By Shelly-Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer 
Hylton - Photo by Keisha Shakespeare
AFTER SCHOOL was out for the day, all Garry Hylton wanted to do was play football.
However, two of his friends managed to persuade him to buckle down and make his after school hours more profitable. So at 15 the former Port Antonio High School student traded the football field for the kitchen at the Demontevin Lodge Hotel in Portland where his friends worked as a sous chef and a waiter.
He became a trainee chef. Hylton explains his leap from sports to food this way: "I wasn't doing foods at school but because I'm a poetry artiste and true foods deal with a lot of art and I love to create,I figure that I would be able to do it."
Hylton, now 25 and one of two chefs at The Gleaner Company's staff canteen in Kingston
subsequently studied five types of cuisine as part of his training. He says that he prefers cooking with seafood rather than poultry because "It is easy to cook and it is also better for the body."
Before The Gleaner, he worked at Jamaica Crest and The Hub, both in Portland; as well as Rodney's Arms in Portmore, St. Catherine; and 9 to 5 Café in downtown, Kingston.
FOOD PHILOSOPHY: Without food one cannot live. It's a part of nature. Eating a balanced meal and exercising make a person healthy and provide more energy to move.
WHAT YOU COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT: Vegetables. When I eat meat it slows me up so I prefer vegetables.
KITCHEN/CUPBOARD CONFESSION: Wine, because many people don't know that wine can be used in preparing food.
FIRST FOOD MEMORY: The first thing I ever cooked was white rice and it turned out a little bit too salty. This was during my training as a chef. I never used to cook at home as my mother didn't want us in the kitchen because we were boy children.
WHAT YOU DISLIKE: Goat meat (mutton). I don't eat or like goat.
Hylton's recipe for Grilled Salmon
1 1/2 - 2 lbs. unseasoned salmon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vegetable oil
For sauce
1/2 lb. cooking butter
6 cloves garlic
1/2 bottle white wine
1 medium sized onion
Method
1. Heat grill for five minutes.
2. Add vegetable oil.
3. Then add salmon for seven minutes. Turn on each side until meat becomes bronze in colour.
4. Melt butter in a frying pan.
5. Add diced garlic to melted butter, white wine, onion rings and stir for about 30 seconds.
6. Put salmon on platter (plate).
7. Add sauce to salmon and garnish as desired.
