Image generated using GROK AI
Jinnie rather liked December, there was Christmas to look forward to and the family cruise in the Caribbean. Everyone was happy as the office shut down between Christmas and the New Year, except for a skeleton staff. There were lots of parties and dinners to go to and this year TT SuperBurger (Group) had made the decision to make use of the new events centre in West Sussex for all the staff parties they could. Of course, it wasn’t possible for, say, the staff of a restaurant in Birmingham to travel all the way to the South Downs, but there were plenty of other events being put on around the country by Miranda’s company.
As usual, Jinnie was invited to the SIS party in Vauxhall Cross and as always it was a huge success. Jinnie and Paolo sat on the same table as Alan and his wife and hardly talked ‘shop’ all evening. The one exception was Alan telling her that the Russians were massing for a big push, but the generals said it wasn’t going to happen before the spring and the better weather. The Germans seemed to be aware of what was happening and were preparing in-depth defences.
Jinnie and Paolo went to the events centre several times with different Group companies; Trattoria Trevi Limited, Wright Refurbishment, DKL, SuperBurgers, Aunty JoJo’s (UK), Ennios Hotels and Artisan Sandwiches/Sybaritic all held events and Jinnie got heartily sick of turkey dinners and swore to Paolo that on Christmas Day on the ship she was going to eat anything other than turkey. But she was impressed by the set-up at the Vineyard, it was impossible to have known that it was a new site. Miranda had told Jinnie that the event was now virtually sold out, she was already booking events during the coming year and was investigating whether they could book a bigger funfair for next year.
The twins were getting increasingly excited about their cruise and kept interrogating Izzy, having realised that she had been on Arvia with George for their honeymoon. They kept asking her about things on board, like was there a children’s club. Izzy said of course there was and there were 4 swimming pools, 3 cinemas, and loads of places to eat. Jinnie told them the ship was much bigger than Britannia and they would be going to some different islands. Instead of going to lots of islands north of Barbados, this time they would be going to some in the south, visiting Bonaire, Curaçao, and Oranjestad. The next time they went swimming, they asked Uncle Nigel to show them where they were on his globe.
Uncle Nigel showed them the 3 islands off the coast of Venezuela and how it was South America, how they were known as the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, and that they were part of the Netherlands. He told them that the Germans had never managed to take over the islands, and they had been protected by Britain and America, who had put soldiers and aeroplanes on them. After the war of liberation in Britain, and the Netherlands was liberated, the Allies gave the islands back to the Netherlands and the people on the islands rather liked the British and the Americans.
***
As usual, the family flew on the P&O charter flight from Gatwick to Barbados. This year everyone was on the same plane, and everyone was in the premium cabin. As they waited in the departure lounge at the airport, Willie told George how they had ‘posh’ seats and better food, they would get lunch and tea on the plane. George said, “Oh, you mean I didn’t need to put cheese sandwiches and a can of Pepsi in my bag.” It took a moment for Willie to realise that George was pulling his leg, and a few seconds later he started to giggle. The 10 in the party had the two seats by the window and three in the middle of the plane in two rows so they were all seated close to each other. However, the twins had both bagged the window seats when Jinnie had picked the seats online.
As usual, the twins had come prepared for the flight with crisps and chocolate, iPads, headphones, and their current favourite cuddly toys in their backpacks. They settled back for the journey and even before the stewardess came round with the pre-take-off orange juice, they had interrogated the inflight entertainment and were deciding what they were going to watch. Jinnie sipped her sparkling wine and listened to the conversation between the twins, they had outgrown Peppa Pig and Thomas the Tank Engine ages ago and were busy trying to decide if they had seen the episodes of the Famous Five that were available, but they had spotted that the first Harry Potter film was available and they both wanted to watch that as Mummy had told them they could probably start to read the series next year.
The empty glasses were collected as the plane pushed back and replaced with menus, so as the plane made its way to the end of the runway, the twins were discussing what they were going to have for lunch. Jinnie was hardly surprised when they chose roast chicken, it was one of their favourite meals. As the plane raced down the runway, the twins were already engrossed in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and learning about the boy wizard who slept in the cupboard under the stairs.
