Dionne George of Edible Treats by Georgie is on a mission to deliver scrumptious delicacies that will leave customers of her two-year-old catering business craving more; so far, she seems to have been doing just that.
Dionne grew up in the countryside, at Wales, West Bank Demerara. She preferred the company of boys growing up, more so because she was never one for drama and gossip. There were two things she loved dearly as a girl – playing cricket and cooking in the kitchen.
With no mentors around to guide her educationally, and with her mother living abroad, school was a challenge. When she sat her National Grade Six Assessment, she scored 384 marks. During that time the then Wales Community High School was joined to Patentia Secondary School and was referred to Patentia Secondary School Six Year. When a teacher told her that she could move to a five-year school if she scored at least 75% at her end-of-term exams, she was determined to make it happen. And she did, earning 85% overall.
While in secondary school, she was always quiet. One of her most inspiring teachers, Colwyn Delph, encouraged her to represent Patentia Secondary School at the 2015 JOF Haynes Debating Intra-Regional Competition in Region Three. The young woman noted that not many of the teachers were happy that she was chosen to be the school’s representative, but that made her more determined to succeed and for the first time, Patentia Secondary School won the competition.
Reminiscing on how he helped her, she said, “I could remember this one time when I was writing the EDPM exam for CSEC. I thought the exam was in the afternoon and it was actually in the morning. He went downstairs at the school and was looking for me and my friends told him I was not in school and he called the landline phone and talked to my mother.
“After she was like ‘Babe’, that’s my call name, ‘Baby, you have exams nine o’clock and you still sleeping’. I said ‘No, I have exams until this afternoon’. She said, ‘Sir Colwyn just called’. That morning I went to school without bathing, brushing my teeth, pressing my clothes. I went to school with the slippers that I wear in the yard. All I had was my timetable. I borrowed a pen and a pencil from one of my classmates. I got a grade two in the subject. Sir Colwyn has always been there for me.”
She was sure she wanted to further pursue the culinary arts after school, but this did not sit well with her parents who thought the Home Economics field was not practical. Instead they tried to make her see that working for a firm would be best.
“When I threw the idea to them that I wanted to do Catering and Hospitality Management at Carnegie they told me it’s a no-no, saying that they won’t send me. I started working at 93.1FM and I was able to save my money. In fact, while at 93.1, I went to this crusade one night and the prophet there, he called me and he said, ‘That school that you want to go to from September, you go and apply. God is going to send people in your life to support you. You just apply and the same people that aren’t supporting you now, they are going to be some of your biggest supporters’. And I never told him anything about wanting to go to any school.
“So said, so done, I went, and I applied. I didn’t have any money to take out my school uniform. A pastor who is like a father to me, he had just come back from the US and he called me. Note, I didn’t mention anything to anyone that I was going to start Carnegie in September. He came to me and said, ‘Look this money and do whatever you got to do with it’. It was $10,000 and I had to get $9,500 to take out my school uniform. I was like, God you’re great! You are great!”
She completed Carnegie last year. Another inspiring teacher was Odetta Greene, who taught at Carnegie School of Home Economics, who taught her the proper way of piping when icing a cake.
The caterer noted that her peak season is usually Christmas when everyone is hoping for black cakes. The most challenging technique she had to learn to date was to make chicken puffs. During the early stages of learning this she had an order for 250 chicken puffs and of this total, 135 fell, which meant she had to do them again. She noted that while there are some caterers who would go ahead and send them out to the customers instead of redoing them, she thinks every bit of pastry or cake or anything she makes is putting her integrity on the line so she ensures to do her best.
One of Dionne’s most memorable experiences and possibly her most painful as well happened last year some weeks before Christmas, during her peak season. “I had several orders for Christmas, and I [had] already planned what and what I’ll do on which day. I went to Georgetown early December and was doing some shopping because I was trying to avoid the Christmas rush. I went into Stabroek Market to buy a slab of cheese and ran into one of my teachers from Carnegie, she was going to buy cheese too. The road was wet because rain had fallen and while coming out back, I slipped, and I fractured my left foot,” she related.
