Nashauna Drummond, Lifestyle Co-ordinator

Mary Chang, doing what comes with ease.

With a look of intense concentration in her eyes, Mary Chang moved swiftly from the simmering wok to her preparation table nearby. In the sweltering kitchen of her catering school, she stir-fried, tossed and adjusted ingredients with remarkable dexterity and ease.

Mallah chicken and chow mein are a breeze to prepare as far as Chang is concerned. But that's no surprise, after all, she has operated two restaurants, taught the art of Chinese cooking to young chefs, makes dim sum for sale in supermarkets in the corporate area and now takes it easy by operating Chang's Catering School on Half-Way Tree Road.

Chinese cuisine

Chang came to Jamaica from her birthplace, Hong Kong, China, in 1980 when her husband (who was born in Jamaica), bought a restaurant that specialised in local food, on Tower Street in downtown, Kingston. She came here with extensive knowledge in Chinese cuisine. While in Hong Kong, Chang cooked for her father, who was sick when her mother wasn't home. She fell in love with cooking and decided to attend culinary school.

Soon after the couple was settled in Jamaica, they opened a Chinese restaurant called Happy Gardens and Chang started teaching the staff how to prepare authentic Chinese dishes. After about eight years, she went back to Hong Kong to learn more dishes in greater detail. She noted that it was hard work doing both. "Never knew restaurant work was so hard. Was not used to the heat. In the kitchen (it was) extra hot," she said in her still thick Chinese accent. But Chang has no regrets about the "hot" times in Jamaica. "I learn a lot in Jamaica. How to be independent, have to prove yourself and learn more".

Teaching

Chang confessed that even though she loves cooking, there was a time when she was tired of it. When her husband retired, the restaurants were closed and she turned to teaching others to do what she had been doing all her life. She taught at B & E Catering for nine years.

Chang now 'relaxes' with the operations of Chang's Catering School and the production of dim sum. "Nobody do dim sum anymore. I like work," she said.

She gestures outside the window of one of her class rooms and speaks of her love for her new home. "Like fresh air and quiet, so much green. God give me a chance to learn a lot of things and, in Jamaica, if you have faith, you can get anything you want".

Chang, who is also very religious, considers her faith to be intricately linked to her career in food preparation.

Chang has no regrets about making Jamaica her home.

Chang could do Mallah chicken blindfolded. - Kyle Macpherson / Freelance Photographer