Dvance p raise for minding Their Own Business

party
of
a
lifetime
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would add drinks to their menu. Each trial brought out another gem in 
their collection of solutions to problems.
Once the family got organized around the idea of offering goods 
that other vendors did not have on their menu, Caribbean food was 
added to the store on wheels. Aida recalled with glee that:
… then we realized that, wait a minute, we could be doing more because there is 
nobody else selling what we might be selling: rice and pelau and curry chicken, 
and if they are [selling] they are selling it for too much and it is not good enough. 
So if we can sell it for the same price then we can match prices, no problem. But 
if we could do it better, which we knew we could, we have a product that we can 
really push. So we started off with just the curry and the rice and peas.
And, of course, once Gina put her mind to doing anything that rep-
resented her effort she “must do it right.” Pretty soon, Aida reported, 
her mother had a banner printed up in fuscia and blue, and there were 
Pyrex dishes to display the food on the menu, her mother insisted that 
they cover the food so that dust would not get into it. Gina insisted that 
Andy was responsible for moving the food, from the van where she 
was cooking, to the display area and Aida had to greet the customers 
because she had a friendly demeanor.
Looking back over the early years, Andy recalled the production 
plans that helped the family to transition to another stage of their busi-
ness venture. The small business eventually moved around to sites 
with “2 big freezers, 55 gallon drums of water, 2 freezers full of ice 
cream, full of meat, and so you are talking 50–75 pounds of chicken, ice 
cream, those tubs were huge. They must have been 10–15 gallon tubs of 
ice cream” and sell their wares during the outdoor events.
The result of all this hard work at Carnival events and street festi-
vals was that the family could finally afford the first truck which Island 
Caterers could drive to any location that they chose. Aida, Andy’s 
sister, proudly stated:
It came to the point that we were buying cases and cases of chicken, pulling 
fat off the chicken because [mom] was not having all the fat in the food … she 
was staying up [all] kind of hours currying the chicken, … the pelau …. And

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minding
their
own
business
she would go out there at 6:00 in the morning to be ready at 9:00 and sell out 
… 7:00 that night, break down, go home, and that’s how we bought the first 
[Island] Caterers truck … in a summer, we made that.
Catering to the Island People
Aida, Gina’s daughter, remembered the days when her mother gradu-
ated from selling ice cream outside their home, to doing events at fairs 
and Carnival events, to offering catering services to clients. Aida stated 
that “all through high school I remember her cooking for other people” 
and then Gina launched a menu, a web site, found a place and had 
“another friend who was an artist came and redid the whole place,” 
and then her mother “started to look for deals on kitchens and stoves 
and refrigerators” to put in the business site. Aida said that she and 
Gina went “all over the world to restaurants that were closing down” 
in order for Gina to create her products and “get the market to appreci-
ate that product for the price” at which she was willing to sell.
Gina talked about her catering company with pride and explained 
that “we present ourselves as the people that can throw the party of a 
life time. The party that would be the envy of your friends and not only 
because the food is excellent, which it always is, but also because of the 
ambiance and the atmosphere that we put together to bring this out.” 
The successful business leader is certain that she presents to her clients 
the ideas that have less “to do about food and more to do with attitude 
and atmosphere.” For example, with brides, she explains that “it’s not 
about … how much money you’re spending on your wedding or what 
your wedding looks like, or your wedding looks like the celebrities’ 
wedding. It’s … about your life. And it should uplift your life, your 
living, the space you take up here in this earth.”
And what exactly is this vision that Gina shares with her potential 
“guest” at Island Caterers? In her words “the party of a life time is 
doing for the client what they want, what would make them happy.” 
Of course, “what would make [one of] them happy would to be to 
throw them a casual party in their back yard where everybody just 
come in shorts and just [have] a grand old time.” For another client, 

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gina
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