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Guest Chef - Blue Lagoon
GuestChef_BlueLagoon_DGJul09
Guest chef
Barry McPhee at Blue Lagoon
For Bahamian chef Barry McPhee, helming the kitchen at nautically themed Blue Lagoon restaurant at the Club Land’Or resort on Paradise Island is a family thing.
His father David McPhee was head chef at Blue Lagoon many years ago—27 to be exact, long before the gigantic towers of Atlantis dominated Paradise Island’s skyline.
While at work, the elder McPhee prepared such gourmet meals as lobster thermidor, seafood bisque and escargots à la bourguignonne. However, when he returned home to his family of nine he would prepare traditional Bahamian home-cooked meals.
“Peas soup, boil’ fish … they were favourites,” says McPhee.
Having a father as a chef no doubt sparked the younger McPhee’s interest in a culinary career. Instead of pursuing a formal education, McPhee’s prowess comes from years of behind-the-scenes kitchen work.
Pot washer to head chef
His career began at the Ocean Club, now known as the One&Only Ocean Club, where McPhee started as a pot washer. But during his 23 years at the exclusive Paradise Island resort, which continues to attract celebrities, he rose through the ranks, thanks to his keen interest in cooking and all the chefs he has worked with.
“There were many chefs who worked there,” says McPhee, who recalls working with such luminaries as Michael Adderley and Clement Williams.
McPhee’s culinary talents were soon recognized, and he was promoted from pot washer to prep cook to executive sous chef and eventually to head chef.
After two decades at the One&Only Ocean Club, McPhee decided to return to his father’s kitchen at Blue Lagoon and became the new head chef in 2006.
McPhee now prepares the five-star dishes his father was once familiar with such as grouper amandine, steak au poivre vert, roast duck à l’orange and chateaubriand. However, his specialities are seafood dishes.
“I can do any seafood dish,” says McPhee, noting that lobster, salmon and grouper amandine are his favourites.
But while McPhee is happy to create such aforementioned gourmet delights, he has also been known to create dishes with a distinctly Bahamian twist such as his Kalik fish—a delicious concoction made with beer-clarified butter-and-caper sauce.
After more than two decades in the kitchen, McPhee shows no signs of throwing in his executive head chef jacket.
“It’s a good road to go,” he says. “There’s a lot to learn but if you have a mind for it, it’s a very good business to be in.”
Here are a few examples of Chef Barry McPhee’s specialities you can try at home:
Lobster thermidor
1 large lobster tail, diced
1 tsp diced white onion
2 tbsp butter
Cheese sauce (recipe follows)
4 oz Parmesan cheese
Paprika, to taste
Sauté diced lobster meat in hot frying pan with butter for five minutes. Remove from heat. Mix in cheese sauce, add diced onion. Stuff into empty lobster shell. Top with parmesan cheese and paprika. Bake in 350ºF oven for 10 mins. Serve with rice, mashed potatoes or choice of vegetable. Serves one.
Cheese sauce
1⁄4 cup American cheddar, grated
11⁄2 cups milk
2 tsp butter
2 tsp flour
Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium-high heat.Stir in flour, let cook for just a minute or two. Add the milk slowly, stirring it until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the cheddar cheese.
Grilled fillet of salmon with spinach, honey-glazed carrots & garlic mashed potato
8 oz Atlantic salmon fillet
2 tbsp butter
1 carrot, sliced
1⁄2 cup white sugar
1⁄2 Idaho potato, diced
1⁄4 garlic clove
3 tsp heavy cream
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp diced tomatoes
Lemon juice, to taste
15 small spinach leaves
Grill salmon 10 minutes on one side, put in 350ºF oven for five minutes. In saucepan, melt butter, add white sugar, reduce to sauce. Add sliced carrot. Stir until glazed. In separate saucepan, boil potato until cooked. Drain water. Add heavy cream, a small amount of butter and 1⁄4 garlic clove. Mash together. Cook baby spinach in sauce pan in water for about one minute. Top salmon fillet with capers and diced tomatoes. Serve on bed of spinach with carrots and potato. Serves one.
Spinach & mushroom salad
25 baby spinach leaves
1 large mushroom, sliced
1 large egg, hardboiled, 1⁄2 sliced, 1⁄2 diced
1 carrot, shredded
1⁄2 whole red pepper, diced
1⁄2 cup shredded purple cabbage
Toss spinach leaves with carrot, red pepper, purple cabbage and diced egg. Add to plate. Garnish top with sliced mushrooms and sliced egg. Drizzle vinaigrette dressing or dressing of your choice.
Guava pudding with rum sauce
4 eggs, beaten
1⁄2 cup heavy cream
1⁄2 cup brown sugar
1⁄2 cup white sugar
1⁄2 cup flour
1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
1⁄2 tsp baking powder
11⁄2 cans guava shells
11⁄4 loaves fresh white bread, cubed
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Combine cubed bread with flour, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, flour and baking powder. Stir in eggs and heavy cream. Add guava shells, mix well. Spread into large, buttered baking pan. Cover with foil. Place in water bath and bake for one hour. Remove from oven, cool until warm, slice, serve with rum sauce and side of vanilla ice cream.
Rum sauce
1 can guava shells
2 cups brandy
1 cup icing sugar
2 cups white sugar
1 litre heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon to taste
Put all ingredients in a blender, mix together at high speed. Serve with warm guava pudding and side of vanilla ice cream.
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