Award-Winning Chef Encourages National Junior Chef Winner

Listening to Chef Worly are Joel (l), Joneth Edden, Subject Coordinator; and Guidance Counselor Chervita Campbell. Photo: Yasmin Popescu

 By Yasmin Popescu, Media Unlimited
Freeport, The Bahamas - Two time award-winning chef at Sabor Restaurant in Grand Bahama, Volundur Volundarson, a.k.a. 'Chef Worly' has decided to offer inspiration to a up and coming young chef.

After reading about the Bahamas National Junior Chef winner, 13-year old Joel Prenelus of Eight Mile Rock High School recently, Chef Worly wanted to meet the young chef to impart some very important knowledge. A lunch meeting took place on April 20th, where the chefs got the opportunity to meet and talk. Joel was accompanied to the lunch at Sabor by Joneth Edden, his subject coordinator; and Miss Chervita Campbell, hisguidance counselor.

During the meeting the world-renown chef said that he was surprised at the decision of Joel, at such an early age, to become a chef, stating that at 17 years himself, and while training to be a basketball coach, he had to take a culinary class; and it was this class that became the deciding factor to change his life path, and to pursue a career in cooking instead of basketball.

Chef Worly said that he wanted to encourage Joel and to let him know that there are many areas to the field other than the immediate joy of cooking.

Chef Worly showed Joel and his companions two videos of TV cooking shows he is presently working on

Chef Worly presents an autographed copy of his book "Delicious Iceland" to National Jr. Chef winner Joel Prenelus of Eight Mile Rock. Photo: Yasmin Popescu

 Hailing from Iceland, Chef Worly has written a cookbook called “Delicious Iceland” that features recipes from his homeland. This cookbook has won two awards, one by Gourmand World Cookbook Awards as one of 100 best culinary books published in the world for the last 12 years; and the other is The Best Cookbook of 2007.

He has also written a similar cookbook for The Bahamas, having spent more than a decade here working in his field.

He is also working on his own cooking show, the first of course features Iceland and the another features cooking in The Bahamas.

Chef Worly said he has been watching the trend in the culinary field in this country and felt there was a lack of interest; and when he heard of Joel he wanted to help nurture the young man's interest.

He asked Joel to return to the restaurant for a few days in the summer so that they can show him how they work in the kitchen. Chef Worly further offered the suggestion that the two of them put on a gala evening featuring Joel’s culinary delights with the aim of starting a fund to further his education.

After winning the National Jr Chef competition just weeks ago, Joel has also been asked to take part in the College of The Bahamas' summer programme which will provide him learning for seven weeks in their culinary department.

Joel was most pleased with the meeting with Chef Worly and the collaborative ideas they discussed and is excited about pursuing his career. At the end of their lunch meeting, Chef Worly presented Joel with a copy of his award-winning hard cover cookbook “Delicious Iceland”.

NEW from Chef Worly-(The chef behind Sabor) BasicCookbook.com

The Basic Cookbook from TheBasicCookBook.Com on Vimeo.
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Volli & son

TheBasicCookbook.com is a recipe share network with the noble goal of inspiring people to cook with simple yet delicious videos and recipes.

Become a fan on facebook and receive a weekly video from our chef!
Taken from www.thebasiccookbook.com

Hello and welcome to The Basic Cookbook.com.

My name is Volundur S. Volundarson – but my friends call me “Volli”.

I started cooking back in 1990 when I was 17 years old. I love food and I love cooking. Shortly after my graduation I left my native country Iceland to explore the world and it’s many tastes. I travelled all over the world, experiencing new things and working in different restaurants. After a year at Charlie Trotters in Chicago I moved to the Bahamas where I run my own restaurant. My life as a bachelor was pretty basic. I went to work early in the morning and was usually the last person to leave in the evenings.

In 2006 I met my wife. Two years later we were blessed with our son – and I have to say that no experience compares to parenthood. It also gave me a new perspective on life. I stayed more at home and since I cook for a living I was automatically put in charge of the family meals.

What I discovered – much to my surprise – was that I loved simple home-style cooking – not to mention the precious time that we share as a family during meals. My culinary philosophy is simple – I focus on fresh, healthy ingredients – that taste grate and that everyone at the table can enjoy – even my two year old son.

The idea of The Basic Cookbook came about when I wanted to share some of my recipes that I cook at home with my family and friends – but I decided to take it to the next level and give everyone interested the opportunity to make use of them as well – and share with their family and friends.

I have made short cooking tutorials that I will post on this site and on our Facebook Fan Page. I will be doing so every week so you should hopefully find some recipes that you want to try out.

I also encourage you to become a part of our cooking community and share your own recipes or try something that you see on the website. And please – feel free to share a recipe in any language…

My main goal is to inspire people to cook by demonstrating how simple it is…

I hope you enjoy.

Sincerely,

Volundur

www.deliciousIceland.com

www.icelandicchef.com

Cooking up a promotion of Grand Bahama in ICELAND

By The Bahamas Weekly News Team



Volunder Volundarson, otherwise known as, "Chef Worly" (in Bahamas) or "Chef Volli" (in Iceland) has been living in Grand Bahama for almost 10 years now and is the mastermind behind Sabor Restaurant and Bar at the Pelican Bay Hotel. He has his own cookbook called, Delicious Iceland which received the Gourmand Cookbook Award in Beijing, China and in 2008 it was chosen as one of the top 100 cookbooks published in the world for the past twelve years, and Volundarson also had his own cooking show for a season on the Icelandic TV 1 station called Skiarinn.

With his cooking show Volundarson wanted to share his Bahamian home and the island experience with his people back in Iceland and it was just after hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, in autumn of 2004 that he filmed the segments here in Grand Bahama, and included his Bahamian staff, Chefs Emmanuel Smith, Elizabeth Grant and Sigmund Hall, all of whom still work with him today at Sabor.

In this video, a trailer for Segment 1, you will see the chefs in Grand Bahama catching crabs, spearing lobster, climbing trees for coconuts, cooking in open pits on the beach, cooking in a private kitchen and cooking on a yacht in Florida.

When asked about the show Chef Volundur said, "It was very challenging to shoot because the island was badly damage after the two hurricanes, but we did our very best and made a beautiful show despite that."

"My focus was the Island and ingredient that you can get locally... We speared lobster and cooked it in many different ways, and caught land crabs and made crab soup, and crab and rice. We made fresh Gully Wash, fresh Tuna Carpaccio and other Island delicacies," said Volundarson.

The cooking show was filmed on the beach where he cooks in an open pit, in the kitchen of a local residence, in native restaurants, and one show was also filmed on board a yacht in Florida.

The show was such a great success and received such great revues that Icelandair.com made two trips to Boston and at the time there was a direct flight from Boston to Grand Bahama, and two large groups came down from Iceland and stayed at Pelican Bay Hotel in Grand Bahama.

Volundarson has become one of Iceland's most celebrated TV-chefs. In 2008 the chef was featured on the Today Show with NBC TV personality Al Roker. His vibrant and colorful personality earned him both the admiration and respect of his viewers and colleagues. The Bahamas is blessed to have such a create mind in and out of the kitchen.