 Welcome to interview. Today, we continue our focus on the Chefs in Schools program, an initiative of the Saint Lucia Hotel and Toys and Association. Today, we have with us a couple of students from the Babano Secondary School who will be telling us of their experience going into the Chefs in Schools initiative. Welcome, both of you. First of all, Sarah Popo and Areefa St. Edward. Welcome to the students of the government information service. Thank you. First of all, Sarah, tell us about your experience. How you were able to be selected to enter the Chefs in School program? I was able to be selected into the Chefs in Schools program because my teacher saw I had anxiety and potential into the subject. She knew I had fun, and I liked the subject so much. What about you, Areefa? I got chosen to take part in the competition because my teacher realized that I have the passion for the subject. I love to cook, and in the future, God's willing, I would like to become a culinary or pastry chef. Oh, great. So it wasn't a case that you had to go into a runoff with some of the other students, or you were just not understanding that they decided they would have taken the two of you? Yes. That was the case. OK, so how has the experience been so far? Because you know that you've been attached to a particular hotel and a mentor who's really taking you through the procedures that you would need to know before going into the competition. How has that experience been? The experience has been very good and fun. I learned different techniques and skills. Also, part of this skill will bring me forward to my SBAs as well at school. That's all. Well, it has been a tremendous experience because there, I learned how to garnish, decorate food items, and also knife skills, because I was not too good at it. So there, I get to learn new skills. So where is that attachment, any particular hotel that you're at? Can you tell us the hotel? We are at Bay Garden Sea Grips with Chef Peter, who won the gold medal in Miami in the competition. So if you're very competent and confident that you have a good chef really taking you through the ropes. Yes. How has the experience been like working alongside other persons in the kitchen and seeing the operations of the hotel? Has that inspired you to even have greater focus on becoming a chef when you leave school? Yes, it has given me a lot of confidence and potential. Well, also, it will push me forward to be a better person in life. As I would like to be an executive chef, I would like to be proud of myself. I would like to say all the other skills, like to push people to know all the other skills and techniques that I have learned. So if I tell you, what is a regular day like at the hotel and your interaction with the other members who would be around the kitchen? How often do you go to the hotel, first of all? And what do you do when you do go with the chef? Who is actually training you for the competition? Well, we go there three days a week. There we practice our dishes. The kitchen is always bursting with excitement. The staff are friendly. And we always learn something new every day. OK, now we're going to get into some meaty problems, no pun intended. But the actual competition that you are going to be going in locally, and you know that you're going to head off into a regional competition. So you must be actually working towards that. So there's also your signature dish, and also there's a mystery basket. So tell us how you're preparing for these two elements of the competition. Sarah, you first. Well, we are preparing a lot of different items, trying to use more of our local dishes here. That's what we are trying to do, and work on our decoration more. Arifa? Well, our dish is a surprise on the day you'll get to know. It is a local dish, actually. But what we are doing, we are trying to work on our plating, our presentation of the dish. So that's what we are trying to work on now. OK, so these two aspects of the competition, the mystery and the signature, do you find it's a bit of a challenge to differentiate how you're actually going to approach preparation for those two aspects? Well, yes, actually. But you find more challenging. The mystery basket, I'm sure. Yes, the mystery basket. Because you don't know what's in there. So how do you plan for it? What do you prepare for it? We'll prepare what's when the box is open. We'll just see what's inside and try to put our best out there to show the skills we have. OK, as we close up, what would you like to say to your schoolmates about the experience that you're having so far? Well, it's unfortunate that everyone cannot get the opportunity. But it's a great experience. And I would like to say to my fellow colleagues that if they get the opportunity to take part in any of these competitions, that they go for it. Because in the future, it will help you. Sarah? Well, I would like to say to my fellow colleagues as well. I will tell them congratulations for getting there into the competition as well. And it's not everybody that all they wanted. It's not everybody that could get it. So I'd like to say congratulations to them too. We've come to the end of our first part of our program here on interview. We had it with Sarah Popo and Arifah St. Edward out of the Babylon Secondary School, two of the participants in the Chefs in Schools program. We'll take our break. We'll be back in just a moment. What's in the food you're eating? Do you really even know? All the chemicals and horrors used to accelerate their growth. All the artificial flavoring, sweeteners and colors too. We consume and we don't spare a thought for the damage that they'll do. Think about the children. Think about the children. How chemicals and GMOs are not the solution. Use organic and