CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

James Ross, 12, from Mar­aval, loves cook­ing and ex­per­i­ment­ing with his own spice blends for dry rubs or mari­nades. He al­so loves his mom’s cook­ing and spend­ing time with her in the kitchen. Now, he has turned his love of both in­to his own busi­ness.

James goes to ar­ti­san mar­kets with his mom and sis­ter sell­ing his spice blends. The sign on his ta­ble says it all, "Let's spice it up!"

Speak­ing to the Kids' Guardian James said "I have a small busi­ness called Jefe's Sea­son­ings. I pro­duce a va­ri­ety of sea­son­ing blends to en­hance foods and pair them with dif­fer­ent meals.

"Every­one comes to­geth­er for the mar­kets, like Bits & Pieces, in Movi­eTowne, as they are a lot of work. But it’s most­ly been my sis­ter, Is­abelle and I. She helps with all the im­por­tant stuff, like sourc­ing in­gre­di­ents and pack­ag­ing and help­ing me de­sign the la­bel and oth­er things. She was the one who helped me get Jefe’s off the ground.

"I’ve al­ways loved cook­ing, and I’m al­ways ex­per­i­ment­ing with new things in the kitchen. I was nev­er re­al­ly taught, but over time I de­vel­oped a sense for it."

He said when it comes to busi­ness, his dad and Is­abelle have taught him every­thing he knows about keep­ing Jefe’s as a thriv­ing com­pa­ny.

James' favourite spice blend is called Every­thing Bagel. You can taste the ded­i­ca­tion and hard work they put in­to it, he said.

He ex­plained that part of this was de­hy­drat­ing their own onion and gar­lic gran­ules which can take up to 16 hours for one batch, but it was worth it for the true home­made taste.

Cur­rent­ly, he has two mix­es; Jefe's Taco Sea­son­ing and Jefe's Every­thing Bagel Sea­son­ing. The Taco Sea­son­ing gives any­thing a Mex­i­can flavour, you can add it to meat, fish, beans or rice, or just about any­thing when you are cook­ing. Re­gard­ing the Every­thing Bagel Sea­son­ing, James said that it was a mixed sea­son­ing that goes great as a top­ping on eggs or av­o­ca­do.

James Ross making sushi at home.

His mom, Melis­sa Ross, likes to sprin­kle it on veg­eta­bles or roast­ed sweet pota­toes, and she al­so makes a dip with it.

Mean­while, James shared that his sis­ter likes to mix it with bread crumbs for bak­ing or fry­ing chick­en or fish. You can add it to any­thing, and it is re­al­ly ver­sa­tile.

Ac­cord­ing to James, the busi­ness ven­ture start­ed from pan­dem­ic bore­dom; he spent a lot of time cook­ing in the kitchen and watch­ing cook­ing tu­to­ri­als.

One night he was mak­ing tacos with his sis­ter, and they de­cid­ed to craft their own sea­son­ing blend, and from there emerged their first prod­uct, Jefe’s Taco Sea­son­ing and the Jefe’s brand was born.

The Fa­ti­ma Col­lege Form 1 Class 4 stu­dent's favourite sub­ject is Math­e­mat­ics.

James is still not sure what he would like to be when he grows up. While his mom said that he should be a chef, he would like to keep it as a hob­by.

He lists cook­ing, mak­ing sushi (which he picked up dur­ing the pan­dem­ic), as well as sail­ing and bik­ing as his hob­bies, and he likes any­thing on the grill.

James has a nine-month-old Yorkie and her name is Lil­ly.

His moth­er said that she and his fa­ther, Charles Ross, en­cour­age him in what­ev­er ac­tiv­i­ties he would like to try.

James Ross explaining his new product Everything Bagel Seasoning to a customer at Bits & Pieces artisan market, MovieTowne.

He had al­ways shown an in­ter­est in cook­ing and had a very ma­ture palate from a young age, she said.

Ross said they sup­port­ed him 100 per cent in his Jefe's ven­ture, and they are in­cred­i­bly proud of him.

She added that James' dad was a busi­ness­man, so he draws in­spi­ra­tion from there.

Ross com­ment­ed that James had al­ways done well in his school­work, but like most chil­dren, he need­ed to be re­mind­ed to get it done as he can get eas­i­ly dis­tract­ed.

But when he does some­thing, he does it to the best of his abil­i­ty.

Ross said James was very par­tic­u­lar about any­thing he puts his name on, be it school work or Jefe’s.

James Ross learning how to sail the 420 dinghy at sailing camp this year.