ABOUT OUR CHEF

Chef Karleen Bassaragh-James is a Real Estate Broker for Atlanta Real Estate Consultants. While her main goal is focusing on helping to educate her real estate clients especially her first-time homebuyers, assisting them in the process of attaining their dream of home ownership, this real estate broker, wife and mom of 2 also finds a way to fit into life, her passion for cooking. Chef Karleen was born in the Island of Jamaica and was raised at the early age of 3 months old to 14 years old by her “Great- grandmother” whose parents migrated from India to Jamaica in the early 1900.’s

From the early years of her childhood, Karleen recalls beautiful memories with her Naani, an Indian name used to refer to grandma. Naani was also hearing impaired, so Karleen communicate with her thru lip reading, as they got dressed and washed their face and prayed to start the day out at 5am. As the sun rose behind the hills of their home, they walked the garden to pick up the fallen item with morning dew on them, the peas, peppers, pumpkins, limes, callaloo (Jamaican spinach). Yes!, you name it they have planted it, picked it and cooked it. The afternoons after school, Karleen would sit next to her and watched her grind the herbs for seasoning on the Indian Masala stone. She also watched her cut, washed, seasoned and placed food items in the hot oil or boiling water. Those were the most cherished, happy moments and she can now call them the theology of learning how to prepare her meals. She thinks about them every day, especially when she cooks daily in her kitchen.

As her passion for cooking grew over the years, Karleen also realize how emotionally fulfilling her food makes her family and friends feel and since her cooking consists of Jamaican and Indian recipes and after living in Atlanta, Georgia, over the past 27yrs, she has definitely taken the traditional southern dishes and placed her Jamaican Indian twist on them and with that said this Island Foodanista describes her style of cooking as “Indo Caribbean Fusion”

Anything you put in front of her she can pretty much create an artful dish, as long as she has her “A SHARP KNIFE!, HER SIGNATURE SEASONINGS, A FIERY SPIRIT and A GLASS OF A WINE ”.

Her secret weapon will be “Staying Focus in the “Zone”, while using her passion to create an art” that’s what she does when she cooks in her own kitchen. If you interrupt her ZONE!!!! She can become “The not so sweet Chef” …

Her motivation for bringing natural, healthy and flavorful dishes comes from a place of wanting to share her love for people. By allowing her in their kitchen, she gets the opportunity to share what her Naani gave her, which is “LOVE” “Love People Through Her Food”. Karleen feels deeply that everyone has an inner light that brings joy to others, and no matter what adversities life brings you, you can thrive, as long you find a way for your light to shine. Karleen finds that her light shines the brightest when she cooks for others.

The bottom line is or you could say “the bottom of the pot is” to do “What God Has For Her…. and in the meantime to build a sustainable foundation of greatness for others, thru sharing healthy choices with her flavorful dishes.”