Guest writer
Pork ribs plated like a starfish, topped with local kimchi. A deserved chef’s kiss not only for its presentation, but also for what could be easily defined by the latest popular food term “tendernism”, as the meat came off the bone with gentle persuasion of the fork.
With every bite, it was enjoyable to savour the mix of Asian spices and identifiable Trini seasoning.
“It is authentically Rondell,” said Rondell Thompson, the head chef of Chaud Restaurant Group and one of the headline chefs at the upcoming Goatober signature event, In Goat We Trust, on October 25.
The dish is one of his favourite creations on the menu and when he is at home, it is also his comfort food with a side of jasmine rice.
If his name sounds familiar, Thompson’s work has already garnered recognition. At age 17, he was awarded National Junior Chef and joined the national culinary team at the Taste of Caribbean competition. He won gold as Caribbean Junior Chef and the team brought home silver.
The following year, he was the youngest national chef on the team, which won the seventh Team of the Year title for T&T. On his own, he placed second in Season Four of the Maggi Food Court Caribbean series and returned for Season Five to win first place.
Now, at 29, Thompson oversees culinary operations for Chef Khalid Mohammed’s collection of restaurants, which includes the well-known Chaud Café and Wine Bar and its sister restaurant Fuego, a Mexican Taqueria, at One Woodbrook Place.
He presented himself for an interview on an Ash Wednesday and was hired as a line chef. Now, he manages Chaud’s kitchens.
His career as a chef was a lifelong passion, as the kitchen has always been part of his life. At age five, he knew he wanted to do something different. During the July/August vacation, while his cousins and neighbourhood friends played outside, he was inside carrying the responsibility of a prep cook for his mother, learning the rudiments of cooking and watching her create local meals.
“So, it started off with small things. I was grating coconut to make sweet bread, or grating cheese for macaroni pie. We went to boiling pasta and how to break up the macaroni, and cut up the carrots for fried rice,” he recalled.
When he was in Standard One at St Crispin’s Anglican Primary School, his teacher challenged him to make his favourite dish.
“‘What this young boy know about making sada bake?’ she asked. ‘Miss, I know how to make it; I just throw in the yeast and the warm water and then make the dough,’ and at break time she asked me again, because she wanted to hear how I did it. And that was the first time I saw someone interested in me talking about food,” he said.
This was a direct contrast to a relative who thought a man’s place, or at least that of a growing boy, should be “hardback work” rather than tossing around pots, pans, flour and seasonings.
Yet Thompson continued on his path at Tranquillity Secondary, where he studied Food and Nutrition. While theory was mandatory, his excitement was doing the practical work in the school kitchen.
It was when he and his classmates went on a field trip to the then Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute in Chaguaramas that Thompson knew that was his calling.
“So that was the plan from 2010, as soon as I finished secondary school, I was going to apply to the TTHTI and learn to become a chef and become a professional chef.”
With these additional skills, Sunday lunches at home became experiments and his family members were his guinea pigs who looked forward to his next creation.
His version of cooking local became gourmet, a mix of experiences from working at the Hyatt as he watched the chefs work while he was a server; his internship at the famous, high-end Palazzo Versace in Dubai that hosted Michelin-calibre dining experiences; and his current eight years working with Chef Khalid at Chaud.
“I am very adamant about that kind of Trinidad identity in food. I don’t mind collecting other cultures. I love mixing international dishes and international techniques and skills and use them locally. Same thing you could do with a zucchini; you could do with an ochro. Instead of using a potato, you could use dasheen, eddoes or yam. I am big on that. It goes down to your food and nutrition classes, of course. It all stems from your basics,” he explained.
His ability to turn traditional dishes into contemporary ones is his signature style. Such as a mac and cheese breaded ball which carries the taste of a macaroni pie or a chicken roulade that is reminiscent of stewed chicken.
“My style of presenting and creating dishes or even writing menus, it’s all about using local with a lot of flair,” he said.
Thompson’s success means he’s in demand across the region. He was invited to represent this country as a mentor at the British Virgin Islands Food, Wine and Rum Festival from October 16 to 19. He coached a team of aspiring teenage chefs to a winning position in what was described as an “exciting and tough competition”.
However, he is keeping his plans for Goatober to himself, allowing the hint that there will be goat.
“There will be a street food station, with each item showcasing goat meat in some form. We will have a dessert station utilising goat cheese, goat milk, goat yoghurt,” he teased.
One thing is for sure, he said, when he presents, he will do it like Beyoncé as her formula to train, rehearse, and practice is equivalent to perfection.
“You know she’s going to come professional. She’s going to come ready, rehearsed, and practised. I’m starting to finish, so that’s why I talk to myself, ‘Yourself, proclaim Beyoncé.’”
