Chef Devan McPhee remembers vividly the day he went to church and was asked by his pastor what he wanted to be in life. The youngster, seven or eight at the time, thought back to the fact that he had been watching the Food Network before he left out of the house that Sunday morning, having just gotten cable installed, and said he wanted to be a chef because he'd just seen them on television. His pastor prophesied that young McPhee would be one of the best chefs The Bahamas would see and at a very young age at that.
That pastor's prophecy seems to be coming true as Chef McPhee, now 25, owns his own restaurant and bar. It was just in May that he signed on the dotted line to lease the Simmer Down Restaurant and Stir It Up Bar at the Marley Resort on Cable Beach where he's certainly simmering some amazing pots and stirring up delicious libations.
Simmer Down Restaurant showcases a fusion of Bahamian and Jamaican food with an international flair as he complements the cuisine with French and European touches and relies on lots of spices and herbs to his foods making him one of the hottest young chefs in the country.
"Our theme in the kitchen is we always cook with love and we serve food prepared with love, and translating that over to the bar, we provide drinks to complement the food," he says.
Even though he's new to the restaurant ownership business, Chef McPhee is not new to the kitchen and definitely not new to the Simmer Down Restaurant kitchen as he was the executive chef prior to the resort closing for 10 months. Upon its reopening, he gladly took charge of his own fate, switching up the menu to reflect his cooking style and his Bahamian heritage, and he's kept some of the old favorites that were hits.
While the menu is exciting all around and offers something for everyone -- including vegetarians, the chef says there are a few menu items that are chef's choice and a must try -- items he considers his signature items.
From the soups, the Lobster and Pumpkin Bisque (infused with ginger and curry, topped with a cinnamon cream dollop) he gives two thumbs up.
"It's a burst of flavors and not what you expect with the fresh ginger, curry and cinnamon cream dollop. Lobster bisque is standard on restaurant menus, but when you taste the pumpkin in there with the ginger ... the pimentos, the fresh thyme, it's a burst of flavor and then the cinnamon cream dollop mellows it out."
While he says all salads are good, he's most pleased with his Caribbean lobster and mango salad that he says he came up with off the fly. "I was poaching some lobster for the lobster bisque one day and there was some mango on the table, and I saw the yellow and the white and some cherry tomatoes and I said let's try something. I marinated it in a passion fruit dressing with fresh basil, ginger ... I played around with it and I tried it as a chef's special that night with a blueberry balsamic drizzle to go with it to bring out the color, topped it off with fresh greens and toasted coconut and it was a hit." From that night it made the menu.
If he's sitting down to dine, he opts for a callaloo and spinach vegetable empanada, just to add a different touch to the courses if you're having a three-course meal. It's also a dish he says vegetarians would appreciate as well as it's healthy. The baked empanada is a puff pastry stuffed with Jamaican cheddar cheese which he says balances out the flavors of the callaloo and bitterness of the spinach.
The Down Home Roasted Organic Duck (marinated in pineapple and Bacardi rum with island gratin potatoes, broccoli rabe and cinnamon glazed carrots) makes this restaurant owner proud. It's presented with a sweet potato gratin, garnished with fried plantain and they make a pineapple and coconut rum sauce to go with it.
The Bahamian lobster duo (coconut cracked conch and broiled with a Jamaican vegetable run down, homemade mango chutney and drizzled with a lobster essence) is another menu favorite.
And you should not leave the Simmer Down Restaurant without trying dessert. The must have item is the Mama Lur's apples 'n cream (a warm crumble with fresh apples, and fresh guavas with ginger vanilla ice cream and apple cider reduction).
Chef McPhee says he gets his guavas from the islands and freezes them for this dessert, because he says there's nothing like the taste of real guava. They also make their own ice cream and the dish is topped off with caramelized pecans, crème caramel and finished with toasted coconut.
With a number of other options on the menu, Chef McPhee prefers to keep his menu small and personalized. But he intends to change the menu with the seasons. As we are in the summer months, the menu reflects a lot of fruits, colorful sauces and dressings. In the fall and winter he intends to pull out ingredients like star anise and cinnamon to warm things up, and offer heartier options like rib eye and tenderloin and a lot more soups to go with the cooler temperatures.
With a kitchen staff he handpicked because they had the same vision that he had for the restaurant and bar that he now owns. "I picked them because I wanted to share my knowledge with tem and I didn't want anyone who would be complacent because they'd been working here prior to the resort closing," said Chef McPhee. "I wanted to start fresh. I wanted it to be like night and day and the first thing I did was to reduced menu prices drastically, because people loved the place, but they talked about the prices, and I try to work with the locals pocket," he says. The chef even offers a daily three-course prix fixe meal special that changes weekly. For $55 you get a soup or salad and usually it's the lobster bisque or shrimp appetizer; you get a choice of the jerk chicken medallion or the chef's special which is the fish of the day, and a dessert -- either the Mama Lur's Apples and Cream or the Caribbean Chocolate Vibes.
"Going into this I knew I had to do something different, because the place had already existed and try to get that same market, but make it my market," says Chef McPhee.
