Advani Rojas forges new kitchen studio

PETER CHRISTOPHER

It is often said when a new restaurant is opened that a new culinary experience is on offer to the public.

However following Saturday’s opening of the Forge in El Socorro, owner Reshma Advani Rojas is emphasizing a culinary experience for not only consumers but the chefs creating their meals.

“What matters to me most is build a space that culinary enthusiasts can be educated as up-and-coming professionals. Have a place to learn and grow and to even more so in the digital age, provide a space where people can film, not just technical television shows and advertising agencies doing photos, but content, right? You have young, dynamic people who don’t have a room to call their own, and we’re building it for them and providing it every night, every plate, every cutting board. We’re even providing the shopping system,” said Advani Rojas at The Forge’s synchronised dining experience on Wednesday evening.

That event served as a soft launch of the restaurant before its official opening yesterday, but it also highlighted what Advani Rojas aimed to achieve with her new establishment. It featured several of the country’s top chefs and restaurateurs including Chaud Restaurant’s Khalid Mohammed and Peche Patisserie’s Khalil Ali.

The group sampled foods and cocktails created in a showcase kitchen studio.

She told the Business Guardian that she had this idea for several years but put the plan into action after taking over Advanced Commercial Equipment from her father.

The Forge she said this would help expand the company’s brand while also pushing her passion for the culinary arts.

“We’ve always wanted to take the legacy that he built and extend that somehow. So when I took over Advanced about five years ago, I really wanted people to understand that they cannot underestimate the talent and skill of the Caribbean diaspora. So what do we do if you can’t bring the mountain, or rather the mountain won’t go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the mountain, right? So that’s what this is. If you build it, they will come. We have a regional presence in Jamaica. Suriname, Guyana, Barbados, in fact, the entire English-speaking Caribbean is a part of my portfolio, ” said Advani Rojas.

However, she stressed that this new space was not simply another new restaurant to experience or a new trendy location.

“It’s important for me for people to understand that I am not a restaurant. I have fantastic clients. I am not an event space either this is not for your wedding or your cocktail party. This is primarily based on education, growth and development. So as a culinary studio, absolutely, we have the capacity, as you can see around you, to host an event, but that is not my primary focus. My primary focus is for all of us to be able to increase our capabilities, our skill sets, and our technological ability. And that can’t be done unless it’s real-world training. A lot of these chefs will never have access to some of this equipment, it is out to reach. But if I’m able to get them in a place where they can test drive it and learn about it, there’s nothing better than an educated consumer,” said Advani Rojas who added that profit was not the main focus of the space.

She noted the closure of the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute in August 2020 has meant up-and-coming chefs have had limited exposure in such an environment. Subsequently, the COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the local restaurant industry as several high-profile local restaurants have closed giving way to street food-centric hubs as an alternative to the restaurant dining experience.Advani Rojas said with this in mind it was important for a space like The Forge to emerge.

“We’ve lost our ability, whether it be officially in a capacity like hotel school or even unofficially, especially at the advent of COVID, where chefs were still taking on interns and still taking on trainees. We’ve lost the ability to allow people to have some space to learn, and what I’m hoping to do is give them that opportunity again,” said Advani Rojas, “The only reason that Advanced Commercial and now the concept of the Forge have been given the success that we have is because we have the space and the support system to learn. So, my next hope is to take the next generation of chefs, dieticians, school feeders, army cooks, and bring them into the next era where they never had the ability to do so before.”

She said,”This is not a money-making measure. If you buy the fridge, that’s great but that’s more about what I’m trying to do here. What I’m interested in is making sure that the 2.0, what comes after me has had the opportunity to get there a lot faster than we have.”

She hailed the support she received in creating the space, and indeed the turnout from the culinary committee when the Forge was established.

The restaurant’s designer said the shared enthusiasm for the project made creating The Forge’s aesthetic easy.

“We did this to match her vision. She explained to us what she wanted to accomplish. She explained to us the types of kitchens that she wanted to highlight. She explained to us all of the details of her vision, and then we brought them to life,” said Kimberly Costelloe of Design and Supply Studio, “It was a passion job. Everybody invested in. It was wholeheartedly doing the work, which was great, and Reshma was very clear on what she wanted and what she didn’t want. So it was a very it was an enjoyable experience working with her, knowing that the clients knew what they wanted, and we were able to just deliver them.”

Advani Rojas is hopeful that The Forge will spark a significant chapter in the Caribbean’s contribution to the culinary arts.

“I think that people need to understand that we have a sense of history that’s very ingrained in Trinidad and Tobago, and as we expand into the Caribbean, what we want to do is take us, our culture, our country, our diaspora, and bring that to the world. There is no reason why we can’t educate Europe and the Americas instead of the other way around,” said Advani Rojas.

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