 Hello and welcome to interview a production of the government information service. I'm your host for today Jeldeen B. Set Joseph Today we actually joined by Dennis Rosenberg also known as chef Dennis who is actually a chef who has had a career as a chef Rather for many years over in England even though. He's a native of St. Lucia now on top of that chef Dennis is actually also published a wonderful Book of recipes a cookbook maybe I should call it and he's here to talk to us about his career his life and the book today So thanks. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you for having me. No problem Now as I said in my introduction, you are actually a native of St. Lucia, right? Yes So tell us a little bit about that you actually born here. Where exactly are you from on the island? Well, I'm from grizzly I was born in grizzly in 1957 and I went to school the primary school next to the church and the convent that was those days and I went to England when I was about 11. Okay, all right And I was just going to be 12 and then I completed my schooling in In London. Okay, it's London. All right, brilliant. Okay. Now as I said, you've had a career in the culinary arts Yes, did you always know that's where your career would go or was there something that happened later on in life? something that happened later in life, but As the same Lucian right we all and how to cook when we were very little right because we used to go hunting for birds and fishing and stuff like that, right? So When I catch whatever I catch my grandmother would show me how to clean it and then show me how to cook it and then from there you learn The culinary art of cooking, you know locally, of course. Okay. All right, you know, but when I went to England For four siblings now my mother used to go to work Right. So I had to look after them and so I had to cook. Oh, okay, right You had to be like I would say like the helper. Okay So then you get you get the feel of cooking and then I Came back to Saint Lucia in 1973. Okay, because I went over in 1969 came back in 73 And I started working for the Holiday Inn Hotel. Okay. So that's where it all started really Started as a kitchen porter. Okay, and then I was so interested in cooking that the head chef said What are you doing as a kitchen porter? Okay? Why don't you an apprenticeship? Mm-hmm? and After a while, I mean I've got my whites my white uniform and then started Cooking and I wanted to know everything. Okay. I wanted to know everything to do with cooking So I'm after about two years. He said You're so interested in cooking. Well, where would you like to go? Mm-hmm, too, right? Because the Holiday Inn was the biggest hotel at the time company. Okay, so I said because I'm just going in London London would be a good place because I got family over there, right? So he called the Swiss Cottage Holiday Inn and everything Arrange everything for me and then I completed my apprenticeship in England. That's fantastic. Okay. So I was one of the lucky ones Okay, okay, you know, but it's hard work. It's not easy being a chef. Mm-hmm. It's not easy Okay. All right, and there's I understand there's actually a lot of different establishments that you worked in as well in England Tell us a little bit about that and what was your experience like? When I went to the Swiss Cottage Holiday Inn After about a month, I was in charge of a whole section. Mm-hmm. Now I was only 18 years old But I tell you to be in charge of a whole section in the hotel, which is the ladder You're doing all the buffets. You're doing all the cool stuff patties and stuff like that, right? It was it was on her. Okay So I did that for about 10 months to a year Then I decided to leave to go and further my Knowledge in cooking you see. Mm-hmm. And then I went to work for the Tower Tissue Hotel Tower Bridge that big hotel beside the bridge Yeah, that's why I worked. I was I was there for about eight years. Yeah, and I started as a first-comey I went up to second second chef, which is the sous-chef. Mm-hmm And most of the time I was in charge of the whole place in the evening because the chef the head chef never worked nights So I was in charge of about a hundred and ten chefs. Wow. Just this is big. Yeah Okay, so I was responsible for anything anything that happened. We had Cavalry that turns out 150 a night. I'm sorry 1,500 a night. We have a princes room, which is the ala cat Which turns up 150 and then we had another place. We call the picnic bus ever Which is like a fast food sort of thing. Okay So you have to go from one to the other make sure everybody's fine because we had a kitchen on every floor, okay, you know So it's a lot of thing and then that's where I learned my management skills Because you must realize a lot of chefs when they work for someone They never get to the management stage. Yeah, so they go and open restaurants and they have no clue about how to cost how to and I was fortunate enough to To be educated in that field. Okay, okay, and because I don't know if you ever heard of feastal hotel owned hotel like Column the hotel in a in a marble arch, right? They own the strand their own Big company, right? And I was the first black person in management in the whole company, right? Which for me, right was you go to like Christmas parties and you are new only black face there It's It felt good You know, you've worked so hard to get there And that's what I've always instilled in my kids, right? Even though they were born in the UK I say you have to work double as hard to get the job. Yeah, because you are not you are not from there You're not indigenous to the country. Yeah, yeah, so they had to work very hard for where they are now And we are very pleased where they are now That's all the money university, which is good. And I didn't have the chance to go to university. Okay. All right, brilliant Okay. All right. That's a great way for us to just sing an open to a commercial break Okay, so just stay with me and you stay with us and we'll be back in a few moments. Excellent Keeping hands clean is important for me. However after a disaster staying clean is hard to do Especially if there is no pipe-borne water simple things you can do stay clean and remain healthy are wash your hands with If these are not available Sanitizers with alcohol are options wash your hands many times during the day before preparing food Eating caring for a sick person or baby treating a cut wound or so wash hands after using the bathroom changing diapers Caring for animals caring for sick or injured persons after handling garbage Washing your hands is one of the best ways to prevent illness for further information Contact the Bureau of Health Education at telephone number 468-5349 Welcome back to interview and I am here today with chef Dennis. Now chef Dennis before we went to the break You're telling us a little bit about your career, but I understand you also opened your own restaurant. Tell us a little bit about that Yes it came about Because I after I left the tower of this little hotel I went to work for the Trocadero, which