The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

THE Island House resort has brought in a Michelin star chef to kick off the re-opening of its Mahogany House restaurant under a different name.

Giogio Loctatelli will be the new head chef at Mogano. Lauren Holowesko-Perez, the Island House’s director, said: “We pride ourselves on continuing to innovate and improve while we elevate the space and partner with a Michelin star chef, all the while maintaining our ethos throughout the transition.

“What I love most is the synergy between two small, family-owned and operated businesses, which really creates a wonderful partnership where we rely on quality, attention to detail, and the comfort of the familiar through personalised experiences.

“We are excited to collaborate and to continue to grow and improve the quality of our offering, and the community, and stand by our vision to bring world-class facilities and experiences to our community and guests.”

Chef Locatelli operated the Zafferano restaurant in London from 1995 to 2005. He opened his second restaurant in London, Locanda Locatelli, in 2002, and has now arrived in The Bahamas for his first restaurant in the Western Hemisphere.

“Obviously we have come down with a certain amount of people in order to implement the training,” said Chef Locatelli said: “But our aim is to really allow the boys and the girls here to really grow and, in the near future, to themselves be able to run the restaurant, obviously, with our recipes, and with our suggestion and selection of the ingredients.”

Sourcing ingredients is a work-in-progress, said Chef Mr Locatelli, as he seeks to partner with local producers to obtain fresh quality produce for the restaurant every day. “It’s not that easy to make Italian food. There will be some alignment as well, with the producer and the farmers and the fishermen that we’ve got here,” he added.

“At the moment we’re holding up a little bit as well when it comes to producers and farmers, and things like that. For us it’s very important to have a standard that goes across, and not just last one week.

The “consistency” of ingredients is what Chef Locatelli is trying to achieve when partnering with local producers. “This is what we are trying to understand now; how much we can keep produce on the menu and for how long. So this is going to be an alignment job and it’s going to take few months, but I’m sure we’re going to get to that,” he explained.

Ms Holowesko-Perez added: “I think it’s supply and demand. I mean, it’s really as much as the local community can provide in terms of greens. It’s hard because the growing season is very short, so as much as they can sustain a restaurant of our size.

“But we try to buy as much as possible, especially greens, tomatoes, especially on the vegetable side, and then fish, oddly enough, even though we live in The Bahamas, to keep a consistent supply chain is difficult.

“So we do tend to have more seasonal fish snapper and grouper when it comes to the season. So we’ll really emphasise those elements in conjunction with supply from more Italian producers.”