Claudia Gardner, Hospitality Jamaica Writer

When his mother expressed doubt that he could prepare her Sunday dinner almost three decades ago, Washburn Lawrence was determined to prove he could.

Photo by Janet Silvera - Executive chef Lawrence Washburn of the Wexford.

On one fateful Sunday, she returned home from church to see that her teenage son had concocted a sumptuous traditional Sunday Jamaican dinner of rice and peas, chicken and salad.

"She was amazed and thoroughly pleased. From then I decided when I reached ninth grade, I would do food and nutrition with the girls," said Mr. Lawrence, a past student of the St. James-based Maldon School. "There were three boys in the class with 20 girls. The other boys used to laugh at us because they opted to do the so-called manly subjects like woodwork, but that didn't bother us because we knew what we were aiming for."

And, more than 20 years later, Mr. Lawrence, now an executive chef, is still stamping his class in the culinary profession in some of Jamaica's finest resorts. According to him, he started out officially working at Sandals Montego Bay as a trainee while at Maldon.

"I went on work experience and I didn't go back to school," Mr. Lawrence said. "I used to do 'prep' work for the chefs, peeling onions and lettuce and so on."

Three years later, Mr. Lawrence was promoted to the position of supervisor, then to junior sous chef, following which he moved to Sandals Royal in 1986. He studied catering at Hocking College in Ohio, in 1990, where he specialised in hotel Management. Upon his return to Sandals Royal a year later, he was promoted to executive sous chef. In 1991, he was transferred to Sandals Ocho Rios where shortly after he was promoted to executive chef.

passion for excellence

Mr. Lawrence, who originally hails from the community of Tangle River in the hills of Maroon Town in St. James, says it was his passion for excellence at whipping up the finest meals which saw him heading off to Switzerland in 1992 to the Bordon hotel, just outside Zurich, where he attended the hotel's culinary school and learnt the art of preparing Swiss and Italian foods.

Upon his return to Jamaica, he did a stint with Franklin D. Resort in 1993. He did another short stint with Enchanted Gardens in Ocho Rios and headed back to Sandals Ocho Rios. He was at the helm of Club Caribbean culinary department in 1994 and oversaw the opening of Club Ambience, in 1994, where for two years, he tempted some of the most discerning palates before heading back to Sandals Montego Bay, and later Sandals Royal.

A year later he was promoted to executive chef and transferred to Sandals Inn until three weeks ago when he joined the newly-renovated Wexford Court Hotel with his mandate being to boost the service and oversee the improvements in the dining experience.

happily married

Mr. Lawrence is happily married to Rose and they have two children, Diana, 20, and Jason, 17. He spends is spare time watching cricket, football and playing dominoes. He has won several gold medals in the JCDC's culinary arts competition at the national level in the mid-1990s including best seafood, chicken and beef dishes as well as local mutton, lamb and seafood platter.

"I am a seafood man. Give me a snapper an' I do anything with it," Mr. Lawrence said.

He also passes on his culinary skills to students at Petersfield HEART Academy in Westmore-land and has, in the past, taught classes at the Montego Bay Community College. According to him, in a bid to be the best at his craft he has to spend most of his time at the workplace.