IF you think the latest cable channel story on jerked chicken means Caribbean food has made it to the top of the menu, don’t tell that to Orlando Satchell. The resident chef at the Dasheene Restaurant, Ladera Resort in St Lucia, says the region’s [DEMO]eeds more than token treatment on North American television if it is to break through internationally.

The jocular Satchell, born in Birmingham, England to a Barbadian father and Jamaican mother, and Trinidadian chef Khalid Mohammed, shared a rigorous grill session with some of their local counterparts yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

“My feeling is that Caribbean cuisine is number one in the world in terms of colour and passion,” said Satchell. “But the way we present it here (in the Caribbean) is very bland, I would love to see our chefs showing much more passion in their presentation,” he added. “If you look at North American television, they are doing Caribbean cuisine but not with our flair and passion.”

The 39 year-old Satchell has been promoting his “Sexy cuisine” in restaurants in the United Kingdom, North America and the Caribbean for just over 20 years. In that time, he says, the food in this region has made great strides but not enough to make it an international sensation.

“Hell no! The day people say ‘oh, we want to go a restaurant to eat Caribbean cuisine’, then I’ll be satisfied. Right now [DEMO]e just going to a Caribbean restaurant because it’s an occasion.”

Satchell and Mohammed spoke passionately about the need for regional “foodies” to showcase indigenous foods. “I use everything at my restaurant (Battimamzelle in Port of Spain), yams, cassava, dasheene….it’s important for our people to enjoy their own food, and foreigners too,” said Mohammed.

The three-hour seminar — which is a lead-up to this evening’s fifth Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards at the Pegasus — attracted some of the big names in Jamaican food, including Norma Shirley of Norma’s on the Terrace, Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau of Ciao Bello, Colin Hylton of the Guilt Trip, Kermit Tucker of the Chaine des Rotisseurs, Virginia Burke of Walkerswood and Gary Ferguson of the Rib Kage.

Ferguson was responsible, perhaps, for the session’s biggest drama. He berated Karlene Gordon, senior lecturer in the tourism and hospitality department at the University of Technology, for not using more local experts to interact, and conduct teaching sessions [DEMO]t institution.

But the banter, for the most part, was positive. And attendees gave the exchange the culinary five-star.

“I think the thought of having a Restaurant Association of Jamaica is a good idea because we can benefit from it,” said Keteis Brissett, a director at the Livity (vegetarian) Restaurant. “I learnt a lot about how to train staff, motivating them and strategies to make our business grow.”

For others it was a wonderful opportunity to network and to exchange ideas.

The restaurant seminar was sponsored by The Jamaica Pegasus.