Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Gone are the days of clam­our­ing for cur­rants rolls and co­conut tarts at the lo­cal bak­ery.Now Tri­ni dessert lovers have ac­quired a strong de­sire for in­ter­na­tion­al gourmet treats with a lo­cal twist.This chang­ing taste of the lo­cal dessert palette is ev­i­denced by the grow­ing num­ber of gourmet cafes na­tion­wide and a wider se­lec­tion of sin­ful, sweet pas­try treats at su­per­mar­kets and bak­eries.

One of the most pop­u­lar treats, cheese­cake is be­ing in­fused with lo­cal flavours like sour­sop, pump­kin, bar­ba­dine and even av­o­ca­do to match the chang­ing tastes of the dessert-lov­ing pub­lic.The prices to match this chang­ing palette are al­so wide and can range from $20 per slice to $65 per cup­cake, or from $125 to $500 per cake.

For pas­try chef Jineal Chich­ester, of gourmet cafe–Chi Cafe at Bam­boo Junc­tion, La Ro­main, this change in taste is wel­comed and re­fresh­ing."Trinida­di­ans are not the reg­u­lar Trinida­di­ans as be­fore. We have gone gourmet, we are start­ing to en­joy foods from dif­fer­ent parts of the world.

Be­fore, you would go to a reg­u­lar bak­ery and you would get the turnovers and the cur­rants rolls, pone and paime and all of that, and it was tra­di­tion­al and it was love­ly. But, it was some­what plain," she said.Now, Chich­ester said, pas­try shops and gourmet shops are of­fer­ing beau­ti­ful, ir­re­sistible desserts sim­i­lar to those seen in mag­a­zines or those on­ly found in coun­tries where Trin­bag­o­ni­ans fre­quent.

"When you trav­el, ei­ther you go to Amer­i­ca or to Eu­rope and when you go to cafes you see all these pas­tries there. Now you are see­ing it here in Trinidad with a lo­cal twist, and I think that is what makes it spe­cial," she said.Chich­ester, who re­signed her job as a naval of­fi­cer with the T&T Coast Guard last year to open her cafe, said she was en­joy­ing the resur­gence of in­ter­est in desserts in T&T since it is a key el­e­ment of meals in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

"I def­i­nite­ly think it is an en­hance­ment," she said.Her cheese­cakes are made with Philadel­phia cream cheese and im­port­ed choco­lates and are mouth-wa­ter­ing and moist.Chich­ester said it was her love for bak­ing and her de­sire to have dessert lovers ex­pe­ri­ence de­li­cious in­ter­na­tion­al treats that led her to leave her sta­ble job and pur­sue her dream.

"I al­ways no­ticed that I had a knack for bak­ing and a nat­ur­al tal­ent and even when I was in the mil­i­tary, some­times I would run out and go in the gal­ley (kitchen) and help make a cake or some­thing, and this was when I was train­ing at Dart­mouth (Eng­land). When I came back to Trinidad I re­alised bak­ing was some­thing that I should fol­low up be­cause it was some­thing that I loved, and it did not make sense to stay in a ca­reer that you are not ex­treme­ly pas­sion­ate about," she said.

She added that her boyfriend and busi­ness part­ner Anal­do Ramjits­ingh, as well as her moth­er, Jenif­fer, sup­port­ed her and pushed her to fol­low her dreams.

Lo­cal flavours im­por­tant­to pre­serve T&T cul­ture

Chich­ester said her in­nate love of trav­el to New York and dif­fer­ent parts of the world fu­elled her dri­ve to of­fer some­thing new to the Trinida­di­an palette. She al­so has an ob­ses­sion with cheese­cakes.She said while her cafe will have paime, pones, bread pud­ding and turnovers, she wants to in­cor­po­rate lo­cal flavours with in­ter­na­tion­al flavours.

Chich­ester ex­plained that as a for­mer his­to­ry stu­dent she be­lieves it is im­por­tant to have lo­cal cul­ture in cui­sine."If we do not in­cor­po­rate our cul­ture we will lose it. Even though we are cre­at­ing some­thing new, a new Trin­ba­go cul­ture, it is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber where we came from. I think the bak­ers that we had be­fore and the bak­ers we have now and the prod­ucts we have now are not the same, but it is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber where we come from," she said.

Chich­ester said she wants her cheese­cake shop to be sim­i­lar to an ice cream shop where cus­tomers can come in and se­lect their favourite from her 61 flavours and en­joy it im­me­di­ate­ly. She said she has a strong team in the kitchen with chef Yashimo Wal­cott and pas­try chef Matthew Jones at her side.