join. Excessive agrochemical use, additives, and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment. Join the Good Food Revolution. Grow, buy, and consume organic. A message from Rye St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP. The Good Food Revolution. Thanks for staying with us. We continue our interview. Now we have two students from the Trusel Secondary in Marisa Jean and Cedar Fatal. Welcome, both of you. Thank you. And we are looking at, as we told you earlier, the Chefs in Schools program, the initiative of the Sanish Hotel and Tourism Association. First of all, ladies, tell us how you all got involved, how you became the two students who were chosen to be involved in this program. You have a really good question? Well, I got involved in the Chefs in School program when they wanted two students from each school to represent for the competition. And our teacher found us suitable to enter be it our passion for art and for passion for cooking. OK, and Zela, why? Well, it first started when a group of Chefs came to our school to do a presentation on different dishes. And I was very passionate and determined about the subject and the work behind it. And then my teacher found me suitable to take part in this competition. So just while you're opening, you're seeing that both of you are very excited about this program, aren't you? Yes. OK, tell us how you are continuing your preparation to go into the Chefs in School competition. Well, we are preparing our signature dish. We try different things. We have our dish, but we are working on our plating right now. And for the mischi basket, we are trying different proteins, different things. So because you wouldn't know what exactly is in the mischi baskets. Zela? Well, we are getting ready for this competition by we have training mostly every day. And we are determined to do the work. And for the mischi baskets, the Chef gave us different dishes on a sitting before us to try and get to see if we can be able to do it. OK, tell us about the hotel that you are touched to and the experience so far in going to the hotel and being part of the atmosphere there and seeing what the Chefs do. Well, we are currently at the ladder resort, look at it and so forth. The experience at the hotel has been great and sometimes complicated, depends on what we are preparing. The Chefs, they are genuinely, genuinely nice. Every day, they will cause, they show us different things, different techniques in the kitchen and sometimes in pastry. OK, Zela, you have a seminar. Do you have an experience in the hotel? Yes, well, we are located at the ladder, also known as the dashing. And our experience there have been challenging at times because some of the dishes we are complicated in doing it and the Chefs is very patient with us. OK, the mischi basket and the signature and the question of some of the other competitors, how difficult is it to anticipate what the mischi basket might be like and how you're going to prepare for it from comparison to your signature dish, which is something you can probably just perfect by a particular stage, but you're truly the surprise of the mischi basket. How are you preparing for these two different aspects of the competition? Well, there are some days when we are, when we are going to work on our signature dish and sometimes we take two days off to work on, we take two days off to work on the mischi basket. So, from there, we will manage our time. We will practice it until we master our dish. Well, for the mischi basket, we have been given different dishes to use and cook and we even get time at certain points. Excellent. So, you know that you're also looking at even a greater achievement, not just to do any competition, but to move on to regional competition. Is that something that's immediately on your mind or you're taking it once every other time? Well, we are hoping to reach this place. We are doing everything possible to do so. We are not worrying about who wins this, who wins that, so long as we try our best. If we win, then it will be a joy for us. We will go originals. We will make our parents happy, our chef happy and also our FNN teacher. Azir, that's speaking about parents. Are you being encouraged by your parents to really do well in this competition? Do they give you more responsibility at home in getting the meals prepared? Yes, well, mostly every day, I'm doing the cooking at home because my mother found that I have a passion for cooking unlike she sees it can bring me further in life. Okay, so I'll be closing the program. What about the other students at your school? Do they feel excited now that the two of you are involved and is there that sort of urge by them probably other students will do food and nutrition in actually getting involved in the culinary arts? Well, most of them think that it would be a stressful journey towards the two men's training. But to be honest, the journey has been quite successful within many new techniques. If you don't ask if they would, if how was it, I find, I'll tell them that if they get something like that, then they will take it. It's just a one-time, one-life type of opportunity. Okay, Zeta, what have they been telling you? Well, the students in my class, especially my friends, they've been very supportive. They tell me anything I get to go for it and I keep telling them, well, if they keep pushing too, they will also get the experience. Okay, thank you very much, ladies. Thanks for being part of our program today. We've come to the end of interview and we've closed off with two students from the Treasure Secondary, Marisa Jean Zeta Fatal, as we continued our Chefs in Schools program and initiative of the Cemetery of Talent Tourism Association. I'm Rana Brand. See you next time on interview.