As the credits rolled at the end of the film, Willie turned to Jinnie and said, “Mummy, that was really, really good. We want to read the books now, please let us read them.” Jinnie smiled back and said, “We will see, they really are for children a bit older than you two.” But secretly she was delighted, she had been watching the film over Willie’s shoulder and had enjoyed it herself. She had read the books years ago and had been a little worried that the twins might be scared by some of the events. But she had watched their reactions to the film and was now sure they were mature enough to read the full set of paperbacks she had in the back of her wardrobe, waiting for the day the twins were ready for them. Now they would make an additional Christmas present when they got home.
The twins did their normal yelp of excitement as the Boeing 787 banked over the port of Barbados and they saw their cruise ship. Willie said, “Mummy, is that our ship? It’s much bigger than Britannia and it’s got two funnels.” “Yes,” replied Jinnie, “that’s Arvia, and you’re right, it’s much bigger than Britannia. There was space for about 3,650 on her and 5,200 on Arvia.” “That’s a lot of people, Mummy,” said Willie. “Well, we have some cabins on a different deck this time because the layout is different this time. Mummy and Daddy have a suite in the corner on Deck 14 just like before and you have a luxury balcony next door. Izzy and George are in the other corner, and we both have wraparound balconies, but there are only two balconies at the back on each deck. So, Granny and Grandad are immediately below us on Deck 12, Aunty Penny and Uncle Dan are in the other corner below Izzy and George.”
Willie looked a bit puzzled and thought for a moment before asking, “Mummy, if we are on Deck 14, and Granny and Grandad are immediately below us, why are they on Deck 12 and not Deck 13?” Jinnie chuckled before answering, “That’s because there is no Deck 13. Thirteen is considered to be an unlucky number, so it doesn’t exist on many ships and in some buildings.” “Oh,” said Willie, and went silent while he considered 13 being unlucky and put all his stuff in his backpack ready for landing.
As usual, as soon as the twins were down at the bottom of the airstairs, they raced off to reserve five double seats on the bus. By the time the rest of the party arrived at the coach, they were sitting in the front seat, happily chatting to the confused driver and were telling him that they were going to the ship and then they were having dinner tonight at Mummy’s restaurant. The driver was shaking his head, so Jinnie tried to explain, telling him that once they had checked in on the boat, as the ship was in port overnight, they had a booking at the Continental Restaurant that was owned by the group she was the Managing Director of. The driver nodded and said, “Now I understand, that is a damn good restaurant, but I heard it was tied up with Aunty JoJo’s.” “It is,” said Jinnie. “The group I am MD of owns Continental Restaurants, Aunty JoJo’s, the Ennios St James Hotel, DKL delivery kitchens and a catering company that does the catering at the Oval, and several companies and a hospital.”
“Gosh,” said the driver, “that’s a big company.” Paolo said, “That’s only part of the story, they also have lots more companies in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Slovenia, loads of the Caribbean islands and soon in France.” “Wow,” said the driver, but before he could say anything else, a girl in a P&O hi-vis climbed aboard and took the PA microphone and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now ready to drive to the port. It should take about 25 minutes depending on the traffic. When we get to the port, you will be delivered to the ship’s check-in. Have your passports and ship boarding cards ready. Please note that we don’t go through the airport building and your hold luggage will be taken in bond directly to the ship and delivered to your cabin. OK, you are off now, have a great cruise and Merry Christmas everyone.” With that, she stepped off the bus, the doors hissed closed, and the bus was off.
***
As the bus momentarily stopped at the port security, Millie said, “Daddy, the ship is enormous, how will we know where to go?” “Oh, I expect you will find your way to the swimming pool, the main dining room, the Reef and Taste 360° in next to no time,” replied Paolo. The party was quickly on board and, after checking in at their emergency assembly point, headed for their cabins and found the onboard pass card/keys in an envelope in the letter rack outside their doors. Paolo opened the twins’ and gave them a swipe card each and the little fold-out guide to the ship that was in the pack, saying, “There you go, a map of the ship. The captain must have been listening when you asked how you found your way around.”
