The interviewee in this interview in Jamaican Chef Celeste Gordon, who is the author of several cooking blogs and is a worker for NyamJam Festival in Jamaica \u2013a festival that celebrates authentic Jamaican spirit, culture, and cuisine. Gordon is a profound cook and famous for her notable for her cooking performances all throughout the Caribbean. Here is the basis of our interview:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So how did your cooking career begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n I tell people that my cooking career began as a child. I come from a big family, and a lot of our celebrations centered around family dinners. Everybody was in the kitchen, everybody was contributing in some way, so I was trained from early on. I took some cooking classes in my teenage years and ever since I\u2019ve just always had a love for cooking. I\u2019ve been cooking professionally for over a decade.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is your role in the NyamJam festival?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am like the ambassador of Jamaican food. Everywhere in the world is already familiar with Jamaican jerk chicken, but we try to promote other cuisines here in the festival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Are there possibly any new food trends in Jamaica? <\/strong><\/p>\n Our culture has become more wine-centric. There are becoming more wine tastings and pairings throughout the country. If you happen to visit again you will see different types of wine instead of just one brand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is there any Jamaican ingredients or techniques you would ever share with another chef?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I\u2019ve traveled abroad I\u2019ve always noticed that chefs tend to use salt and pepper. Here our food gets seasoned with everything. And by everything, I mean everything<\/em>. We season everything with thyme, garlic, and scallions. If you give Jamaicans just salt and pepper they will think it\u2019s too bland!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What distinguishes Jamaican cuisine from other Caribbean cuisines? <\/strong><\/p>\n Well first, there is jerk and there\u2019s nothing else quite like it. It\u2019s just a way of cooking that nobody else has ever done. Jamaican food as a whole can be very natural. We tend to never use anything canned or processed. For example, Jamaican could definitely tell the difference between canned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes. I believe that is the main distinction from Jamaicans and the rest of the Caribbean.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is one ingredient that will be found in every Jamaican household?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have to say scallion. Everybody uses it. Jamaicans cook a lot of stew, stew peas, curry, and oxtail. The only thing we probably don\u2019t use it for is dessert.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What would you suggest if you had to prepare a complete Jamaican menu?<\/strong><\/p>\n You would probably think Jamaican jerk chicken, right? For me I would provide something different. Jerk pork and chicken were street food when I was growing up. It\u2019s not something the average Jamaican cooks at home. I would suggest oxtail stew, rice and peas, fried plantain, and a fresh green salad for starters.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What are the main difficulties in Jamaican cuisine?<\/strong><\/p>\n Many Jamaican dishes take a long time to cook. Also, depending on where you live in the world, some Jamaican ingredients aren\u2019t easy to find.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The interviewee in this interview in Jamaican Chef Celeste Gordon, who is the author of several cooking blogs and is a worker for NyamJam Festival in Jamaica \u2013a festival that celebrates authentic Jamaican spirit, culture, and cuisine. Gordon is a profound cook and famous for her notable for her cooking performances all throughout the Caribbean. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[33,6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2153,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adhc.lib.ua.edu\/globalfoodways\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}