Barbadian Chef Rickeena Kirton Vies for Top Honors in International Culinary Competition

When life gives you lemon you make lemonade and chef Rickeena Kirton will also use it to make a pastry plate that might win a national or international competition.

The 32-year-old head chef at the Rockley Barbados placed first in the BHTA’s competition to earn a place to vie for a spot on the BHTA’s Barbados National Culinary team for the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association’s Taste Of The Caribbean competition in Miami, Florida come November.

With the competition on hiatus for four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Barbados team are the reigning champions after being named the 2019 Caribbean Culinary Team Of The Year.

Rickeena will be looking to best her regional counterparts with her eye-catching and tasty desserts.

“This is my first time ever entering this competition. I have entered the Nevis Mango Festival and won but this is my first time trying out for the Barbados national team.

“I wanted to be a part of this and create dishes indigenous to Barbados. Pastry is my passion but I am versatile.”

The former Princess Margaret Secondary School, Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic and the PomMarine Institute student found the judges’ favour as they picked her as the pastry chef who will represent Barbados in that category.

“The day of the competition I put God first. I was confident and had a clear mind. I said ‘I am going to go into this competition and do my best.’”

The young chef was clueless as to who her rivals were. “I only saw them the morning on that day.”

The rules were to create a signature dish.

“In my mind, I wanted to use my dish to be a part of something on the island, so I used the inspiration of the Andromeda Gardens and I plated my dish whimsical and more fun around the garden aspect . . . trying to take you back to some childhood nostalgia, like all the flavours we would have had growing up like picking pomegranates and so on .”

Competitors had four hours to produce a plate to knock the judges’ socks off.

“I tried to use as much indigenous things. The morning before, I spent the day sourcing jamoon with a ladder on a paling,” she said, laughing.

“I wanted to keep it local and try to take it back to the roots. When they called my name as the winner, I was happy, elated and thanking God. Everybody came and put their best foot forward.”

The dish was a chocolate plant pot filled with a molasses gingercake, a white chocolate mousse with a grapefruit pouilly, a soursoup and coconut ice-cream, chocolate coffee crumble, a jamoon and sorrel gel, a starnise pomegranate compote and an old-time ponche crème on the side.

The team is now in training for three days a week and her bosses at Oceans are rooting for her.

“I am actually looking forward to the competition and seeing what everyone is going to bring to the table. I want to bring home the gold.”

Rickeena first studied catering at the Polytechnic.

“At first, I wanted to teach food and nutrition after seeing my teacher at Princess Margaret so involved in the theory part. But when we got into the practical aspect, I found I had more of a love for that side, but both go hand in hand.”

Rickeena isn’t one to do anything half-heartedly, so off she went to pursue an associate degree in culinary arts at PomMarine and got the opportunity to work at Disney for her internship in 2010.

“That was culturally interesting. I met so many different people and learn different cuisines, so it was very educational, especially since I knew I wanted to be a chef. So I soaked up all I could learn.”

After graduating from PomMarine, Rickeena worked at several kitchens over a period of time, honing and sharpening her skills. She landed at Oceans Hotel six years ago and steadily sweated and toiled her way in the kitchen, learning the nitty-gritty of the industry hands-on.

“I started as a pastry cook, then chef de partie, then junior sous, sous chef and now head chef,” she said proudly, adding that getting to this stage was not hard.

“Everything has a challenge, but once you adapt yourself and you have the right mindset and you know your end goal, it comes really easy when it is a passion. If you have a job that is not challenging you, then you need to change jobs.’

Rickeena manages a team of six – making sure everything runs as smooth as possible.

“I make sure the team is good. I do stock taking and our menu planning is seasonal, but you are always working on menus as there are trends out there and you need to have a menu that is detailed but catering to everyone.”

Looking ahead, the mother of a daughter, Faith, said she has plans to do other things and make a name for herself.