My favourite pastime is cooking – seriously. After cooking it is watching movies, and other than that sleeping.
Q: What is your favourite meal?
A: My favourite meal is fried chicken – nothing else! That’s what I like: fried chicken.
Q: On Saturday nights where are you likely to be?
A: At work. Every Saturday night I am at work and after work I am at home.
Q: What upsets you the most?
A: When I am trying to help the people in my area to understand what it is really all about and to show them the standards and the work ethic they should be adopting. And when you are trying to set examples and people just don’t see it and continue to do things to make everything worse. I hate the fact that little children today speak to their parents the way they do. It starts from home – the way the parents allow the children to talk to them, the way that they allow the children to treat them. And then it goes from primary school to secondary school and then the workplace. So that frustrates me because some young adults don’t have the behaviour or training necessary for work, and it is sad that so many people are not prepared for adulthood when it comes to the world of work.
Q: What is your guiding philosophy?
A: I deal with the “Ps”; proper planning and preparation prevents [very] poor performance. I got that in a training seminar with Tony Olton and I decided to adopt it. You can apply that to anything, to cooking, to your day, to your week, to your year, to your relationship. If you concentrate on the planning and the preparation, it leads you in the right direction for good performance or as good as possible.
Q: If you had the chance to manage Barbados for a day, what would you do?
A: I would make all of the parents go into training seminars on leadership and stewardship and those kinds of things because, honestly, when you are on the streets there is very little respect. On the road everybody is aggressive on mornings; bright early morning and you now leave home and you are so aggressive. During the day it is the same thing. When you deal with the schoolchildren on evenings, it has gotten worse and now there is the whole thing with bullying. I think that the parents have gone wrong. I really think that parents in Barbados need to understand that it starts with them. We complain about the Government, but there are certain morals and although the times are different, those morals should not change because it breaks down the society. Everybody blames somebody else, but I think that we need to look at the parents.
