Castries is a bustling Caribbean capital, its streets packed with honking cars and delivery trucks, sidewalks jammed with shoppers from cruise ships. But hungry visitors looking to escape the crush can take a $1 water-taxi ride to the north side of the city's harbor. There, perched in a garden just a short stroll from the dock, Froggie Jack's offers sanctuary and some of the island's finest food: local fish bathed in inspired fruit sauces, island vegetables dotingly prepared and a smoked-marlin appetizer so popular that patrons pack pounds of it in dry ice and ship it home.
The restaurant's name playfully suggests its gastronomic leanings: Owner and chef Jacky Rioux is unabashedly French in both heritage and culinary training.
As a Frenchman, you grow accustomed to people, especially the British, calling you a 'frog,' says the 40-year-old Rioux, a native of Brittany. Everyone calls me Froggie Jack. I don't take offense. So when I decided to start my restaurant, I called it that, too.
Rioux arrived on St. Lucia seven years ago as the chef for Anse Chastanet, a dreamy hillside resort in Soufrière. But his chef's pedigree dates back a quarter-century to western France.
The men and women in my family were all good cooks, but none were professional, says Rioux. I knew from the time I was a child that I wanted to be a chef.
At 15, Rioux entered Ecole Hôtelière, a Loire valley cooking school in Saumur.
Three years later he began his career, first as a cook in Brussels and then in the Middle East as chef saucier. He rose to executive chef in charge of multi-restaurant international hotels, including the Trust House Forte in Bahrain. During those years, one fabulous assignment would change his life. It was as the only French chef aboard the cruise ship Seabourne Goddess 1 that Jacky became known as Froggie. And it was from its deck that Froggie discovered St. Lucia.
I loved everything about the region, he says. So it was an easy matter when the job offer came from Anse Chastanet.
Two years ago, Rioux left Anse Chastanet. He considered returning to France, but he and his wife, Cathy, had made friends and grown roots in St. Lucia. Their two children were happy in school, and, says Rioux, I was just beginning to feel comfortable with the way I could best cook here - how to meld the local spices, vegetables and fruit with my French way of thinking.
Rioux's fusion of French and Caribbean cuisine makes lunch or dinner unique. Surrounded by a stunning array of tropical plants and conch-shell displays, tables at Froggie Jack's are shaded by a thatch roof or sit on the balcony where the view of harbor and city becomes ultraromantic when evening brings out stars and the city lights.
Your meal may start with an appetizer of blue marlin that has been slowly smoked over coconut husks and mango wood, then served with capers and a light vinaigrette. Grilled prawns - a favorite of Rioux's - appear in his Caesar salad and brochettes, and he puts a new spin on christophene (chayote), using the tropical squash to make waffles topped with raspberry dressing. Local octopus and lambi (conch) meet in a spicy entree seasoned with curried coconut sauce. And could there be a better way to end your meal than with a generous slice of banana pie floating on a fruit coulis and topped with coconut ice cream?
Merci beaucoup, Monsieur Froggie.
Posted online 06/01/01.
