Glitzy Glamour offers culinary school

By Gibron Rahim
AS human beings, we are obsessed with food. It is not only taste which appeals to us, but we are also keenly interested in appearance, texture and presentation as well. For this reason, the culinary arts are an exciting field of expertise. It is for this reason that Debbie Houston has created her business Glitzy Glamour and passes on her knowledge through her culinary school.

In an interview with the Pepperpot Magazine, Houston related that she began cooking since she was a teenager. However, she officially started her business in 2012. Noting that cooking is a passion for her, Houston related that she had studied social work at the University of Guyana and then pursued a post-graduate degree in psychology through the University of Cambridge. She was a social worker for over 20 years. Her last posting was at the Georgetown Prison, where she said she worked for about three years.

After completing her work at the prison, Houston decided that she wanted to focus on food and living her passion. She chose the name “Glitzy Glamour” for a specific reason. “I do stuff out of the box,” she explained. “I don’t like doing the regular stuff everybody does.” She noted that, while she does cake decorating, she also handles other forms of food and food preparation. “I deal with local and international cuisine [and] I’ve developed recipes on my own.”

Her work is not only about food, according to Houston. It is also about people and personalities. “[In] whatever I do, I try to work with the personality of the person,” she said. The service she offers goes beyond simply have persons call and order cakes. “I like to know the personality of the person I’m doing the cake for, what are some of the things they like and stuff like that,” she related. “That helps me to produce something that, that person would really appreciate.”

Houston is currently compiling some of her recipes into a cookbook which she hopes to have on shelves by the end of this year or early next year. She noted that not all of the recipes are original creations. Rather, there are those to which she had added her own personal touch to enhance them. “It’s to share with the world what I love doing and what people can try,” she said of the cookbook. Houston explained, “I am not the type of person who likes to just keep my stuff to myself, I like to share.”

It is with this same spirit of sharing that Houston started her culinary school. “There are people out there who would like to learn to cook and bake,” she stated. “And I like sharing with them and it also helps me because when you are consistently teaching people, it helps you to retain more of what you do and become even better at it.” Houston related that the school was something she always had in mind.

Houston noted the importance of having an upgraded curriculum. “I wanted to teach stuff that is out of the box,” she said. She plans her classes with the input of students, allowing their areas of interest to guide her. This allows her students to gain the most benefits from the classes. She also offers one-on-one classes which are personalised to a greater degree. One of her hopes is to be able to refer her students to prospective employers when such opportunities present themselves.

Houston’s journey to establish Glitzy Glamour has not been without challenges. She noted that she does not yet have a storefront, with her business being conducted mainly online. She explained that the field is very competitive, as there are many persons doing the same type of business. “You try to advertise a lot,” she related. “I do a lot of advertisements, a lot of posts and stuff like that.” Houston also makes an effort to take her business out of town. “Guyana is a small place, unfortunately, and so it’s a little difficult getting to where you want to get to sometimes but, otherwise than that, business is good.” She added, “I keep trusting that one day it will get bigger than what it is now, especially the school.”
Houston sees the benefit in owning her own business. “You get to do the things you want to do and you get to put the drive behind it,” she said. In the future, she hopes to have her own café and eventually a restaurant. She noted that she wants to start the café at a really good location first. “I’m really hoping and trusting to have it before the year is out,” she stated. She is also intent on continuing to push the culinary school forward. “The school is really what I would like to see grow and become a place where persons can come and learn anything they would like to learn in terms of food and food preparation.”