- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Leon Meredith, executive chef at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, sautes vegetables for a favourite dish.
This week Outlook brings you Chef Leon Meredith, our 'Chef Of The Month'. Read on for his tasty secrets.
THERE IS a hungry, international, visitor in the house. What do you feed him?
Our featured chef, Leon Meredith, the 58-year-old executive chef in charge of the kitchen at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston, says that most of our international guests at the hotel want to sample Jamaican food.
Chef Meredith is in charge of menu development and kitchen administration for the hotel's three restaurants.
The first of these is Le Brasserie, which provides mostly Jamaican fare, including a Jamaican buffet for breakfast. The buffet features the entire spectrum of breakfast favourites, including ackee and saltfish. A continental breakfast is also served. Next is the Pegasus Café Deli which serves deli sandwiches and salads as well as sliced cold meats. The Café Deli also serves chicken and steak dishes. Additionally, it specialises in coffee and desserts.
"We have great desserts," says Chef Meredith."
The third and last restaurant is the Columbus Restaurant, which specialises in Italian food.
Cooking is an art, states the executive chef. The more thinking and planning you put in it, the more you will get out of it. You do not have to go the traditional way all the time.
He says that, for example, in preparing pork, do not automatically think jerk or roast. You can prepare it stir-fried, baked or sautéd. Cut the meat quite thin and cook it fast. When it is well-cooked, toss it with spices and vegetables and voila, you have an old favourite prepared in a new and exiting way.
"We have a lot of herbs which are not used," chef Meredith also says. There are basil and thyme, which even grow in the wild. These herbs will enhance the taste of your dishes.
Here are some of the best from the private kitchen of the master chef:
Favourite entree: "I love to cook sea food. I make my dishes fast, cooking from the fireside. I like shrimp, fish and lots of vegetables."
His favourite additions to the fish dish of the day include broccoli, sweet pepper and celery, says Meredith.
Favourite dessert:
His personal favourite is fruit, but now and again he will have a piece of cheesecake.
Favourite piece of equipment in the kitchen: The Robotcoupe, a piece of equipment which chef Meredith says can do almost anything, including chopping, slicing, dicing, shredding, blending and is also nice to make your mousses.
