Terri Benjamin is the Chef and Owner of Chic Gourmet located in Fish Bay, a business that prepares allergy free, vegan, and raw foods. Photo: VINO

Chic Gourmet is a growing business, having been established over a year ago. Photo: VINO

Inside Chic Gourmet in Fish Bay. Photo: VINO

Raw Vegan chocolate cake sold by Chic Gourmet. Photo: Facebook

A glimpse of some of the healthy and delicious foods prepared by Terri Benjamin. Photo: Facebook

The lively, yet modest, Terri Benjamin is the Chef and Owner of Chic Gourmet located in Fish Bay, a business that prepares allergy free, vegan, and raw foods.

Terri has been in the business for a year and a half. “I have various food allergies, so it started with my own personal illness. After returning to the BVI, I realised that a lot of people also have such problems and also had issues with the limited types of foods offered here, so I just decided to start my business,” Terri said.

Certified Health Coach & Nutritionist

The young Virgin Islander, who attended the then BVI High School, is no ordinary Raw and Vegan Chef. Apart from her culinary training, Terri is a certified Health Coach and Nutritionist.

She studied Plant Based Nutrition at University of California, Berkley, studied at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City and has a Master of Science in Nutrition Sciences from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA.

Considering herself a ‘country girl’, Terri grew up in the Long Trench/Fahie Hill area. After graduating from the BVI High School (now Elmore Stoutt High School) with honours, Terri went on to HLSCC where she did General Studies and then attended an educational institute in Barbados before winging out to the USA to further her studies.

Growing business

Terri finds great satisfaction in meeting the culinary needs of her customers and even takes on the responsibility of ensuring the nutritional needs of customers are met.

“Most of my clients have glutamine tolerances or they are vegan or they just want to eat clean whole foods, so I do meal plans for them and I prep their meals to whichever specific calories they would need per meal a day. I would prepare that for them so they can just either have it delivered or they can just pick up their already prepared meals.

“So we do an assortment of anything plant based,” added Terri, who said she gets most of her produce from local farmers.

As for being in business, Terri said “It has been good, it has been growing.” She hopes it will grow to the strength where she can have different branches across the Caribbean.

Challenges

For the moment though, Terri is determined to overcome the hurdles that threaten to kill her dreams for the business. “There are a lot of challenges for small businesses in the BVI. There are no mentors. The laws and taxes are not set up for small businesses. Everything is focused around large companies that can afford all of these taxes and fees. Then there is that big elephant in the room- finding good staff.

Nevertheless, Terri considers herself blessed to have inspirational persons in her life, who motivate her to carry on in trying times. These persons include her husband, mom Cheryl Smith and her sister.

As to persons who Terri looks up to, those include Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and Bethany Frankel, who is also a young entrepreneur who started her business from scratch. “She owns the whole skinny girl brand. I have read about her and have all her books.”

Support unit

“I think I have an excellent support team. My support unit are like superstars, so whenever I need someone to talk to or I am depressed, my support unit is always awesome. It is made up of family, close friends, sorority sisters, customers and clients.”

Terri recalls one time when she had no staff. “My customers would come in to the store and they would actually wait for me to prep their meals and do everything for them. And they knew what was going on and they would tell me not to quit because they needed me to cater for them.”

Advice to Youth

Terri advises youth to “just go for it” once they are convinced what is it they want to do. “Whatever they are thinking, whatever business ventures they want to embark on, they need to do it because if they don’t act on it then how will they know whether they would be successful or not. There is no such thing as failure, everything is a learning experience,” Terri advised.

Meanwhile, anyone interested in the healthy culinary delights that Terri has to offer can call 443-5051 her visit the place of business at #23 Skelton Bay Lot, Fish Bay, Tortola.

Chic Gourmet is also on Facebook.