Local pride
When Hyatt Regency’s executive chef David Jones was 16 years old, he took a part time job in a local hotel as a busboy. The short experience got David hooked on the job, promising to himself that he will work as a chef one day.
After high school, David went to Hawaii to study in JopCorp., a culinary school, for one year. Afterwards, he went to the national Maritime Union of Culinary Arts in San Franciso for further studies for another year. Immediately after his training, David went home to pursue a hotel career on the island.
As Hyatt’s executive chef, David supervises over 100 employees of diverse cultural background, planning the menu for different restaurants and making sure that there are enough stocks in the kitchen.
To all the young people out there who think that hotel job is all glamour should listen to David: Flexible working hours, sometimes going to work as early as 5:00 AM just to make sure that VIP guests get the best service. He spends a lot of time planning the menu for conferences, sometimes two to three months in advance. And of course, not counting the last minute booking for cocktail parties.
Asked what attracted him to this profession, David said it’s the creativity that goes with the job. “You have to be creative all the time. In making international dishes, you are challenged to use local ingredients or even presenting a common dish in a different way,” he said.
Although hotel work has kept him busy, David still finds time to do community service. He is currently working with the Northern Marianas College to implement a Culinary Arts Program. Based on the plan, students who are taking a tourism course would have the chance to hands on training in Hyatt and expose them to preparation of Chinese, Japanese or Italian cuisine in the hotel’s various restaurants.
“We will try to teach them everything — from learning how to properly cut vegetables to the importance of maintaining clean surroundings and learn a bit about baking cakes and pasties,” said David.
The program can include other hotels where the students can be trained as waitress or waiter, bar tender or do some housekeeping jobs. David has already talked to Hotel Association of Northern Mariana Islands president Ron Sablan the possibility of creating a committee to help the College in carrying out this program.
Faced with financial problems, NMC has been finding it hard to implement a Culinary Arts Program which has been on the drawing board for five years now. “We need funding from the government to carry out this program since tourism is the backbone of the economy on this island,” said David.
David’s desire to share his talents stemmed from his goal to entice local young people to work as chef. Aside from the fact that the job pays well, it has also brought him to other places, traveling to Japan, Australia and the United States.
Although David is still enjoying his work, he hopes to set up his own restaurant, serving local food with international flavor, when retirement day comes.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we can serve, be proud of our local food. The secret is in how you prepare it using the local ingredients,” he said.