Jinnie said to the twins, “Come on you two, let’s find Izzy and we can go and get you signed in at the Reef. Daddy is going to the dining room to see if we can get the same table every night. On this ship you don’t usually get the same table as you can just turn up and eat at any time.” Paolo arrived at the reception desk at the Meridian main dining room and explained to the girl at the computer that they were a party of ten with two seven-year-olds and they had booked to eat in the Meridian Restaurant at 18:30 for most nights of the cruise. They hadn’t booked for this evening as they were going to eat ashore at a friend’s restaurant and they had booked to eat in the Epicurean on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Eve, but every other night they would be eating here. So would it be possible to have the same table, as there were not many tens and the family would really like to eat together?
The receptionist said it wasn’t easy as it was supposed to be ‘freedom dining’ with tables allocated as people arrived, but she said allocating the party to a table for ten when the party arrived might not be easy. She called over the restaurant manager and explained the problem. He leant over the computer keyboard, and a few clicks later said, “That’s done, you are on table 283 every night including tonight, but not for Christmas and New Year as a special procedure will happen then. Table 283 is one of our most desirable tables, right at the back of the restaurant by the big glass windows. The children will love it, you watch the wake as it gets dark outside.” Paolo slipped both the manager and the receptionist a $20 note each and headed back to the cabin.
Outside his and the twins’ cabin doors were their suitcases, so first he took his and Jinnie’s into the cabin and lifted them onto the protective cover the steward had arranged on the bed. Then he got the twins’ cases and took them to the twins’ cabin via the communicating door, before returning to unlock his and Jinnie’s cases just as Jinnie, the twins and Izzy arrived back. The twins were full of how the Reef was bigger and better than the one on Britannia, but Jinnie started unpacking and Izzy went off to see if her and George’s cases had arrived. The twins decided that they would explore their parents’ wraparound balcony and watch the coaches arrive, bringing people from the airport, and the steel band play ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ again and again.
***
Jinnie had dug last year’s lanyards, for their key cards, out of the twins’ cases and the twins were proudly wearing them as the family left the ship and headed along the dockside towards the taxi rank. Willie looked up at the ship and asked, “Mummy, please will you take our photo by the ship, as no one at school will believe how big it is.” Willie and Millie had almost identical photos taken on their phones with the ship towering over them before everyone proceeded to the taxi queue. The taxi marshall whistled up a minibus, and they all piled in.
Paolo told the taxi driver they were going to the Continental Restaurant and the driver said, “OK, but I hope you have a reservation because that place is booked up for months.” Willie immediately jumped to his father’s defence saying, “Of course we have a booking, it’s Mummy’s restaurant.” The driver chuckled and drove off. The commissionaire was over to open the door the second the minibus pulled up, saying, “Good evening Dame Jinnie. It’s lovely to have you and the family back.” Willie turned to the driver and said, “I told you so.”
Lawrence ‘the greeter’ led them to their table, presented them all with a menu and said, “We have a special on this evening, roast cannon of lamb with redcurrant jelly, and I hear it is absolutely delicious.” “Thank you, Lawrence,” said Jinnie. “I might just try it, I do rather like roast lamb.” As usual, the twins started with tomato soup, and Jinnie said, “You two can have tomato soup every night on the ship, why don’t you try something else, there must be 20 starters to choose from.” Millie replied, “But we like tomato soup.”
Jinnie put her knife and fork down on her plate and said, “Lawrence was right, that was absolutely delicious, the lamb was perfect.” George joined in saying, “I agree, it was so good.” Before anyone else could speak, the maître d’ arrived at Jinnie’s elbow and said, “Excuse me, Dame Jinnie, may I interrupt you for a moment. It’s about those 3 men dining over there.” Looking where he was indicating, Jinnie asked, “Is there a problem, Simon?”
“Not at all, Ma’am, it’s quite the opposite,” said Simon. “They have eaten here four times in the last fortnight and have been highly complimentary. But I have become aware they are Americans and are seeking out locations for a big-budget film with several big names in it. They asked if it would be possible for one or two of the stars to be able to dine here. I understand they are likely to be filming here for up to six months. Of course, I said we would be happy to accommodate them. You know we always have a couple of spare tables for VIPs who expect a table without booking, and we can always sell any unused capacity to our waiting list. But they have been looking for other things, like accommodation. I think that will be Sandy Bay. But they were just complaining to me about there being no one on the island doing film and TV catering. You know the sort of thing, a couple of big trucks with kitchens and lift-up sides to serve from, an old bus with tables for when it’s wet, otherwise awnings over tables. Doing big cooked breakfasts, decent lunch, cake at teatime, tea and coffee all day. I wondered if your catering business would be interested.”
