Known as the Singing Chef, or in Europe as the Gourmet Musician, Eon John’s talent is serenading his audience with music and food and after doing this at restaurants around the globe, he has returned home to do the same.
Before he began starring in the kitchen, Eon was lead choir boy at St George’s Cathedral from 1972 to 1976 under the tutorship of Mr Bowen, a man he described as the “most frightening choir master”, though phenomenal at what he did.
Born and raised in East Ruimveldt, Eon spent the first ten years of his life here and when he was not in church singing in the choir or at school drumming on the desks, he was quite adventurous. He recalled sitting with boys his age making instruments, the guitar was one of them. He was four years old when he began remaking instruments. He recalled getting a toy guitar from a relative and though the strings strummed, they did not make a melody so he pulled them out and made better strings using catgut or polythene, which he wrapped a certain way to create the required sound.
His grandmother could play the classical piano, and taught children at her home in Buxton, but Eon was never one of her students. In fact, all that he knows to play on his guitar was basically self-taught.
His two main inspirations in music as a little boy were Lord Kitchener and the Mighty Sparrow. Also making the list of inspirations were James Brown, the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Eon is more grounded in writing and performing the Rock and Roll genre. However, he is currently working on an album reflecting Guyanese customs, especially on children in the countryside. It will be a Rock and Roll/Calypso fusion.
“Guyanese are so funny, and they don’t know it, the way they interact with each other,” Eon said. “I hear things like ‘Meh children mash up and loss’. I could write a whole song explaining what that woman meant, you know, trying to get them to school in the morning. I wrote a song called ‘Sitting in the Water’. We used to run Adel’s Resort and we see all these beautiful girls bathing in the water [Pomeroon River] and then you see these incredible looking boys, really buff because they all work doing lumbering… I’m sure a lot of marriages started that way,” he chuckled.
After moving to the United States to live with his mother, Eon was given kitchen duties and he soaked up what ingredients were used, and which spices were mixed. His mother, he shared, wanted to teach him to cook but he was fine with her doing the cooking and was not one bit interested until in her own clever way she had him learn how to mix all the spices. He developed the habit of singing often and the kitchen was hardly ever quiet with Eon in it.
Speaking of his mother, Eon said that aside from having two restaurants, she had her own local television show in Springfield, Massachusetts and also wrote two cookbooks.
Later, he left the US and travelled to France, Germany, and Spain where he worked in various restaurants. It was in Europe that he learnt some fascinating cooking techniques. He sang in the kitchens there as well. If his job was making the pastries, then he sang about doing them.
When he was leaving the restaurant in France, they threw him a farewell party. “I said to them, I’m really happy you guys were patient with me. You taught me a lot. I can really use this when I move on in life and they said to me, ‘Listen you can learn techniques in five minutes but learning how to flavour, we learned it from you so that’s why we had you around’. They say you can’t teach that.” Guyanese in general, Eon said, are known for incredible flavour in their food.
His next adventure found him in England where he was singing this time and within the first six months, landed a record deal with Virgin Records. After a while of eating fast food all the time he got himself a two-burner camping stove and a little gas can and he cooked for himself and everybody else, from fried rice to garlic chicken.
At one time, he was touring with US band Blondie in the UK and decided he was going to cook. By the second gig of the tour, he said, the entire crew along with the band that was headlining the tour were all eating his food. Eon reckons the other tours they wounded up having may have been because of the food.
Though he’s French trained, Eon uses local ingredients when cooking here. At the moment he is on a Seven-Curry Tour. What Eon does is technically adjust or enhance the dishes. The Singing Chef Show airs at 10 am and again at 10 pm, six days a week Monday to Saturday on the National Communications Network. When the show first started only a few persons would recognize Eon. They called him the ‘Singing Chef’ or the ‘Cook Man’. Now, close to two months later – it debuted on December 6 – Eon has become a celebrity and cannot go anywhere without someone recognizing him. Just last week, he visited the Pergola Smoke House and Lounge, and people started asking him to, ‘Bust me a line’ and then screaming when he began singing.
“I got cutoff by a busload of policemen the other day,” he said. “They drive the bus right in front of me and then they jumped out and began running towards me and I’m going like, Oh my God! Oh my God! What’s going on here? What’s going on here? They must think I’m somebody else. [Then] they said ‘Cookman, Cookman, Cookman!’ and one of them said, ‘you know that white chicken, chicken blank’ and I said, ‘no it’s blanc, it means white in French’. He said ‘yeah, yeah, yeah! That thing, that thing! You think that sauce could go with fish?’ I said, ‘Yes of course, I’m just showing you techniques that you can do really easily here. Put it wherever you want’. Another policeman said he gon surprise his wife with it. This was just before Christmas; so, they were all thinking… it’s like getting men back into the kitchen. Another man jumped off his bicycle because he wanted to cook his wife garlic pork.”
Among his many fans is a two-year-old who refuses to go to bed unless he watches The Singing Chef. The mother of the child works at Bourda Market and while Eon was there, he saw the boy and gave him a hug. His face lit up, Eon remarked, adding that the child did not want to let go of his hand.
At a recent occasion, Eon fed some Americans and had them raving about his food. One man, whose wife is back home, told him she was angry about him talking about the food all the time especially when she couldn’t have it. Now they are making plans to bring their wives and families to taste ‘Eon’s hand’.
The first series of the show will end in March. Currently Eon and his Manager Jessica Hatfield and their team are travelling around Guyana working on the second series that will bring a different format that embraces the whole of Guyana. Creating the second series will take several months.
Eon noted that so far all has been going well for the show and the only complaints he has received were from persons who do not agree he should have only one regular taster. His taster, Cecil, will accompany him around Guyana as he cooks, but he will include also someone local from within the community as a second taster.
The show is funded by businesses around Guyana, in particular the same companies that provide the ingredients he uses.
Eon shared a few food tips. For crispier fish and chips, he recommended double frying them. He admonished that persons should never make wet salads. If you do not have a salad spinner, put the salad in a clean food towel and spin or shake it to do the trick. Another important thing about salads, lettuce in particular, is to never cut lettuce with a knife as it browns the edges; it is best to tear them by hand.
Guyana, Eon said, has so much to offer and while Guyanese are not picking up on it, the foreigners are. He said tourists have told him that after tasting Guyana’s delicious pineapples and mangoes, they just cannot go back to eating theirs. Guyanese, he said, are blessed that when they go to their markets, they can purchase fruits and vegetables cheaply, and not just that, but they can also get them fresh and organic, some right from their backyards.
The Singing Chef has been showing off much of Guyana, the people, the food, including a photo of him holding up the fillet of a very large trout, which he sent to friends overseas and they could not believe their eyes.
Eon has settled down to lizards, parakeets and other little animals wandering in his yard. Already he is putting together a song about them.
He has two daughters whose mom is British. The younger is in the music industry in Los Angeles and is currently working with Jay-Z, while the older one is just finishing up working on the new James Bond film as the assistant camerawoman.
In his downtime, Eon loves spending time in his kitchen garden or watching football.
He figures that he has written around 1,000 songs and an average of 30 have been recorded and released. He has three albums to date. The one he is working on currently will consist of 15 songs.
Is his voice sweeter than his cooking? One will have to listen and taste to be the judge.
Eon can be followed at Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter at Eon John – The Singing Chef.
