- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
From left, Nancy McLean, resident food and beverage manager at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. Also, the 24-Hour Café Deli which uses pastries and speciality breads, all made in-house, and chef Gladston Brooks with his delicious fillets.
ONE THOUSAND delectable dinners, including a basic three-course meal, is nothing for the staff of the Jamaica Pegasus hotel to prepare, it appears.
We are curious about the behind the scenes workings of this international business hotel and so this week we visited with Nancy McLean, resident manager as well as food and beverage manager, who tells us how all of this is done.
Weekends are the busiest time at the hotel. On a normal day during this time of week, they might prepare as many as 500 meals for the ballroom and 200 for the Talk of the Town restaurant.
There are two other restaurants too, including the 24-Hour Cafe Deli with all its pastries and fresh sandwiches, all made in-house.
The hotel also offers 24-hour room service.
Additionally, the Jamaica Pegasus caters to several outside events.
Doing all of this with a staff of approximately 120 appears miraculous. For special occasions extra hands are hired.
Besides the staff involved in food preparation, cooking and serving, there are also stewards, the washing staff, cleaners and those at the bar.
Imagine the work for the washers when a banquet of 500 is about to be served. Before this meal, plates, glasses and cutlery (that is 500 times at least five) will have to be washed and rubbed sparkling clean, ready for use.
Then, they will also have to stay behind, and when dinner is over, wash them all again. These members of staff sometimes do not get home until two in the morning. "Their hard work makes the front lines look good," says Mrs. McLean.
Today, we enter a different world where chefs and other kitchen staff clothed fully in white work among what appears to be acres of stainless steel equipment. The smell of cleaning fluid battles with the smell and the chop chop, sizzle of food being prepared.
Peas soup cook
We meet the man who McLean claims to be the best pea soup cook in town, the flambe cook and several other workers who are busily doing this and that for the lunch hour.
In one long room, we see also gloved, white hatted workers filling plates with roasted chicken, vegetable salad and rice, all artfully designed.
In another room nearby, a woman prepares dozens of dessert dishes with slices of cheesecake. Yum!
"I am proud to say that we do not have to go out and order anything. Every item of the menu is prepared in-house. The hotel makes all of its pastries and specialty breads too," the food and beverage manager says. The refrigerators in this netherworld of food are filled with items ranging from the humdrum to the more exotic cheeses and meats. For a banquet, hundreds of pounds of fresh sirloin steak, bags of potatoes and other products are brought in. The quantities are staggering.
In all of this, how is quality ensured? we ask. According to Nancy MacLean, "we have a very strong health, hygiene and sanitation committee. We also follow the HACCAP guidelines."
Food preparation guidelines are also standardised. Staff is trained in basic procedures. Recipes are standardised and photographs are also used to ensure that each culinary creation is what is intended.
At the head of this, McLean also points out is a very creative executive chef who throws something new into the mix every day, ensuring that Pegasus regulars are never bored.
On call
Nancy McLean, who is herself on call 24 hours each day, says that she relies on her spiritual strengths to stop from getting flustered.
One of her most challenging moments, she says was during the Kings house dinner staged for the Queen's visit in 2002 for which the hotel catered.
When the lights went out, she said, the dinner had to be served using flashlights in the kitchen area, while the guests dined by candlelight.
All the dignitaries, including diplomats, the Queen and the Prime Minister were there. There was no way she could have thrown her hands up in the air, she said, adding that it was her team who came to the rescue. "We triumphed. I felt very good about that."
Her life is not without its "bleeps and blunders", but somehow the balls are kept in the air as she continues to juggle her numerous duties.
There are some outside catering events, she said, where an entire dish is sometimes prepared again without clients realising that something had gone wrong.
Today, however, staff move with synchronised smoothness, working as one to ensure that the lunch time buffet for the hotel is also well known is ready and waiting for when those who rely on the hotel for a first class dining experience.
- Outlook Team
