February Culinary Corner: Chef Deon Thomas Chef Deon’s Kitchen, Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard

Posted by Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

By Phyllis M. Cahaly, CMD, Director of Partnership Marketing, Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism

When you hear Chef Deon Thomas say, ‘Let me tell you a story,’ and he has many, you’re in for a treat! Meet Chef Deon Thomas, the Three-Island Chef representing Martha’s Vineyard, Jamaica, and Anguilla B.W.I. Chef Deon is a chef, restauranteur, community leader, and full-service caterer on the beautiful island of Martha’s Vineyard, located just seven miles off the coast of Massachusetts and easily accessible by ferry or plane. Chef Deon owns Chef Deon’s Kitchen where he serves up all the classics, as well as his ‘New-American-with-a-Caribbean-spin’ comfort food in a relaxed hospitable setting at the popular Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) Hall outpost in the town of Oak Bluffs. He also runs an impressive catering operation, making him one of Vineyard’s top caterers.

Chef Deon, a native of Jamaica, earned his experience via the traditional route, apprenticing straight out of high school with such culinary masters as French Chefs Pierre Bataglia, Marc Innocenti and Jacque Benoit, Filipino Chef Leo Gerona and Indian Chef Anil Sud, in Jamaica’s hotel industry. During his apprenticeship, he enrolled simultaneously in the culinary arts program at the prestigious Saunders School of Catering and the hotel management program at Jamaica’s College of Arts, Science and Technology (now the University of Technology). This intensive training prepared Chef Deon for targeted recruitment to work under the tutelage of other culinary experts in the Caribbean and later in the United States at the Culinary Institute of America.

At a young age, Chef Deon started his journey as a bus boy and absorbed as much as he could, working in multitudes of restaurants. He found himself as the only boy in a home economics class with 18 girls after winning a Gold Medal for a beverage he developed, he knew he wanted to be a chef. He learned about French, Italian and Chinese food and once he arrived in New York City, he was enamored with the restaurant scene. He eventually landed in East Hampton and lived in Montauk for 15 years, working in a variety of restaurants during the summers. Then, in the winter, he would go back to New York City and sustain himself with a working combination that included restaurants and retail stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdales. A few years later, he had opened a couple of restaurants in Anguilla and in 2000, purely by chance, he met one of his diners who happened to be a vacationing realtor from Martha’s Vineyard. This realtor invited Chef Deon to visit Martha’s Vineyard, since he had never been there, and once he arrived, he felt he was at home.

He immediately bought his first restaurant, The Cornerway Restaurant in Chilmark, which he owned for eight years. This was an upscale, New American menu. His impressive client list includes President Barack and Michelle Obama, President Bill and Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Steve Harvey, and Mariah Carey just to list a few. He later opened a second restaurant, Deon’s, in West Tisbury, and after suffering a fire, he opened Deon’s Restaurant on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs. Year after year, he worked all summer in the Vineyard and then returned to Anguilla in the winter where he would continue to cook. Unfortunately, in 2009 and 2010, two hurricanes came through Anguilla, destroying his restaurants, and that’s when Chef Deon made the decision to return full-time to Towanticut Street at the VFW in Oak Bluffs, and this time there was a twist to his restaurant style.

“All of my previous restaurants were fine dining, very fancy, and upscale,” says Chef Deon. “I would get to the island just before Memorial Day, meet with my exclusive diners through the summer and return to Anguilla at the end of the season. I never really got to know the people of Martha’s Vineyard or the community. Now, when I look at the crowd here at the VFW, there is a different feeling. The people here, the veterans, the locals, and the VFW itself is close to my heart. This experience has provided me with a sense of purpose and a daily appreciation of the local community. It has opened doors for me, and I am thankful every day to be here in this environment.”

When Chef Deon found his way to VFW Hall, he initially used the facility to cater weddings and outside private parties. Realizing that he could seat approximately 100 diners in the hall itself, he began to freshen up the building and started giving it the ‘Chef Deon’ touch. He hired a kitchen staff of nine. He opened the doors to the community to come for lunch and dinner – and the community responded.

