Trusting a Skinny Chef: Chef Jason Gittens of Primo talks food, fusion and health

“It’s about being disciplined”, says Chef Jason Gittens. The head chef of Primo restaurant, the international bistro just past the entrance of the St. Lawrence Gap, has discipline in spades. He doesn’t drink. He doesn’t smoke. And he hasn’t eaten meat for more than 25 years.

^{— By Amie Watson     — Photography: Kenneth Theysen}

Jason Gittens

Head Chef – Primo Bar & Bistro

But that doesn’t stop him from sending out perfect plates of slow-roasted pork ribs with sweet sticky barbecue sauce and cheesy succotash grits; creamy fettuccine carbonara with bacon and mushrooms; and tender, steamed flying fish fillets stacked over a buttery mound of mashed cou-cou erupting from an okra and tomato broth below.

Gittens has helmed the restaurant’s kitchen since less than a decade ago. But he’s been working in the building for more than 25 years, starting as a porter when the restaurant was called Pisces. Inspired by the former restaurant’s chefs, he used the money he made as a porter to put himself through culinary school, then headed off to work at a resort in St. Lucia, followed by stops in Philadelphia and New York before coming back to his home in Barbados and the head chef position at Pisces and then Primo.

Discipline is also what gets him through six days a week in the kitchen. “My body is my temple and I keep it as healthy and clean as possible”, he says. “I don’t overdo it.” On his day off, he can be found mountain biking on the East Coast, watching basketball and spending time with his family. He steeps soursop leaves from a tree in his mom’s yard in hot water (“It’s good for the blood”, he says) and bay leaves for stamina (essential for long kitchen shifts, but also for a father of three). He loves fresh fruit smoothies (“just ice and fruit”, he says, like mango from his tree). And all that might be why he doesn’t look a day over 35. (He told me to “Shh!” when I asked him his age and then yelled it in shock.)

It’s fine that he’s practically a monk, because that means more of his chicken liver pâté with red onion confit, coconut jumbo shrimp, crunchy fish and chips, lobster mac and cheese, jerk chicken Caesar salad and 10-oz. rib-eye for the rest of us. With a trusted team of more than 10 in the kitchen, he stands behind every plate he puts out.

He’s a little in love with fusion cuisine, if you couldn’t tell. “The food is so clean. It’s original and combines nice flavours, taking this and that”, he says. “That’s what cooking is all about – experimenting. Everything is a marriage. Which flavours work well together.” Sometimes marriages have bumps, he admits, but you have to find a way to make it work.

That could mean tweaking a recipe, adding a little more spice or fresh herbs, or swapping out a sauce entirely, which he did for his sesame-seared yellowfin tuna with coconut green curry, sticky rice, mango and tomato salad. “I used to serve it with a peppercorn sauce and mashed potatoes, which was alright”, he says, but the spice in the Thai curry and the sweetness of the mango salsa is better.

Some dishes, however are perfect – and naturally light – just as they are. “My gumbo’s made from fresh fish stock, tomato paste, saffron, carrots, potatoes and at the end I sauté some fresh zucchini in olive oil with fresh mussels, scallops, fish and shrimp. I don’t use flour. It’s more like a bouillabaisse and I thicken it with okra”, says the chef.

The same goes for his pickled octopus and breadfruit with tomato-chilli fondue. Tender pieces of octopus sit atop chunks of starchy, naturally creamy breadfruit with thin strips of cucumber soused in lime juice.

“Eating is so important. What you put in, you get out”, says Gittens, standing up from the breezy lounge area where we’ve been chatting before heading back to the kitchen to prepare for service. Some people say that you shouldn’t trust a skinny chef, but I’ll take Gittens’ food any day, and still feel just fine about ordering his flourless chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream and chocolate meringue for dessert. The view is spectacular and there’s no rush to leave. Besides, he’s disciplined enough for the both of us.

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Primo
Bar & Bistro

St. Lawrence Gap
Christ Church
(246) 573-7777

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