Spicy Dish marks 20th anniversary
-plans to set up food lab
By Heppilena Ferguson
Stabroek News
December 27, 2006
Members of staff at Spicy Dish during anniversary celebrations. (Photo courtesy of Spicy Dish)
The only Guyanese entrepreneur to own several cooked-food outlets is looking to establish her own laboratory to test the nutritional value of her products and highlight her 'local specialties' in a professional way.
This is one of the new year's resolutions of Karen Pollard, the owner of the Spicy Dish restaurant and snackettes.
Spicy Dish celebrated its 20th anniversary on December 15.
Pollard told this newspaper she has no plans to expand the variety of tasty delights but was working to have a fixed line. "Currently we are trying to work on a line of items but our focus will continue to be on Guyanese oriented food," she said.
Pollard, a Berbician who hails from Corriverton, recounted how she got started in the food business, "I started vending food from door-to-door, selling cakes and pastries and I knew one day that I would eventually go big with the business… When I got married in 1986 my partnership started and so I was able to realize my dream."
Spicy Dish Restaurant in David Street, Kitty
The couple got a break financially and was able to rent a building in Corriverton where they operated a snackette. However, after ten years the owners of the building wanted possession of it, so the couple was forced to make a decision which was the turning point.
"And so we moved to Georgetown in 1997, even though when we left we were doing well and we took a small loan from the then Corriverton Branch of the National Bank of Industry and Commerce (NBIC), but still we could not complete what we wanted and our activities had declined a little," Pollard remembered.
However, the persons who knew the couple well still went to lunch and so they catered food on an as-needed basis.
Later, things began to look up for the couple and in December of that year they set up a caravan at the Stabroek Market. But after a while the challenges experienced at this outlet became overwhelming and the couple was forced to close down. "Although we were doing pretty well at this outlet it was challenging for us because people started stealing and so we were forced to close it down."
But this did not stop Pollard and her husband, Peter Pollard who decided to move to a family house at David Street, Kitty, which has now gone through massive repairs and now houses the Spicy Dish Restaurant, which was opened in July 2004. But before this the Pollards continued their home catering.
Spicy Dish also moved to open a snackette at the corner of North Road and Savage Street just alongside the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GP0C).
Nineteen ninety-seven also marked the year that Spicy Dish started operations on the University of Guyana Turkeyen campus, first in the students' common room and then operating the entire cafeteria which it still does today.
Spicy Dish's newest location is in the recently commissioned City Mall.
Challenges
"Over the years we have had many challenges, the greatest one being staff since it is very difficult to recruit the quality staff we wish to have and the kind that are genuinely interested and are willing to execute the job," Pollard said.
She said the outlet constantly trains its staff, but is sometimes faced with high staff turnover rates. Pollard said, however that the management was constantly working to ensure that standards are kept and that the best quality of food is offered.
"I would say to anyone willing to get into the food business that it is not an easy task and it's a pretty hard business and requires that you work around the clock," she said.
"You cannot stay from the outside and manage. You have to be prepared to enter the kitchen and know what you are looking for… getting into the kitchen is a must.
"The food business has its ups and downs but basically I would say that it is good and it keeps you alive." Later on Spicy Dish plans to continue spreading its wings.
The Pollards took their staff to Corriverton, Berbice for its 20th anniversary where the roots of Spicy Dish are still present.