Breakfast is never on Roger Mooking’s to-do list. Ever since his teenaged years, the celebrity chef has always had his first meal of the day past noon. At minutes after 10 on a Tuesday morning, as he goes about making his original seared chicken ballontine recipe in the kitchen of the Spanish Court Hotel, Mooking is apparently running on pure natural fuel.

His easy-going charm and genial warmth is intact from the last time we shared company eating fried fish at Hellshire Beach. Mooking’s back on the other side of the fence he’s most familiar with — whipping up meals in the kitchen. Lending capable assistance to Mooking are the hotel’s food and beverage manager Anthony Matthews and executive chef Omar Sybblis, who all together closely heed to the recipe Roger has concocted that is laid out on a stainless steel table in the kitchen. The dish is intended to be served to guests attending a cocktail reception for the Jamaica Observer Food Awards celebrity guest chef later in the evening.

The kitchen is a whirlwind of activity — chicken thighs are deboned, mango is diced, callaloo is chopped, black pepper corn is pounded — as the three chefs busy themselves making Mooking’s signature ballontine, accompanied by an allspice sauce and an okra salsa. Matthews and Sybblis find it interesting that Mooking has opted to roast the okras, remarking to him it’s a novel method they’ve never thought of trying before. There is hearty discussion in-between checking on boiling pots and heated ovens of sweet-and-sour-infused dishes and striking the right balance between the two.

Mooking tells Thursday Food this particular chicken ballontine dish, like most of his other recipes, came about through experimentation in his kitchen while also seeking to incorporate foods he knew were readily available in Jamaica such as okra and mango. “I call it freestyle,” he says of his cooking mindset. “Sometimes, I’ll just go to the store and buy $200 worth of groceries and experiment with stuff in the kitchen,” the 37-year-old who looks more like 24 revealed as he stirred the sauce of bay leaves, lime juice and grapefruit juice heating on the stove.

With all proceeding well and meeting Mooking’s approval, things near the finish line. The chicken ballontine, which was seasoned and wrapped with callaloo in cling wrap ahead of being boiled, is now coated in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs and lightly fried in olive oil. As a satisfied Mooking takes the finished meat and places it on a plate to be sliced into portions, the other two chefs concur that it looks good. But with the proof of the pudding resting with the taste, the consensus is it’s fantastic.