is a massive place on Leicester Square Right the Piccadilly right and from the company which I used to work for on the biggest fish restaurant In the UK. So it was called Willis this restaurant. So I was had the opportunity to open One on the Kings Road, Chelsea, which is the top place to open a restaurant Yeah, and then after a few years I went well a friend of mine Introduced me to someone that have a restaurant in the in America in Wisconsin So I went and opened a restaurant for them. Okay, that's what I was I was just opening restaurants everywhere Okay, yeah, that was my yeah And then the area manager of Willis got a job in Norwich Now I'd never heard of Norwich before. Okay. So he called me up. He says I'm I've got a place in Norwich I'm a hotel. I would like you to come and help me. I said, where the hell are you? He says, I'm in Norwich. I said, where is Norwich? That was about 120 miles from London, right? So he said, um, take the M11 and you'll get there. I went there and then I stayed there for about three years And then I decided to open my own restaurant. Okay, which is a French Creole restaurant Which is partly why the book is written and my first restaurant was over in 1992 then I Opened another one in 1998, which is about seven miles away from where I was But that was an old pub which I transform into a restaurant and then transform it into a guest house also Mm-hmm, and put some apartments onto it. Oh, wow And now now it's a 19 bedroom guest house. You see But then I removed the restaurant from there. I put it back exactly why I started right and Two years ago I decided to retire because I think I've done enough That's why I wrote the book because my clients kept asking me for recipes So I said, okay, um When I retire, I'm gonna write a book. Mm-hmm. So I started the book in 2015 and I retired in 2017 and the book was written. Oh, wow Okay, all right Okay, now what kind of recipes can one expect to find in there? No, no, you have everything you have from soups to Dumpling with Pig foot. Okay, you have breadfruit breadfruit soup. You have breadfruit cake. You have things like I'm crayfish tails. You have things like soft shell crab You have shrimps you have Dorado you have sea bream You have gumbo fasi. Okay. Fasi is a speciality of ours Where we open the gumbo we take the seeds out and we stuff it with garlic cheese and it will make a bain yeah all right, and then we We fried That is amazing. That sounds very good We have fish balls We are fish balls we have Because well, I know here right you don't do all this right but what the whole idea of the book is to Educate people from St. Lucia also There are multiple stuff we have here that we do not use it to the full potential. Okay, okay Like with breadfruit you could make a whole lot of anything you could make a potato you can make a breadfruit Right, all right, and people don't take that on board. Okay, you know and that's what I do I I make a cake with coconut with pumpkin with with Golden apple right I use everything here. Yes to make something different out of okay Okay, all right, and this is why the book is written. Okay, no problem if one wanted to purchase it Where could we actually get one? Well, you get from me? I'll give you my email address. Okay, brilliant I'm on my telephone number, but it's also on Amazon. Okay, and you could read up the The review about it. Well, I it's only recently already. I didn't realize right? Okay, but the review is damn good Actually a taste of the French Caribbean insane that though are there recipes from or would you say from? The other French countries as well. Oh, yeah, so you actually touch on it. It's it's it's from from even New Orleans Okay, I get you right. All right. Okay catfish and stuff like a black and catfish And so I because all these things are on my menu because my my restaurant encompass The crew of way of cooking Not only for Saint Lucia, but also for New Orleans on Martinique and different places. Okay, you know I got Kallaloo in here. Okay. Now Kallaloo a lot of people don't even know how to make Kallaloo probably Mm-hmm, right But Kallaloo was made right like during the slavery days, right? And you put you have your carbohydrate You have protein you have your spinach and well Kallaloo. Yes. Yeah, people use spinach or people use dashing Which is dashing is not right. Yeah, okay, right And all this right this is authentic recipes, right from the past. Okay, and I've made it for the present to use Properly, okay, brilliant Now I would love to taste some of the stuff that's in there I know I have to get a copy of the book. I believe me and it's been wonderful Talking to you today, but before you go Can you just say a few words? Maybe it's about you touched on your your children and how you've inspired them to work hard To get whatever they want. Mm-hmm a lot of young people here are interested in the colony arts What would you say to them? Somebody who's had a career like yours in regards to staying with it because I know it's not easy It's not so what would you say to them to just inspire them to to motivate one thing you must have right? It's passion Cooking you do not go in the country at to make money, right? That's the first thing you ought to do You have to have a lover it. That's why I'm I have three kids and I didn't want any of them to go into the country acts Okay, because I want them to find their own way in life And that is my passion, but they all helped my first daughter Started working in the restaurant at nine years old Right and they could manage the restaurant whilst we my wife and I are going on holiday Okay, they managed it because we had a chef. Okay, so they could manage the restaurant all of them worked in the restaurant my my first daughter right, you know, she's a Pharmacist at Adam Brooks Hospital, which is the biggest hospitals in England and she has her own clinic and everything The second one is another daughter. She's an accountant She works for the Jenny any center, which is the center to for agriculture and all the genetic Modification and stuff like all right, and the third one is the first black person at the age of 28 Assistant head teacher in a second just going to UK. Oh, wow. Okay, and this this it just Make me feel proud of them because they've worked very hard Mm-hmm, and I told them from the beginning from the time you have to work harder than The person that was from there to get the way you want to get to okay, and and it's just hard work and Passion in what you do and it's stick to it brilliant. Okay, brilliant. Thank you for joining us today We have run out of time sadly So please come back sometime and talk to us some more because I would maybe even to like to go into detail To some of your recipes with you because yeah, but I was something I must say I was going to open or a cook Risco here actually in my in my house, right? But I'm going to see how it goes. Okay. No problem. Thank you for joining us. Chef Dennis. Thank you Thank you very much. Thank you for watching interview do join us again next time. Bye. Bye for now