During a recent cooking class at HEB Central Market, chef Jay McCarthy was
demonstrating Jamaican jerk cooking techniques and recipes. When questioned
about the authenticity of his particular methods, McCarthy remarked, “Well,
there’s a lot of jerks out there.” After spending an evening in his class and
tasting his cooking, the good news is that the Brooklyn-born chef with a
genuine Jamaican pedigree is definitely not one of them.
Today, dining out has become the new theatrical entertainment and celebrity
chefs are the new rock stars. At times, this has a tendency to encourage
over-hyped, over-priced restaurants with distinctly average food and arrogant
chefs who behave as though they’ve developed the solution for world peace
rather than a dinner menu. McCarthy, on the other hand, is a jovial and
self-effacing young man with real talent and a great love for what he’s doing.
Though McCarthy is likely to be the next Texas chef who’s cooking will propel
him to celebrity status, its hard to imagine his pleasant, winning personality
getting lost in celebrity hype and merchandising.
Currently the Executive Chef at Cascabel in the Sheraton Fiesta in San
Antonio, McCarthy is the co-author of Traveling Jamaica with Knife, Fork and
Spoon (with Robb Walsh) and he taught a sold-out mid-summer class. The
Cooking School at Central Market is an increasingly popular promotional venue
for chefs and cookbook authors with a new book to sell. Chef McCarthy presented
a menu from his well-documented book, joked with the participants, and answered
questions about his version of Jamaican cuisine and his individual path from
aeronautical engineer to chef.
Born in Brooklyn but raised in his mother’s native Jamaica after his
parents divorced, McCarthy became interested in cooking as a child and learned
early about the bounty of flavors and ingredients the island nation had to
offer. McCarthy’s mother just happened to be a guest at the Austin class and
when he told a story about her lack of cooking skills, she gently reminded him
of his experiment with cinnamon in spaghetti sauce that none of his siblings
would touch. Class members experienced no such problems that night. The menu of
Papaya Salad with Pimento Vinaigrette, Jerk Pork with Jamaican Coat of Arms
(Rice and Peas) and Guava Beurre Blanc and Blue Mountain Coffee Ice Cream was
divine.
McCarthy studied engineering at Texas A&M on what he called “the decade
plan” and went to work for Boeing following graduation. When he realized
cooking was his true calling, he researched chefs and restaurants that he
admired and embarked on an apprenticeship, of sorts. He told stories of
approaching chefs in New York, Florida, and Texas with a unique offer. He would
offer to work for free if they would allow him to observe in their kitchens for
a week or two to learn as much as possible in that time. Even the most
skeptical chefs were soon won over by McCarthy’s willingness to peel hundreds
of pounds of potatoes or shrimp in order to observe their methods. And even
though he runs his own kitchen now, McCarthy likes to pitch in as an assistant
at Leslie McGrath’s Blanco River Cooking School from time to time. “I’m
competent help,” he explains, ” and I get to learn from people I respect.”
An aspiring chef in the class asked McCarthy for cooking school
recommendations and he suggested the prestigious Johnson and Wales School in
Rhode Island because of the very low teacher-student ratio. However, McCarthy
stressed that he felt it was important for anyone who was considering a career
as a chef to spend a year doing as many jobs as possible in a restaurant to
make sure they had both the energy and inclination for the work.
McCarthy describes Cascabel as a restaurant where most regular customers
request that he create a special for them rather than ordering off the menu and
the small kitchen staff operates in sync, just like a dance. On the final
evening of the International Association of Culinary Professionals convention
in April, a smart group of chefs passed up a pedestrian meal at the San Antonio
Marriott Rivercenter and beat it out Loop 410 to Cascabel. Oaxaca, Mexico
cooking school owner Susanna Trilling described the dining experience as
“amazing,” reporting that McCarthy served them everything on his interesting
menu plus, much to everyone’s culinary delight, several special additions. The
chef takes pride in the fact that there is very low turnover in his small
kitchen staff and there are currently some staff members working on the
“McCarthy apprentice plan” just as he did when he was starting out. -V.W.
This article appears in September 8 • 1995 and September 8 • 1995 (Cover).