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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Chef Tim Tibbitts of Flying Fish in Grand Bahama Island returns to the World Gourmet Society Food Festival for a second year
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Freeport, The Bahamas -
Flying Fish is once again participating in the
World Gourmet Society Food Festival which started on March 1st.
This year, Flying Fish is the only restaurant on this side of the world and the others involved have Michelin stars... All will offer their interpretation of the World Gourmet Society’s mission to discover new culinary landscapes in form of a side menu along side their regular menu.
Chef Tim has developed a
special 7-course tasting menu for the month of March, and it is based around traditional Bahamian food and ingredients with a modernist twist.
Flying Fish World Gourmet Society Food Festival Menu:
1st: Truffle cured mahi mahi, lemon, micro herbs
2nd: Conch fritter, liquid conch chowder center
3rd: Stone crab, pickled mustard seed, crispy egg yolk, olive oil
4th: Spiny lobster, mornay "Mac & Cheese", textures of broccoli
5th: Fried Chicken Terrine, Peas & Rice risotto, "coleslaw"
6th: Elements of Guava Duff
7th: Coconut panna cotta, pineapple, banana, Sapodilly sorbet
The website for the World Gourmet Festival.
Interview with Chef Tim Tibbitts by Tesi Bauer:
1. Tesi: Dear Chef Tim, some chefs discover their love for food and their gift to prepare ingredients in an outstanding way quite late, for some other it is already clear in their childhood years that they will become a chef. At which point in time did you discover your gift to prepare food far beyond normal standards?
Chef Tim: I always loved food and cooking but my first love was playing music. I tried to balance both music and food for most of my career until my early thirties when I focused completely on food. The first dish I ever cooked was Duck a’L’Orange from a french culinary classics book when I was 12 years old. My mother asked why I didn’t try something easier. I said because if it didn’t go well I had a good excuse because it was so difficult. If I messed up spaghetti there was nowhere to hide. I think it went well although looking back now I’m quite sure I overcooked the duck.
2. Tesi: The most underrated cuisine in the world is...
Chef Tim: I believe without a doubt the most underrated cuisine in the world is Vietnamese. Everyone knows about Japanese or Chinese or Thai or even Korean for their own food identity. But most people have no knowledge of the beauty and simplicity of Vietnamese food. Vietnamese food is the perfect example of the freshest produce served simply with perfect balance and harmony of flavours. Sweet, spicy, salty and sour always in perfect balance. I love Asian flavours but these are definitely my
3. Tesi: What is your favourite dish and why do you love that dish?
Chef Tim: As an eater it would be difficult to narrow down one dish but I think a really good bowl of Pho beef noodle soup would be close to my perfect comfort food. Absolutely spectacular flavour when made well. It’s just so comforting. My favourite dish I have made is my signature; grilled calamari with kalamata olive, confit garlic, capers, tomato and brown butter. Simple but a great complexity of flavour in every bite. We have used modern technique to make this dish more exciting to eat with reverse spherification of the olives and turning the brown butter into a powder that melts on your tongue. Still very traditional Mediterranean flavours but with a very modern twist.
4. Tesi: A young and talented chef is on the edge of making their decision if they want to turn their talent into a professional career or if they want to develop their skills to cook as a hobby. What would your advice be for them?
Chef Tim: These are two completely different questions and the answers are opposite. If you want to make cooking your career you must first take the plunge and go to culinary school. You may not like it but it gives you a good set of basics to work from. After that try to stage in all the restaurants you admire. Work for free to pad your resume. Then work as hard as you can to get into a top quality kitchen and absorb as much information as you can. I wish I had travelled more and worked for some bigger named chefs when I was younger as it would have made my journey faster. As it was I had to prove myself many times as an unknown head chef to establish my reputation.
If you simply want to become a better home cook just immerse yourself in cookbooks, maybe take a class or two but most important; have fun. Cooking should be enjoyable not a chore. When your hobby becomes work then you will quickly abandon your hobby.
5. Tesi: Where do you get your inspiration when you create a menu? Do you follow a method or a routine when you create a menu or is it different every time?
Chef Tim: Every menu is different. Mostly we work from the seasons. Each season brings a different set of ingredients to the front. Being on an island in the Bahamas, our biggest products are the seafood that are in our water. The migratory species are very seasonal: Tuna, Mahi-mahi, Wahoo are very seasonal fish as they move through our waters. Then lobster and stone crab have a season that they are allowed to be caught. The vegetables and fruit also are seasonal, using the freshest ingredients we can. When it comes to designing a dish, the inspirations come from all over the place. Travelling always spurs creative bursts. Even a day at the beach can produce a dish. We have taken a nod from Heston Blumenthal’s “Sound of the Sea” dish to recreate a day at the beach here. Different sea vegetables with edible sand, edible stones, different fish and shellfish, topped with sea foam. Ideas can come from anywhere. A trip to Koreatown in Toronto this year spawned a dish of pickled shrimp with Korean flavours including housemade kimchee.
6. Tesi: What does good food mean to you?
Chef Tim: Good food to me simply means taking the best available ingredients and treating them with respect. Everything scratchmade and carefully prepared. I enjoy something as simple as a great burger. But it’s still better when freshly ground and treated with care, cooked perfectly and dressed simply. Spectacular presentations do not make food great. It makes food pretty but the flavours are what hold your memory. Presentation is important but not as important as flavour and texture. A great dish should be easy to get to the end of and still want another bite. If you eat half of a dish and are happy with that, the dish was not successful.
RESERVE today!
242-373-4363 or 359-5053
reservations@
flyingfishbahamas.com
Please visit our website for restaurant details and our menus:
www.flyingfishbahamas.com
Brunch: Saturdays/Sundays
11am – 3pm
Lunch: Wednesday through Friday 11:30am- 2pm
Dinner: 7 nights a week from 6 pm
HAPPY Hour is 7 nights a week from 5 - 7pm
Find us on FACEBOOK
Located in Lucaya, Grand Bahama, adjacent to Pelican Bay Hotel
and The Grand Lucayan Resort
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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