By: Precious Mills
BASSETERRE, St.Kitts (Wednesday 13th December,2017)- More than 10 local media workers were on Monday 11th December treated to a second annual Christmas luncheon at The Pavilion Beach Club located at the South East Peninsula compliments of the management team of the Christophe Harbour Development Company.
On the specially-selected three course menu were Appetizers-pork bon bon (with vegetarian option); Main Course- lobster risotto (with vegetarian option) and Dessert-apple tart with vanilla ice cream.
Official information provided about Christophe Harbour by local entity VhCommunications & Marketing Agency, describes the development as one which sets a new standard for luxury living in the Caribbean.
As further highlighted, set across 2,500 untouched acres on the island of St Kitts, the unique development brings together a world-class superyacht marina with 24 berths, high-end real estate opportunities and unique amenities in an exclusive community that embraces the good life.
Following lunch that day, Vice President of Operations Jon Gersonde gave an update on The Marina while Executive Chef Barnaby Jones highlighted the culinary news.
“We continue to move forward. The Customs House is about 75 to 80 per cent completed. We continue to work on it. We expect it to be done by spring (2018),” Gersonde said.
He also informed that the Customs House opening would be a “huge step” noting that “we’re really looking forward to the Marina Village developing.”
According to Gersonde, there is a great deal of interest in the Federation in general. He mentioned a recent experience at a boat show which he attended in the neigbouring island of Antigua as an example.
“There were about 80 superyachts there for the show and the amount of people were on the docks speaking about the Federation, speaking about St.Kitts in the interest of coming here. So many of these yachts that are on their way or (are) here have never been here before so again there is such an opportunity for us and the Federation to put our best foot forward to say please come and experience what St.Kitts is all about.”
He added: “…it was quite encouraging to hear the amount of people talking about St.Kitts and coming to St.Kitts. Many of these boats, they change (schedules) all the time. We had a boat this morning that we did not did not know about until early this morning that they were even going to come here so it’s amazing.”
Chef Jones talked about a flavouring aspect of the food served that day.
“We just did a local risotto with some tarragon; tarragon that I see growing quite profusely around here. We have tarragon and tarragon flowers and we’ve just had a new supplier that has started to do micro greens with a little bit of pea shoots and sun flower shoots and that’s what was on top of your risotto today.”
He informed that at The Pavilion, two brunches are done weekly noting that on Wednesdays, there is a super club one.
“So basically every week, we try and create new menus.”
Chef Jones also pointed out that it is a set four course menu with a choice of the main course.
“…every week we pick different dishes from around the world and we try and do different influences from some of the countries that I and my team have worked. So that’s just try and add a little bit of a unique flare to the menu during the week.”
He then proudly introduced the guests to the paella grill which is an Argentinean barbecue.
“This fireplace was installed six years ago and it was never operated. It’s got a chimney…it was just this empty hole for the first 10 months I was here. So what we do is every night we light it. We use local hard wood and we fire it up; it’s a proper open fire and that grill can go up and down according to the heat that we need to cook and then we char grill all of our meat –fish, sea food (etc.). So it’s a really exciting piece of equipment. You see it a lot on the food network channels in the (United) States; a lot of chefs are using these in their commercial kitchens…”
As shared by him, on Friday nights, the grill is used to do a full course creole menu including sausage lamb, chicken steak which is says is “quite exciting.
Thursdays nights at Salt Plage-which is another venue at Christophe Harbour, sees a lobster and barbeque type of menu.
According to Chef Jones, Fridays at Salt Plage “ are bit more relaxed… chilled down Fridays” with entertainment while Sundays feature the Havana Express Sala Band starting from sunset in cooling down the weekend with mojitos, margaritas and tacos as part of the menu.
As it pertains to the kitchen produce used at Christophe Harbour, he disclosed that “everything that we try and use here it’s through the Agricultural Ministry which supplies a lot.”
He went on to say: “but also we’ve found local farmers to start producing small amounts of different things. For example, even Reggae Beach down the road, they have a great little farm where they are now doing eggs, some local herbs so we try and get and much as we can from the community.”