Born and raiseded Jamaican, Julian Johnson, “Chef Jewelz” began cooking at the young age of nine. Watching her grandmother and learning, by her side, traditional and family recipes, Jewelz fell in love with cooking and began to master the art of traditional Jamaican Food. Jewelz continued to work in Jamaica cooking and serving in many restaurants, improving her skills and moving into high end, successful kitchens. She migrated to the United States of America nearly ten years ago and settled in our beautiful state of Vermont; bringing with her proudly, her roots and traditions in food, and creating dishes which will send you into transports of epicurean delight. Chef Jewelz took no time in finding employment in successful resort environments throughout New England and dominated her culinary positions by working hard and always delivering her best. And as you may know, New England weather can stop some from working. She has been known to walk (mind you she’s Jamaican, where it’s warm and NEVER snows) to work when unfortunate, hard time situations required, in the dead of winter, sometimes at night, after working a shift making several hundred dinners. Some places you might recognize that Jewels has worked are for both of Okemo Mountain Ski Resort’s fine dining restaurants; Coleman Brook Tavern and epic., The Bryant House, in the beautiful town of Weston, and The Coonamessett Inn in Cape Cod, MA to name a few. The struggles of a single mother, so far away from the kitchen where her grandmother taught her to cook, soon took a few really, really good turns; though not without fight, persistence and constant, exhausting complication. Jewelz in the following years met and married her husband Duane Perkins, became a proud home owner here in Vermont, was able to move her family here to Vermont to be with her, became a grandmother, continued to work hard in the restaurant industry while also perusing an interest in mental health and working rehabilitating clients (sometimes working 75+ hours/ week between both jobs and overnighting often at work). A fire built up from years of time spent in kitchens. She always wanted to start her own little restaurant in order to have people; friends, family and community folks, get a taste of her heritage. Jamaican style cooking, its flavors, her heritage, the history behind her food and the passion she shares for quality, flavor and enjoyment of eating. Closely connected to her community, Jewelz began slowly creating a buzz with her culinary skills at local farmers markets and was an instant success. But, successful as it may be, we’re in a seasonal region. Chef Jewelz needs your help! What slowly started in 2011 is a growing phenomenon. After many warm summer farmers market days (and plenty of not so nice VT days too), Jewels is ready to leap, with your help, to the next phase. As you all also may know, Vermont small towns are just that. And cooking from her kitchen at home has allowed Jewels to deliver to a small number of people in her community. But that number is growing. Rapidly. And the demand is calling her to make a move. Realistically and financially, we need your help. Proper equipment is required to make a leap. I’ll quickly add this in here too: Attention to detail in food quality, cleanliness of her kitchen and flavor profiles are world class when it comes to Julian’s standards. Jewel’s kitchen currently passes health inspection with an A+ (seriously… a 97%).
“At a time in America when finances are shaky, yet even modest big-city restaurant spaces involve multimillion-dollar build-outs, when consumers have wearied of giant chains but still demand food that is novel, inexpensive and fast, food trucks are the new incubators of culinary innovation. The food-truck phenomenon exploded in cities across the United States last year…” – The Smithsonian
Read more:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-america-became-a-food-truck-nation-99979799/?no-ist. Jamaican Jewelz has a Food Truck! Her dream is so close to a reality. The cart, however… it’s not in the best shape though. And with your help, she and her husband are going to get it there. The goal is to have her cart up and running by the spring of this year. And that’s almost now with the winter we’ve had. Each and every donation is GREATLY appreciated as we understand you work hard for your money. And each and every dollar that you donate, will go to the creation of a thriving business in a local community. We live in VT, we eat in VT, we shop in VT and we love Vermont! We proudly offer you the experience to enjoy the taste of Jamaica fused with Vermont (and leave you wanting more) right here in our home; Vermont! here is our go fund me link:
https://www.gofundme.com/jamaicanjewelzfood
