'Engineering' excellent food

The news that the kitchen had run out of salmon, the main ingredient in the main course of our Norwegian dish was somewhat hard to take. After perusing the menu and deciding on some brain food, our group of four comprising colleagues Lara, Charleen, Nicole and myself, had literally “sharpened our chops.” There was no passing up feasting on international cuisine in celebration of tourism week at the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality Training Institute (TTHTI). Who could go wrong with a four-course meal for $45? The waitress, a pleasant and obliging student, explained that “something had happened in the kitchen” and the chef would have to prepare more salmon which entailed the marinating process and so on. Left with little option, we requested the baked pork loins served with mashed potato patties, broccoli and cauliflower salad.

Just then a tall, slender, attractive young man dressed in chef’s hat, white double-breasted jacket made from heavy cotton drill, apron, necktie and chequered black and white trousers entered through the double doors of the eating area. We figured he must be the chef! He greeted the table of four elderly ladies at our left. This was the opportune time to voice our disappointment on not receiving our desired dish when our turn came. However, the warm and cordial approach of the young man whom we learned was Kavi Dookie, chef of the day, made complaining about anything on the menu seem a bother. We squeezed in a few oversights, anyway. It seemed that there was more of a demand for salmon and very little to go around. Kavi asked if we were enjoying our meal, if there was anything he could do to make us feel more welcomed. It was a formality of the chef to do such, but Kavi expressed genuine concern. He even opted to bake another cake in under 30 minutes when we critiqued the dessert — the sponge cake was a bit stiff. But that was asking too much!

It turned out that Kavi, who resides in Barrackpore and has to make the hour and 15-minute journey to Chaguaramas on a daily basis, always liked serving people and cooking. He has a knack for creativity too. Little did we know, the 20-year-old, who is in his second year at TTHTI had to do lots of research on learning how to prepare his dish. Each trainee chef pursuing an Associate Degree had to prepare an international dish under watchful eyes of an instructor. Kavi dipped his hand into a bag of options of dishes and came out with Norwegian. The appetizer was simple. However, Kavi strayed from the traditional main course of Norway. “I didn’t have to smoke the pork,” he said “but I like to be creative.” Preparations for the dish began at 8 am. That meant that Kavi had to go to the back of the institute, search for wood for fire which would be placed under a covered barrel where the pork would be smoked. “I chopped pieces of mango, cinnamon, guava wood, picked bayleaf and placed them under the barrel for fire.”
He went a little extra with the additional cake topping as well, adding a bit of marzipan — almond flavoured icing. Our honest comments on the list we were given at the end of the meal read “excellent” on three counts — meal, service and presentation.

Kavi’s cooking skills, however, did not begin at TTHTI. He remembered waiting very patiently and at the same time looking on at every move his mother made in the kitchen. While he was willing to learn just about everything there was to learn in all the dishes she cooked, he admitted that “it was my belly I was studying”. His mother, a part-time YTEPP teacher, used to prepare roti for the family every night. There was no surprise, then, that that was the first dish he learned to prepare. “I fell in love with pepper shrimp and I was able to cook that at the age of 12/13,” Kavi told People. He gave the recipe, the same one he used back then: “You throw in your fresh hot pepper and some sweet pepper, fry it down a bit. Clean your shrimp taking off the head and the legs, then throw them in. Add your ketchup, onions, salt, black pepper and a bit of green seasoning and in 20 minutes, it’s done.” Impressive, his parents thought. “I come from a family of cooks, all my uncles cook all the time, so it’s something I grew up with, it wasn’t a big issue.” Kavi soon became hooked on the cable channels — Travel, HGTV and Discovery which featured international dishes. He particularly liked the way “they cooked the meats and cut up vegetables looking at the camera”. Kavi proved he could also do that as the picture on this page shows.

So when the decided to pursue cooking at TTHTI, which he learned about while pursuing A’levels at Naparima College, instead of pursuing the electrical and computer engineering degree at UWI, his parents were not alarmed. His acceptance to UWI came weeks after gaining acceptance to TTHTI. “They said it’s your choice, and that I have to choose between the two... They were happy with my choice because my father (a dean and teacher at Barrackpore Secondary Comprehensive) wanted to be an architect and his father wanted him to do medicine. So he didn’t want that to happen to me, he wanted it to be my choice. My mother was happy, she even did some food courses when I started school in Chaguaramas,” Kavi revealed. After a long day in Chaguaramas, all Kavi wants to do when he gets home is rest.  “The only complaint I have is the standing up all day. The getting to school early on mornings was the most difficult challenge I had but I got used to it.” He wakes at 4 am, leaves Barrackpore at 4.30 or 5 to get to school for 6 am. “I have an alarm clock because my parents wouldn’t wake me up,” he said, not even his “baby” sister Kari-ann. “They only know that I’m leaving when they hear the car start.” He occasionally cooks for the family, especially around Christmas time or so. “Last Christmas I made them garlic pork and nobody ate it... but most of the time I get my sister to cook for me,” he said, after much coaxing. “She says big chef and I making her cook.” Of all the things he learned, foremost is that learning to be a chef is not for lazy people. “It’s a lot of hard work. It’s more than I expected. I expected to learn how to cook and do everything they do on TV but I learned the business of it and so much more.”