The backbone of the Devon House canteen, Denise Bradshaw takes immense pride in her job. It’s not much of a stretch to say she not only aims to please, but goes about doing so with perfectionism in mind. Bradshaw thanks the late great culinary doyenne Norma Shirley (who called her “my left hand”) for instilling that sense of precision to one’s craft within her. Bradshaw spent some 11 years in Shirley’s employ, working at Norma’s on the Terrace for the temperamental but extraordinary chef right up to her passing last year. “I achieved a lot and nobody can take that away from me,” said Bradshaw as she reflected on her years of service with Shirley. Turning to her current position as a canteen manager, Bradshaw said she is super-content being her own boss. “It’s something I love,” she readily conceded, “I have a passion for food and I can do what I want and make guests and customers comfortable.”

The St Mary-born Bradshaw (who also caters) shared that she moved to Kingston when she was 11 years old to live with an aunt and her husband who together operated a restaurant named Johnny’s Joint along Camp Road. When she turned 15, Bradshaw went to work in the restaurant — cashing, operating the bar and cooking. Doing the latter felt so natural that it was not long before Bradshaw fell in love with the culinary world. Graduating from Holy Trinity Secondary where she aced food and nutrition classes, a jobless Bradshaw was thought about furthering her career when she came upon a television ad by the Social Development Commission (SDC) offering work experience to job seekers. Bradshaw quickly found herself at the SDC offices and was soon dispatched to work at a New Kingston restaurant as a line supervisor. She hated the job. Disgruntled with what she was being exposed to, she requested a transfer to somewhere else. Fortuitously, she was sent to work with Shirley, whom she remembered taking to her in very short order. A smiling Bradshaw, in fact, recalled Shirley’s words following their first meeting: “This little girl of mine, I was looking for you all the time.”

Approaching a year since the culinary grand dame’s death, her protégé said she most misses “her correcting me…because I think sometimes we all need corrections”. Nonetheless, Bradshaw is forging ahead with her new career and said she’s taking a page out of her mentor’s book. “I’m like her now, always trying to be perfect.”