Armani the artistic chef

While 12-year-old Armani Gaspard is passionate about art, mas and cooking, his goal in life is to be a chef and own an Italian restaurant.

The St Mary’s College, Port of Spain student is from Arima and told Newsday Kids he started cooking around age nine. He used to watch his mother cook and tried it. Then, as he got better, he made changes and created his own versions of the meals. But, so far, his favourite meals were pasta dishes.

“I wanted to try and do my own thing. I didn’t want to have to wait for anybody to cook. If they (the adults in the home) were sick or tired, I could cook for myself and for them instead of making them have to get up to make food.”

He also knows how to cook peas, stewed meats, macaroni pie, lasagne, curry, Chinese food, punches and “everything else that I know about.”

His other career option is art.

Gaspard started with drawing at the age of five. At age seven he wanted to try painting so his mother bought him watercolour paints. When he realised he preferred painting to drawing, he asked for acrylic paint, which he got along with a canvas.

He said his mother thought his first painting, a cliffside with a tree, was good and so she encouraged him and continued to buy him supplies. He paints beach and mountain scenes as well as figures and portraits.

“I have a book with different paintings of people and sceneries and I paint the ones I like. Sometimes, if I don’t like what they have, I will change it to something I think would look better and it works out.”

Most of his work is realistic but he is willing to try other styles. He said he already tried abstract painting and it was fun doing whatever he felt rather than trying to copy something exactly.

He plans to do more realism in the future.

“Painting is calming. I can do it and not have to talk to anybody.”

Gaspard has also been playing mas since the age of one, and with Classix Productions children’s band in Belmont since he was three. This year he was Classix Production’ King, The Bush Doctor, and the band won the Red Cross Children’s Carnival Large Band of The Year title.

“Mas is just fun. I like to see the colours and listen to the music. I think that, seeing that I like to draw, I’ll try being the designer for the band at some point. I tried it once and it was nice.”