To make your Simmer Down Restaurant experience unique, he offers a different experience nightly. He came up with "Taxi Nights" on Monday and Tuesdays to catch the tourist market; Wine Down Wednesdays for people who like wine and free tapas; and Thursday and Fridays are corporate happy hour when he does exotic martinis and specials and Saturdays are known as stirred up and sizzlin'. A five member jazz band On Cue performs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays as well.
At 25, Chef McPhee's future is in his own hands as a restaurant owner, but he says as an apprentice chef while he trained under many great chefs in the hotels, he realized he didn't want that to be him -- working in the same kitchen year after year, becoming programmed. He wanted to make a name for himself
"Even though it's a risk, the good thing about it is that I took this venture because it's a smaller operation where I could start out small and gradually grow to the level that I want to be at ... and I was already familiar with the place [Simmer Down Restaurant] and it was just a matter of polishing up some stuff, getting the menu together and choosing the right staff."
Chef McPhee credits Chef Addiemae Farrington of the Culinary Hospitality Management Institute, the late Chef Jasmine Clarke-Young, Chef Paul Haywood of Altantis, Chef Wayne Moncur of the Ocean Club and Chef Tracey Sweeting (his former executive chef at the Marley Resort) with giving him the training that has given him so much confidence to do what he's now doing.
"They trained me so well in all areas that I'm able to be creative and do what I'm doing, with hot food because I'm a trained pastry chef," said Chef McPhee. "They really gave me a good school bag to carry. I can pull out things and be versatile. Plus, it's in my heart, and you have to cook with love. You can have the fancy name, and your food can look pretty, but that passion and soul has to be in it."
Chef McPhee even keeps his kitchen open a little longer than most restaurants, taking his last order at 10:30 p.m. after opening at 6 p.m.
For the chef, the new venture is fun, but scary as he knows he has the livelihood of his staff in his hands.
At Stir It Up Bar he says you have to have the Blue Razzberry Martini and the Jamaica Me Crazy. It just sounds crazy and it's fun and people enjoy them. I wanted to add my flair to the menu and these are my signature ones. They're new to the menu, because coming into the restaurant and bar business, I had to bring something new to the table. I reduced the drink prices too and kept it straight across the board.
It's new, it's scary but fun, because you have the livelihood of staff in your hands and they have to be paid. "I realize what it is to be an employee and now an employer, even though I'm at a young age. It's like you have an additional pair of eyes -- you watch everything, things you didn't care about before you now care about -- even on the service aspect. "
CARIBBEAN SPICY SHRIMP APPETIZER WITH POTATO AND SWEET CORN PUREE
6 - 16/20 shrimp
½ oz Jerk seasoning
2 oz homemade ginger and garlic chili sauce
½ oz herb marinade
For the potato and sweet corn puree
½ lb Yukon potato, cooked
4 oz sweet corn puree
3 oz heavy cream
1 oz butter
Sugar, to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
For the tropical fruit salsa:
4 oz fresh mango diced
4 oz fresh ripe pineapple diced
1 oz bell pepper fine diced
1 oz red onion diced
1 oz distilled white vinegar
1 tsp fresh cilantro
Juice of 1 orange
2 oz fresh banana mashed
Salt and pepper, to taste
Honey as needed
Method:
Combine ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and mix together, season to taste with alt and pepper and let stand 30 minutes before serving.
For the shrimp: Season the shrimp with salt and jerk seasoning and herb marinade, let stand 30 minutes. Grill to desired doneness and top with chili sauce, Finish shrimp in the oven and serve.
For the potato and sweet corn puree: Puree ingredient together to desired taste and consistency, season and serve. Garnish with herb oil and chips. Combine all ingredients together and blend thoroughly.
For the tropical fruit salsa: Combine ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and mix together, season to taste with alt and pepper and let stand 30 minutes before serving.
CARIBBEAN MANGO AND LOBSTER SALAD
1 lb spiny lobster meat cooked and sliced
1 oz Spanish onion fine diced
2 oz fresh cherry tomatoes chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
2 large mangoes
1 oz ginger chopped
1 tsp salt
Salt and fresh goat pepper
1 oz chopped cilantro
1 tsp sugar
4 oz passion fruit dressing
Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl; add enough dressing to bind ingredients. Be sure to season with salt and pepper. Mix, chill and serve. Garnish with micro greens chilled asparagus and a lemon vinaigrette.
MAMA LURR'S APPLES 'N CREAM
4 Granny smith apples
1 can uava shells
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 star anise
1 tsp lemon juice
¼ tbs butter
½ oz flour
3 oz home made vanilla ice cream
Toasted coconut
Crumble:
½ cup butter
1 ¼ cup flour
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs raisins
2 tbs crushed almonds/ walnuts
Peel and slice apples. In sauce pan melt butter, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and star anise. Add guavas and sliced apples. Let simmer for about two minutes. Thicken slightly with flour. Place in bowl and allow to set.
For crumble: Fold in at room temperature butter with the flour into small pieces. Add sugar, raisins, and almonds. Place on top of apple and guava mixture and bake for 4-8 minutes. Serve with ice cream and add toasted coconut.
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