Craig Brown wears his personal apron with pride.

Wielding whisks, paring knives or spatulas to create fares fit for fair queens is what these galley-bound mates are all about.

Gone are the days when cooking was the sole domain of women. Men are chipping in and, at times, taking over the kitchen. Finally, there's a man for all seasons.

For breakfast, IT specialist Evan Watson's wife Deon adores his culinary creations.

"During the first three months of her pregnancy, I did all the cooking," he told Saturday Life.

'Blaze di fire'

Some of Craig Brown's cake creations. - Contributed Photos

He whips up callaloo, baked beans, cabbage and salt fish, just to name a few, and serves them with dumplings and or ground provisions. "Deon loves it!" exclaimed Watson.

After putting the callaloo in the pot, he adds the seasoning (onions, pepper, sweet pepper, garlic, tomato, thyme). Next comes a little oil, "then blaze di fire". After it simmers for a while, he adds salt and black pepper.

If lunch or dinner is what you crave, Peter Walcott, hotel and culinary chef management student, is the king of kings in the kitchen.

"It's just my brother and me ... somebody had to learn how to cook," Walcott said.

So began his affair in the kitchen. His friends love his curried chicken, but right now he has his sights set on mastering Chinese cuisine. He spends time at Shang Hai Village learning the basics of the various dishes.

"You can always learn how to cook anything but the key is to add your special touch and make it your own," Walcott adds.

His signature dish is his curried shrimp. He doesn't use recipes, preferring to freestyle.

"Mi jus cook," he said, laughing. "With the shrimp, I love to use Indian curry; it has a distinct taste and is much better than the curry we use in Jamaica.

"I also add Maggi seasonings such as the chicken and fish seasonings to it."

Craig Brown, a Jamaican working as route manager at a Canadian firm, also has quite a few tantalising tricks of his own.

This godsend does a little more than half the cooking at home.

"I will mostly do the meat though. As for the specialty dishes, well, my wife loves my ackee and salt fish, and I mean love it!

"I also have a number of others like pineapple-baked chicken, baked teriyaki chicken, red peas soup, fricassee chicken, stewed chicken. I will make those regularly.

Brown, 31, credits the women in his family for inspiring his culinary creativity but argues that achieving perfection didn't come easy.

"I learnt everything by watching. (It) was kind of tricky though because, at first, I was wondering how come my food didn't taste like my mom's or my sister's.

"Then it hit me: Each cook has a distinguishing taste, no two cooks will ever have the same taste or flavour," he explained.

For delectable desserts, Brown has that covered too. His plain and citrus cheesecakes are to die for, he boasts.

"I learnt by watching my mom, who baked every year. Even now she still bakes," he said. "My sister and I would be the beneficiaries of the empty batter pan once she had filled all her pans."

monique.murray@gleanerjm.com

Men-tal notes

Want to wow your friends in the kitchen? Here's how you can start:

Sign up for a class at a cooking school.

Watch others, ask questions and practise on your own.

For the tech savvy, startcooking.com has a great interactive site, or surf other cooking sites.

Get a cookbook and experiment on your own.

Food Network is also a great way to boost your culinary know-how or watch local cooking programmes on TVJ or CVM.