“The guys that push the carts, they stopped and helped me and brought ice to put on my foot. The doctors had to put it in a cast. I was worried about all the orders I had for Christmas but the doctor told me I would be able to take off the cast on December 19, which was good enough time for me to get everything together and finish my orders.”
George grimaced as she reminisced. She was able to finish all the orders on time though it cost her sleep. With so much to be done, the young caterer did not sleep for two days. When she finally was able to get some sleep, it was Christmas night.
One of the things she does not like which has happened on more than one occasions is when a customer places an order and expects to have it in a matter of hours. For busy days, Dionne has assistants, who she trained, to help her with big orders; they all have food handlers’ certificates.
Meanwhile, the benefit of what she does, aside from making her own money, is being able to provide other persons with jobs. “It feels really, really good to be able to do that,” she said.
“What I would want to see happen is the government having entrepreneurship as a subject for the primary students as well as skills training because I believe that at the end of the day, your degree may fail you but you should have something that you should be able to fall back on.”
Dionne is currently a student at School of the Nations pursuing a diploma in Business Management. She plans to have a second diploma in Baking and Pastry Art within the next five years from the Academy of Baking and Pastry Arts in Trinidad. When this time comes, she will have to go abroad to further her studies, but in the meantime, she is working towards preparing her assistants so that they would be able to do everything once she is gone.
At present, the young food artist is also learning to make and layer fondant since many persons have been asking for fondant cakes.
As regards what she would want her legacy to be, Dionne had this to say, “Tyler Perry would always say, ‘Don’t wait for people to give you a seat at their table’. I remember when I had just finished Carnegie and I had sent in applications to various places and most of my applications got turned down, I don’t know why. Every time this happened, I said to myself, this is probably God saying to me that I do not want you to sit at anybody else’s table. I want you to create a table and give persons the opportunity to sit at yours. I want my younger cousins and other persons to say, you know if Dionne could do it, then I could do it too.
“To persons out there who have a passion for something but don’t have the necessary support, I would want say go after what you love. The bible itself says that your gift will make room for you. God will work with a willing heart. If He sees this is what you have a passion about, He is going to place people in your path to support you.”
Her parents, she shared, have since accepted her passion as her career and today are her biggest supporters.
Asked if she could meet anyone alive or dead who it would be Dionne went with both options. If she could bring one person back to life, it would be her grandmother on her father’s side. She never met her grandmother but has heard incredible stories about her. Her name was Malva George and she taught for many years at Queen’s College.
“Dr Ashni Singh, the former finance minister, I heard from relatives, he would usually say that had it not been for her, he would have never been the person who he is today because he said, there was once a time he didn’t want to do certain subjects and she took him home and said to his parents, ‘he is going to write these subjects’ and he did and he did pretty well,” she related. “When my grandmother passed away, I heard he cried a lot.
“On the other hand, one person alive I would want to meet would be Angela Bassett. I just love her, her persona, what she stands for. Listening to her story, she had challenges, but she was determined to overcome them. There was a speech that she gave in August of last year I think at the Black Girls Rock Awards. She said, ‘There will be times when you will be faced with insurmountable obstacles but that’s when you’ll have to dig deep into your soul for the fortitude to keep going and you have to remember that despite of life’s detour, you are destined for greatness’. From since then to now, that has been the quote that has kept me.”
Dionne competed in a British Baking Competition last year finishing as second best in the making of the Victoria Sandwich Cake.
In her free time, she reads the newspapers, enjoys movies, or reads articles online about politics. She loves listening to calypso music, and baking.
Her favourite dish to have is curry, which of course she can make with roti.
For more on Dionne, she can be followed on Facebook at Edible Treats by Georgie while to place orders she can be contacted on 658-0658.