“Well, it’s certainly interesting to me,” said Jinnie. “I wondered how many films are made on the island, would it be worth the investment.” “It’s not just films but TV shows,” said Simon. “I think there is something going on most days, and maybe you could use the trucks for things like garden parties, weddings and carnival.” “I hadn’t thought about that,” said Jinnie. “Now you mention it, I’m sure we could make a business case. Where are they in their meal?” “They have only just ordered, so they are well behind you,” said Simon. “I can organise it so that they are still here when you finish.” “Excellent,” replied Jinnie. “Can you do that? I’m going to phone Jorja and hopefully she can get here quickly, and we can do a very quick pitch to them.”
***
Not just Jorja, but Sebastian as well, had got to the Continental in double quick time. The family had gone back to the ship and Jinnie, Jorja and Sebastian had sat in the manager’s office and discussed the ideas over coffee. They agreed that they would like to have a try at getting the business of supplying the film crew but had no idea of costs.
Jinnie said, “OK, that’s agreed. We pitch our ability to them, our capabilities as a group. We admit that we don’t have a film catering business, but we are willing to start one. Let’s provisionally call it Bearcat Outdoors Catering, especially for them. We tell them we need to work out the costs. We would need some idea of the numbers we are being asked to cater for, the various meals, breakfast, lunch, tea, the length of time the contract will be for. Then, of course, the sort of food we would be supplying – international, local West Indian, American, vegetarian, vegan. Once we get them to go away and write us a specification, we have time to look at acquiring the equipment, trucks, bus, support vehicles, somewhere to garage them, etc. Once we can cost what they specify, we can tender. But I don’t want you to try to recover all the set-up costs on the first contract. Let’s spread the costs over, say, five years. Any questions? Right then, let’s go and pitch Bearcat Outdoors Catering.”
***
Jinnie led the other two over to the three men who were still drinking their post-dinner coffee. “Good evening, gentlemen,” said Jinnie. “I wonder if we can have a few minutes of your time. I am Dame Jinnie de Luca, and I am the Managing Director of the British restaurant and catering group, TT SuperBurger. Among other things, we own this restaurant. My colleagues run our Bajan catering and events subsidiary, Bearcat Catering (Caribbean). Now, I understand you are looking for a film catering company and I’ll be perfectly straight with you, we don’t currently have one in the group, but I firmly believe we have all the skills in the group to supply whatever you want. We are willing to set up Bearcat Outdoors Catering as a subsidiary of Bearcat Catering and quote against your specification.”
“You own this restaurant?” asked the man who was clearly the head of the three. “Not exactly,” said Jinnie. “But I am Managing Director of the company that owns this restaurant and its sister restaurants on other Caribbean islands, Canada and, opening soon, in Florida. We have a very similar brand in the UK and Ireland called Trattoria Trevi and several of them have Michelin stars.” “I ate in Trattoria Trevi in Manchester, it was fabulous, and this restaurant runs it very close,” said the boss. “Tell me more about the group. What does your catering group do? Do you run other companies?”
Jinnie realised he was trying to get an idea of the size of the company he was dealing with and said, “Where should I start. TT SuperBurger Group currently has six operating divisions. SuperBurgers Limited, which has about 2,100 outlets in the UK, Ireland and Slovenia. TT FastFood, which has around 500 sandwich shops, 40 Sybaritic restaurants and a new donut production and shop business which at the moment has bakeries in Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica and, opening in the new year, London, and has about 30 Artisan shops, but is setting up to also sell through the sandwich shops.”
“Next comes the Fried Chicken Shop Division, Aunty JoJo’s Chicken Shacks,” said Jinnie. “We are in the middle of reorganising all the shops from various companies under Aunty JoJo’s (Worldwide), which is based in Tampa, Florida. There are currently subsidiaries in Florida, the U.K., Ireland, the Caribbean, Slovenia and Canada. We have just topped 450 outlets worldwide, but that is planned to increase dramatically in the next 12 months. We are growing fast, particularly in Canada, Florida, the Caribbean and the U.K., and I suspect we will be opening in Mexico and France next year.