“The clientele here is different from my previous restaurants. There’s no intimidation, no caviar, nothing too fancy. I started with a handful of mainstream dishes like burgers, fried broccoli, fried onion rings, mac ‘n cheese, and down-home cooking and then I started adding to and stretching the menu to include goat and conch chowder,” says Chef Deon. “Nothing too upscale but always delicious and that’s how it became Chef Deon’s. Now I have become friends with the local community and tourists, too.”

Chef Deon takes pride in serving only the freshest seafood and local island quality products and wraps his menu around what’s available and in season. “I’m a fish person; anything that comes out of that water, I’ll cook it,” says Chef Deon. He consciously decided only to serve local fish and worked with the local fisherman to buy and prepare Fluke, Bluefish, Sea Bass, Bonita, and Scup.

The catering menu at Chef Deon’s Kitchen includes brunch selections from melons and seasonal fruit platters to brioche coconut French Toast & Maple Wood Smoked Bacon to Farmer’s Frittatas made with the freshest ingredients from local farms like Morning Glory Farm in Edgartown, Allen Farm in Chilmark or North Tabor Farm in Chilmark. Chef Deon also partners with the Community Greenhouse of Martha’s Vineyard in Oak Bluffs. You can choose from sample buffet dinner menus titled, ‘Taste of the Caribbean,’ ‘Backyard Soul BBQ Buffet’ or ‘MV Buffet Clambake,’ as well, Chef Deon will work with you on a customized buffet or menu of your choice.

Seemingly, Chef Deon is feeding all of Martha’s Vineyard between his restaurant, catering services, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, and, with the help of a small army of volunteers, delivering food to the sick and shut-ins around the island. He is reaping incredible fresh, local products from the island, using his cooking skills to make magic from the food and lovingly giving it back to the island in so many ways as a gift to the community.

In 2018, he published his first cookbook, Conch Cookery, featuring the channel whelk (conch), one of the Vineyard’s traditional shellfish. You can find his cookbook online here, along with various sauces like Jamaican Jerk Seasoning Sauce and Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce. He is currently working on two more books, his memoirs (where you will hear all those wonderful stories!) and another cookbook filled with tasty, simple recipes.

Chef Deon has mastered a variety of culinary dishes through his experience, which he has shared with the community, sparking fellowship and camaraderie one bite at a time. He loves Martha’s Vineyard and has created a new world at the VFW Hall. In his melodic Jamaican accent, he says, “I’m the first one in and the last one out,” says Chef Deon. “At the end of the day, after all the kitchen battles, I love to put that mop in that bucket of hot water and mop that floor, wring out that mop, and prepare the kitchen for tomorrow. When I come in at 6 a.m., I get the greatest joy from walking into that clean kitchen and preparing for another day’s battle.” Chef Deon serves soul food that’s good for the soul, and in the words of Chef Deon, “it’s straight up, no chaser.”

What’s Chef Deon’s favorite food, you might ask? “Left, right and center, it’s Sardines!” says Chef Deon. “You can give it to me straight out of the can for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” We will surely have Sardines on the menu one day!

Photos courtesy of Chef Deon’s Kitchen (except as noted otherwise)

---

Chef Deon’s Award-Winning Garlic Snapper

Recipe courtesy of Chef Deon, Chef Deon’s Kitchen, Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard

Download a PDF of this recipe

FOR 2 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS

• 16 oz. Snapper fillets
• 1 tbsp. teriyaki
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 oz. clarified butter
• 1 clove garlic minced

Breading

• 1/3 cup of flour
• 2 tbsp. of panko
• 1 tsp. celery salt – mix together
• 1 tbsp. granulated onion
• 1 tbsp. garlic
• 1 tsp. black pepper

METHOD

• Season Snapper fillets with olive oil and teriyaki
• Dredge fillets lightly with breading
• Over medium flame heat skillet, add clarified butter, sauté fillets to a golden hue, and remove from pan
• Spread minced garlic on fillets and finish cooking in a 350 degree F/177 degree C oven for 5 minutes. Remove and keep warm.
• Serve with Caribbean Slaw and Campagne Beurre Blanc and a few pink peppercorns.

TOPICS: Chilmark, Culinary Corner, Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury