Simmons wins Bermuda's Rising Chef of the Year

By the end, there was more tears to wipe away than leftover arugula as the final of Bermuda’s Rising Chef of the Year at the International Imports kitchen reached an emotional finale.

When Fairmont Southampton’s Keishe Simmons was announced as the 2013 champion – by just 0.5 of a point — the cosy venue witnessed an outpouring of goodwill towards the 19-year-old Bermudian, who was the youngest of the four finalists.

Her family made a beeline for the night’s heroine and soon Simmons was lost beneath a joyous and tearful group bearhug.

It was a touching moment and reward for the determination and passion for cooking that began when Simmon’s mom, Roberta, left the island to study when her daughter was 12. “She stepped up,” proud dad Kevin told the Sun.

“I had to,” a smiling Simmons later fired back. “Because there was nobody else to cook in the kitchen or else it was takeout, so I had to cook. I took over and I’ve loved it ever since.”

An apprentice in the Ocean Club kitchen for the past two years, Simmons harbours ambitions to become a chef de partie and eventually a sous chef and also wants to work in Dubai and later Italy.

As well the coveted title, she also wins a trip to New York and a tour of the meat-packing district. In claiming first prize, Simmons not only had to impress the judges, she also had to ward off the challenges of three other highly-impressive up-and-coming cooking talents – Ryan Lampano (Cambridge Beaches), Rakesh Nurkoo (Grotto Bay Resort) and Trevor Kliaman (Fairmont Southampton).

All had 25 minutes to cook, in front of an audience, dishes that had to use foods from the ‘Mystery Basket’, which on this occasion were certified Angus beef flank steak, Amaral Farm’s fresh arugula and Bermuda bananas.

Simmons’ winning effort featured a jerk flank steak satay with pineapple melon arugula salad, Asian beef curry with grilled banana and milk rice, and steak and egg with mushroom succotash.

Those who had a hot ticket to the final. a Bermuda Hospitality Institute fundraiser, were able to sample prepared dishes from each chef and vote for their favourite. Canadian Kliaman picked up the ‘people’s choice’ award before warmly embracing his Fairmont colleague Simmons when the judges — chef Frank Suess, Bermuda Chamber of Commerce’s Joanne McPhee and Mediahouse general manager Glenn Jones — revealed their final decision.

For the former Berkeley student, it was all rather overwhelming.

“I’m feeling a little bit speechless,” she told the Bermuda Sun. “But so happy that all this weight is now lifted off my shoulders, everything is all finished. And I won the title so I’m just so happy.

“I thought I had a chance but I really thought my co-worker at the Fairmont Southampton Trevor was going to win it because he had a brilliant dish. Our dishes were kind of similar but when they said my name, oh my God… I didn’t know what to do. I thought it was a dream to tell you the truth.”

She added: “It’s overwhelming [winning so young]. I just feel if you put your mind to it, you can do anything and I did, I put a lot of hard work into this dish and the end result was good.

“I had a lot of support behind me — I doubted myself a lot in the beginning because I didn’t really think I could do it but... I did it!”

After reaching the final earlier in the week, Simmons had just one day and a few practices to decide on and perfect her final dish.

She said: “The hardest things was the rice, to have to it cooked perfectly. When we were practising it wasn’t coming out right but somehow it came out perfect so I’m glad it went okay. It went well except for when I almost forgot to put the skewers on my plate. Someone screamed out ‘skewers’, thank the lord.

“The time goes by so quick. For this dish we only had one day to practice. I did it three times but it doesn’t take too much for me to get it, I’m a hands-on person – I just have to practice it until I get it down.”

And the future?

“I would really like to work in Dubai because I think it would be a step further for me. I need to learn different things in a different area and it would broaden my mind to different foods and tastes. After Dubai I would like to go to Italy, I love Italian food. I see a lot of great chefs come to the Fairmont from Dubai, so I think it would be a great place to go.”