“The next division is Dark Kitchens Limited,” continued Jinnie. “They have around 60 kitchen complexes in the U.K., Ireland, Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica. Most of the complexes have 12 kitchens, although the Caribbean ones tend to only have six, and the kitchens prepare delivery meals for the likes of SuperBurger and Continental Restaurants. Then we have a Construction Division that does all our internal construction work and refurbishment and fit-out work for third parties. Wright Refurbishment has subsidiaries in the Caribbean, Florida, Canada and Slovenia.
“Finally there is Trattoria Trevi Limited,” said Jinnie, “under which come the 53 individual TT Restaurants, and the 5 TT Continental Restaurants as two arms, TT Vineyards, TT Events, TT Kitchen Services and TT Ennios Hotels. We currently have 8 Ennios hotels open, our 9th hotel, in the Cotswolds, is opening in the new year and the 10th authorised, but I can’t tell you any more as purchasing discussions haven’t yet been finalised. I see Hotels becoming our next full division in the fullness of time.”
“We originally started the Events business in the U.K., where we do Christmas Party Events, both for private companies and public ticketed events, Wedding Parties and the like. We have just moved Bearcat Catering (Caribbean) under this reporting path, and Jorja here is the CEO and Sebastian the Development Director of the Caribbean side. So, we have set up two arms, Bearcat Commercial Catering and Bearcat Events. Now we are proposing a third, Bearcat Outdoors Catering. The company has only been in existence for six months, but the commercial arm has already secured four contracts to supply in-house catering to three businesses and a hospital. Events is currently running a nightly ticketed Christmas party for 350 people a night up until Christmas. We include a full Bajan Christmas dinner, entertainment over the meal, beer or wine with the meal, a DJ before and after the meal with dancing, a pay bar and a small funfair. It has proved remarkably popular and profitable. We are already looking at least two other islands next year. So, you can see we are a diverse group loosely based around food and accommodation. I know you will have questions, but can I just add we would dearly like to work with you on this project.”
“Thank you, Dame Jinnie,” said the boss. “Yes, I have a few questions, and I expect my colleagues have as well, but I’ll kick things off. I have heard of Ennios Hotels, in fact we are staying at the Ennios St James and have found it excellent, and I have eaten at a Trattoria Trevi, but I didn’t know they belonged to the same group. In fact, I have never heard of the TT SuperBurger Group. Did you keep a deliberately low profile?” “Not really,” replied Jinnie. “It’s just that we are a private company owned equally by seven of the main board directors. We came together as a group when the privately owned Trattoria Trevi took over the publicly owned SuperBurger, forming a new private company. Dark Kitchens Limited was already a 50/50 owned subsidiary of the two companies, so it simply became a division of the new company. DKL owned Wright Refurbishment, but it had grown so big it made perfect sense to turn it into another division.”
“So just how big is the group?” asked one of the others. Jinnie thought for a moment before replying, “I don’t think my colleagues are aware of this as the annual numbers will not be published officially until the end of January, but I know we turned over £1 billion last financial year. That’s about $1.29 billion. I can’t tell you what the profit was, but needless to say it will be substantial. We will pay a load of tax, but we retain and reinvest a lot of the profit to grow the company organically. None of the directors is looking to take a massive dividend, as a private company we are not under pressure to continually pay a bigger dividend. We are all paid well, and we pay our employees above-average wages and run a bonus scheme based on profits. We pride ourselves on never having had a strike. Our employees are free to join a union, but few feel the need to do so.”
The last question was, “How soon could you have a business ready?” Jinnie looked at Jorja and Sebastian, who whispered together before Jorja said, “Obviously we would have to order trucks and fit them out, hire staff and agree costs and sign contracts to offer a full service. But I think we could get something interim up and running in a day or two. We would buy a load of chairs and tables, crockery and cutlery at a DIY store, put awnings over them and get our colleagues at DKL, Aunty JoJo’s and Artisan Donuts to deliver the food and put it out on big platters on a row of trestle tables. That way we could offer a full range of food including burgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, jerk chicken, rotis, fish and some of the simpler dishes from the Continental delivery menu, like roast meats, pasta, soups and desserts.” “Now that works for me,” said the boss.
In Chapter 3 – The cruise begins
© WorthingGooner 2025
