Fish Story Grille Hires Chef Juan Gil

Chef Juan prepares home-made pasta for Dos Lunas, Argentina

Greetings from Sunny Belize!

The Belize Ocean Club and the Fish Story Grille is proud to announce the hiring of the most important post in the resort, Executive Chef Juan Gil. Juan will serve as kitchen manager, food and beverage manager, and handle all restaurant-related staff. He brings to the BOC a wealth of experience in both Belize and around the Caribbean. His creative menu plans include dishes from all over the various islands, capture the flavors of the Yucatan as well as favorites from other stops in his culinary career including Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and some savory favorites from the States.

Chef Juan received his culinary training from the famed Le Cordon Bleu of Paris where he earned chef honors for both his cuisine and for pastry. For those of you familiar with Placencia's dining scene, Chef Juan comes to us most recently from the Rumfish y Vino Restaurant in the village. The Rumfish is widely regarded as Placencia's best restaurant, and was recently featured by United's in-flight magazine where he and the restaurant were featured as cannot-miss dining experiences in Belize. As Chef Juan's roots are from Chile, don't be surprised by South American favorites as well.

Chef Juan has chosen the BOC over a pair of other opportunities, and wants to turn the Fish Story Grille into a "Caribbean eatery, incorporating local flavors and spices into creative and popular dishes from all over the islands, with tastes from Cuban to Creole." Juan also shares the GM's emphasis and concentration on providing excellent service in addition to area-best food. He also shares the GM's vision for making the FSG a destination  restaurant, popular with the resort guests and local diners.

Juan has already proven himself a team-player and his guidance will make the FSG a well-designed and customized kitchen that will pump out bar favorites and creative sandwiches at lunch-time, the peninsula's best seafood cuisine by night, and late-night favorites for the room service menu. Further, look for the dessert menu to be establish the gold standard in Belizean dining.

Chef Juan also has his ear to the ground regarding food-related things Belizean, so check back for future postings for a preview of the initial menu, and for creative ways to procure the best food available. We are thrilled that such an accomplished chef was available when we went looking for a chef, and we at the BOC are thrilled that the timing was such that we were able to recruit him even before the FSG has a kitchen, and that he could make it his own. He has unique ideas for healthy smoothies and coffee drinks in the morning, and we are taking aim on the locals population through coupons and discounts in order to offset slow times during the off-season with creative entertainment offerings.

Dos Lunas

Owners may be interested to know that the Dos Lunas Resort in Argentina, where Chef Juan is pictured above training staff there in mid-April, is a destination that is also available to investors in the BOC.  If interested in learning more, please contact Ben to find out availability and details.

Job Fair - March 18, 2013

Warm Regards from Sunny Belize!

Just wanted to update all owners on progress with the hiring cycle. We had posted an ad in the Placencia Breeze in order to try to fill our buckets with applicants, hoping to find a few acceptable candidates. I am pleased to say that we did far better than that.  Although we really did not know what to expect when we advertised the job fair in the local paper, but we certainly did not count on this level of  response.

We opened the doors at 8 AM to over 3 dozen applicants for jobs ranging from bus and wait staff for the restaurant to front desk and secretarial. We ran out of forms long before lunchtime. Not only did a great many turn out, but many people that I would be pleased to hire showed up. It seems that the timing was good: since most of the tourist season locally is over, some staffers at other establishments were either available or thought that they might be soon. Still others were taking this end-of-season cycle to consider other options. There were entrepreneurial types that were looking for a steady check to make their cash flow more stable. And lastly, there were a great many Belizeans out of work, but qualified and eager.

The whole experience was very encouraging. What warts reveal themselves should these people come aboard no one knows, but if even 50% of those that we identified as worth hiring and/or training came through, we still had many left in the file drawer for future reference. Although we know that hiring locally can be a tricky proposition, I think that we all left the hall feeling better about the local prospects.

Construction-schedule permitting, we are trying for a May opening, and we let all applicants know that call-backs might not begin until then. Special thanks go to Kimberley Stephens for her gift of conversation and organization. Further  special thanks go to Chef Juan Gil who seems to know everyone locally, and was a completely selfless resource regarding the Food & Beverage side of the house, and the Fish Story Grille.

Travel Data

Some of you had asked for more data regarding travel trends in Belize. The Belize Tourism Board, a government agency that oversees tourism and collects and tracks room taxes, also compiles the official statistics that are used by all branches of government. I am providing a link below to their statistics page, and will update this with a more specific link that addresses the 2013 data as soon as that becomes available. For now, here is the statistics link:

BTB Stats on Belize:

There is much there to be encouraged about, particularly when you look at the records set in 2012. I feel pretty certain after meeting with representatives from that organization that 2013 may improve on those figures as well. Stay tuned, and as we come across more data we will share it with you.

Warm Regards, West Tucker