THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME for Natasha (Forde) Bernardez, where she can kick back, relax and enjoy some local food. Talking about food is important to her as the talented Bajan is a chef in Yonkers, New York, where she has been honing her cooking skills and teasing and tantalising taste buds.
If you are an avid viewer of Food Network, cable channel, you would have seen Natasha twice, once on Cutthroat Kitchen and then on The Taste. She didn’t make it to the finals in either but she loved the experiences.
“I began cooking from a little girl . . . and my dolls were my tasters. Watching my granny cook Sunday dinners just made me love food even more. My fondest memories as a toddler was around the family table learning about life.”
Natasha was back home recently for a working vacation, taking time to visit some schools and do some meet and greet.
“It’s important to me to let people know my journey and where am I from. My food I serve up always has a taste of the Caribbean. My dishes must have a Caribbean flair . . . . I do that in everything that I cook.
She says her jerk chicken phyllo cup bites with a mango compote is “to die for”.
“My go-to ingredient is jerk seasoning, fresh garlic and fresh ginger. The reason for this is that you can put it in literally everything. I believe these spices should be staples in the fridge.”
She said that while it was hard to pin down a specialty dish, calling the choice “a hard one”, “because there are so many things I love to cook. I absolutely love making fried flying fish with sautéed garlicy kale.”
Natasha has a master’s degree in organizational management and an MBA degree in management and is also a graduate from the French Culinary and Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Art, where she studied alternative nutrition methodologies and food therapy. The master’s came first, she explained, as she actually worked in human resources for about ten years as she dabbled with food: “I transitioned from human resources into food full-time.”
The only child of Gale Forde and Euclid Ifill, Natasha grew up in St Lawrence, Christ Church, attending Foundation School. Pursuing her love of cooking hasn’t been as glorious as it appears on television.
“Oh boy . . . . This journey has had its share of challenges. Being a woman of colour in a male dominated industry can be pretty rough at times. But once I decided to follow my dream wholeheartedly, I have become a stronger, more confident woman. I began to believe in myself more and tapped into a source of power I never knew existed within myself.
“One of the most important lessons I have learnt is I need to always believe in myself even when no one else believes in me.”
Natasha says being on the cooking shows has only fuelled the fire for her to do more and she is on a new culinary adventure.
“I had fun, learned quite a deal and found a new home – in front of the camera. I have started my own company Clean Plate Culinary Inc., with the idea that I wanted to bring two worlds together with my own spin. I wanted to share my granny’s influence with my dad’s health philosophies.”
Natasha has come a long way, from working at a restaurant developing menus to preparing exquisite dishes for wealthy clientele and teaching kids how to cook.
The ideas, she said, have made her revamp and remodel her business plans as “the industry is constantly evolving and changing, the goal is to stay relevant yet still true to yourself”.
Natasha laughs now at the many times she has “chopped off the top of one of my fingers . . . . In the kitchen anything is possible,” adding that she is currently working on become a certified aromatherapist. She was awarded a James Beard Scholarship in 2010, is a member of the American Nutrition Association, National Association of Professional Women, The New York Restaurant Association, International Caterers Association, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Clean Plate Culinary Inc., she said, is about eating healthy.
“Clean Plate culinary’s mission is to encourage personal and collective culinary creativity, provide an outlet for local farmers to share their produce, while reducing the distance between the food and your meals. With Clean Plate Culinary the food will be fresh and delicious, the service will be excellent and the guests will be wowed.”
Her team specialises in vegetarian, vegan and farm-to-table, natural and organic choices.
Natasha calls herself a stylish chef, saying that even her cooking utensils are fashionable and she hopes that she can use her knowledge to bring more foodies to Barbados’ shores.
“We have so much talent here and our cuisine is sexy and chic and also simple but elegant.”
What’s next for Natasha’s culinary prowess?
“Next in line are products and cookbooks. I want my career to be bigger than life. I sincerely want to travel the world to learn more about food and take my Caribbean influence into unchartered waters.”
