Blue ribbon chef Debbie Wilson-Berment, known in culinary circles as ‘Chef Sagajo’ has been shaking up the South Florida scene with her flavourful dishes since she and her family moved to the Sunshine State.
Kimberly Wallace, HER Magazine
As a melting pot of nationalities and cultures, Florida is famous for its international cuisine but there’s plenty of room for Berment who brings years of knowledge, experience and a burning passion for food to the table. Whether she’s cooking for a private country club or for her personal clients, the result is always the same – meals that are a delight for the senses. Berment is a living testament to the saying that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Food in all its forms fascinates her so much that being a chef feels less like work and more like a lifestyle. To say that Berment loves turning raw ingredients into mouth-watering treats for the tastebuds would be an understatement.
She first learned to cook out of necessity. As the eldest of three siblings Berment was often drafted to help her mother in the kitchen. Looking back on her childhood years she spent between St James and Woodbrook, Berment could say without a moment’s hesitation that her culinary training began at the age of nine.
She could not have asked for a better instructor, since her mother Alma Wilson had her own catering business and was so good at what she did that she won several culinary competitions – even beating trained hotel chefs from all over the country at their own game. Although her mother had employees, Berment wasn’t content to simply sit back, watch and enjoy the fruits of their labour. Instead, she was her mother’s sous chef, her little helper. “I was intrigued, I just loved working with food,’ says Berment who recalls helping her mother make rosettes out of icing for her famous wedding cakes. By the time she was 16, it was clear that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree; Berment was already making a name for herself in the catering world, doing orders and baking cakes for her friends’ birthday parties.
She later migrated to Canada before moving with her husband and children to the warmer temperatures of Palm Beach County. Settling down in Florida was a game changer. As a chef, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities; she was exposed to truffles, truffle oil, lemon oil and other exotic ingredients that at the time were not accessible in T& T. ‘Working with all those different ingredients was a thrilling experience because they are what make a dish stand out,” she says. But if Berment wanted to make it in the culinary world in the US, she had to rely on more than her own skills – it didn’t matter to Americans that she could cook well, she had to be qualified. So she went to culinary school, which changed the way she approached food and redefined in her mind what it meant to be a chef. Since then she’s been offering her clients an elevated dining experience. ‘I took what I learned at culinary school and combined it with the different flavours we cook with as Trinidadians. I’m very proud of my Trinidadian roots and I can definitely say that my cuisine is a lot more flavourful than others,” she says with a wink.
Berment specialises in Mediterranean, Italian and Greek cuisine. Some classic dishes require her to stick to the rules, for instance traditional meals that call for port and wine hardly go well with a strong seasoning like chadon beni, but when it comes to seafood like roasted snapper, Berment adds her own Caribbean twist before putting it on the flame. ‘People are often surprised that a meal that they are used to making, can taste so different yet so delicious.” Culinary school also taught Berment the importance of plating and presentation – after all, we eat with our eyes first. A meal of rice and curry shrimp may sound straightforward enough, but it becomes a work of art – almost too pretty to eat, under Berment’s skillful direction. ‘Regardless of whether I’m plating for four or for one, when I bring a plate out to someone, I like to see their eyes pop. That’s special.” Berment has enjoyed a few culinary adven – tures over the years. She worked at one of the finest country clubs in Florida and was the first to introduce bread pudding with raisins soaked in rum, to the club’s members. She also taught culinary arts at the West Boca Raton High School and was able to introduce her mother’s recipes for hops, sada roti and fried bake to her American students, many of whom had never tried Trinbagonian cuisine, up to that point.
Having accomplished as much as she has, there’s no need to prove herself to anyone, – however Berment loves a challenge.
“I love indulging in various foods and I love challenging myself. I have to be diverse in my cuisine. I often think to myself that if I can’t cook a certain dish then I can’t really call myself a chef.”
As one might expect, Berment is very protective of her recipes and keeps them close to her chest. Each recipe, even those she’s tweaked along the way have been instrumental to her success. So she’s found a way to share her recipes with others without revealing all her secrets. She’s working in tandem with Virago Global Publishing on her first book of recipes, lifestyle and dining experiences.
Berment is currently a private chef and specialises in giving her clientele a Chef Sagajo experience. She’s not alone in her culinary journey, her family have joined her for the ride. She has the full support of her husband and children; in fact her moniker ‘Sagajo’ was created out of the first two letters of the names of her three childre. It’s her way of carrying the love of her family with her. But there is one special person to whom Chef Sagajo owes a debt of gratitude, the very person who instilled in her a passion for food – her mother. ‘I’m happy that my mother brought me into the kitchen, because it opened my world to food in a diverse and authentic way,” she says. “My love and passion for food stems from the moments we spent together.”
Follow Chef Sagajo on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/chefsagajo/
