About Caribbean Villa Chefs

Year of registration: 2012

Business sector: Food and beverages services with private chefs; Culinary consulting; Food styling and photography

Dane Saddler, Founder and Executive Chef

Dane Saddler is a culinary artist and consultant. He founded the full-service culinary agency Caribbean Villa Chefs, and is its Executive Chef. He developed a passion for cooking at an early age, went to the Hotel school in Barbados, and successfully completed a Bachelor’s in Hotel Management, Culinary Arts and Food and Beverage at the renowned Johnson & Wales University of Miami, USA. He has over 15 years’ experience in fine dining cuisine, and has worked at several luxury award-winning resorts in the Caribbean. Dane’s cuisine is inspired by his Jamaican origins, by Barbados where he lived for several years, and by his travels during which he learnt new cuisine methods and approaches.

As a friendly person with a sense of humour, Dane likes to include his guests in the cooking process, exchanging ideas and suggestions. He has appeared on and hosted several TV cooking shows in Barbados, and has been a featured chef in local food festivals in Barbados over several years.

Dane takes a personal interest in health and wellness, including through food. He has partnered with both traditional and organic local farmers to offer fresh ingredients to his customers, and with the Organic Growers and Consumers Association (OGCA) in Barbados to promote organic products. He also works with The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados Inc., the Barbados National Non Communicable Diseases Commission, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness in Barbados to promote healthy food choices and educate the public.

Mission/vision: Caribbean Villa Chefs’ mission is to offer a luxury dining experience while promoting local, fresh and healthy foods, and working with local farmers.

Context

Background:

Caribbean Villa Chefs was created in 2012 to fill a gap in the existing food services offered on the Barbadian market by meeting tourists’, locals’ and corporate clients’ culinary demands. As a full-service culinary agency, Caribbean Villa Chefs provides private, personal and chef placement services, catering and consulting services.

The culinary agency aims to promote local ingredients and enhance partnerships with local farmers and food producers. By using local ingredients, it provides clients with fresh and healthy meals, and so contributes to combating unhealthy diets, obesity and non-communicable diseases. According to 2018 figures of the World Health Organization, in the Caribbean non-communicable diseases caused between 57% of all deaths (Haiti) to 83% (Barbados). Caribbean Villa Chefs not only offers a culinary experience, it also shows how to use local ingredients instead of imported (processed) products and educates consumers on how to make healthy food choices.

Position in the market:

Caribbean Villa Chefs is a unique culinary business model specialising in high-end private dining services.

Relationship:

Caribbean Villa Chefs links stakeholders throughout the entire food value chain, from producers, food processors and distributors to customers. At the start of the value chain, the enterprise works closely with local producers to source fresh products and to create new market opportunities for local foods, replacing imports. The culinary agency also works with hotels and restaurants in the Caribbean, and is affiliated with international concierge and travel agencies around the globe such as Amex Concierge, Paradizo in Spain and Luxury Retreats in Canada.

Services and markets

Main services:

Caribbean Villa Chefs offers a wide range of culinary and associated services, such as:

• culinary experiences created on demand by chefs for a single event, an entire day or some weeks
• private cooking lessons
• gourmet delivery
• corporate catering
• on-demand support staff such as butlers, waiters and sommeliers
• culinary consulting
• food styling and photography.

Caribbean Villa Chefs offers culinary experiences, taking charge of menu planning, shopping, meal preparation, storage and clean-up. It uses local products to create dishes blending Caribbean, Thai, Oriental, Mediterranean and American cuisines, as well as cocktails, canapés and pastries.

Caribbean Villa Chefs uses local ingredients in its preparations instead of imported foods, and creates new dishes to showcase local products. For example, the chefs have developed a lasagna recipe with plantain or breadfruit replacing the classic pasta, and pork or chicken replacing the beef. Another creation is the breadfruit bowl, prepared with locally available, cheap and nutritious breadfruit, which has become famous and is in high demand in Barbados.

Main markets:

The services of Caribbean Villa Chefs are available in the Caribbean region and worldwide.

Innovations: Milestones and expansion plans

Milestones:

In 2013, Caribbean Villa Chefs was a finalist of Barbados’ business TV show “Bank on Me”, which was produced with the support of the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) and the European Union, among others. During the show, Caribbean Villa Chefs’ Head, Dane Saddler, developed and presented his business plans to find funding. He also discovered the business opportunity of exports at regional (neighbour islands) and international levels through trade agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and regions. As part of his prize in the competition, Dane received support in export development training and facilitation from Caribbean Export. This enabled Caribbean Villa Chefs to develop its scale of activities by increasing its visibility on target markets and streamlining its operations to become more profitable. In addition to attending several workshops, Caribbean Villa Chefs has been one of the awardees of the Direct Assistance Grant Scheme, a reimbursement grant funding facility provided by Caribbean Export. All this support has enabled the culinary agency to greatly increase its export potential and invest in international markets.

Recently, Caribbean Villa Chefs had to adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic and to reduced or suspended tourism activities. The culinary agency is currently working towards deepening the links between chefs and local food producers, and promoting more farm-to-table cuisine. It has also begun supporting local hotels facing staff shortages due to the pandemic. Caribbean Villa Chefs is now focusing on improving its marketing and digital presence to compensate for its market and visibility losses.

Success factors and lessons learned

Caribbean Villa Chefs has invested in a gap in the Barbadian food service market by substituting imported products with locally produced ones to prepare tasty and healthy dishes. Achieving this leading position has involved collecting a lot of information about target markets and potential competitors. Caribbean Villa Chefs also requested assistance in developing its business profile, reaching new markets, etc.

Imported processed products are cheaper than fresh imported ones, but contain more salt, sugar, fats and other additives. Fresh, locally produced food is an affordable and healthier alternative, and enables Caribbean Villa Chefs to prepare dishes with fresh products at a competitive price.

Advocating the use of fresh products, Caribbean Villa Chefs uses local food festivals, cooking demonstrations, TV shows and social media to reach its audience and show them the benefits of healthy, local and fresh food.

Dane Saddler’s involvement in the promotion of healthy local food and food producers has been acknowledged, including when he delivered the 2014 Alumni keynote address on “Agribusiness and the importance of agriculture to the economy” at Queen’s College, Barbados. He has also worked with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) to foster awareness of the importance of agribusiness. Caribbean Villa Chefs has also been featured for five consecutive years at The Barbados Food Wine and Rum Festival, where it showcased gourmet dishes using primarily locally sourced ingredients.

Additional Resources

• Business profile (English)
• Business profile (French)
• Business profile (Spanish)