Live Local, with Cavel Mattison
Cavel Mattison, showing off a freshly cooked meal.
Cavel Mattison is a remarkable person. She’s a testament to the fact that staying true to your roots and working hard at something you love is a sure-fire way to create a fulfilling life. She’s an extraordinary figure in our community today, and it’s because she cares deeply about connecting food systems and people. Which is all the more surprising given the fact that she didn’t grow up on island. Cooking has always been a huge part of her life, and it’s a passion she shares with as many people as she can. “They say cooking is one of the love languages,” she told me, “and that’s certainly true for me.”
Mattison grew up a long way from Nantucket, in the misty hills of Manchester, Jamaica. An hour and a half drive west of Kingston, Manchester Parish is one of the most lush and mountainous parishes in Jamaica. The soil is dark and fertile and the climate is perfect for growing food. Mattison’s family took full advantage of the acreage they lived on. “We had six acres of land, most of which we grew root vegetables,” she remembered. “Potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains, beans, peas, ginger, coffee, cocoa, bananas of all different kinds. We had six different varieties of papayas, there were rows of pineapples, trees filled with oranges.”
Cavel with her grandmother and cousin.
Manchester, Jamaica.
Her family wasn’t rich, by any means, but the land they lived on produced an abundance of food. Their household was Seventh Day Adventist, a Protestant Christian denomination that promotes the importance of eating healthy food. The women around her were fantastic cooks, and she was exposed to the importance and joy of nourishing your body with locally grown meat and vegetables. Her grandmother and aunts taught her to study where food came from, and to honor it.
“My grandmother used to tell me that when you nourish your body, you nourish your mind,” Mattison said. “It was very important to eat well. They were sticklers when it came to feeding our family. One of my aunts in particular, she cared about the tiniest little details — how the carrots looked in the soup, if was julienned when it would have looked better cubed. Attention to detail was very important, as they believed you also ate with your eyes.”
That mindset stuck with her, and it wasn’t just their family they fed. Since they were able to grow a surplus of food on those six acres, every Friday Mattison and her grandmother would pack large baskets full of their surplus fruits and vegetables and deliver them to young single mothers in the parish.
“We would go down to the farmers market. There were over 150 vendors,” she remembered fondly. “It was huge. The market they had there would span the entirety of lower main street on island, from the steps of the bank all the way down to the bulkhead by the wharf.”
As the years went on, cooking became a clear part of who she was. Food, the importance of its origins, and having a connection with it, was integral to her being. She cooked for friends, family the church pastor — anyone who wanted or needed a meal. In high school and college, she was one of the top food and nutrition students in high school and college.
When she was 18, she left home to strike out on her own. She was tired of the pressures of living in an extremely religious household and ended up in the coastal town of Ocho Rios, a much busier, tourism-based town on Jamaica’s north coast. Although it was a very different place than the small town country upbringing she was used to, she enjoyed the hustle and bustle of it. She bounced from position to position at a few larger hotels and got her full hotel training certificate from Ciboney. Everything was looking up and her career was on track — until it wasn’t.
Cibony was bought out by Sandals, a conglomerate resort buyer. Mattison was let go in the restructuring process, and her life hit a very big speed bump. “I was back at home for six months, really depressed,” she said. “It was the first time since age 16 that I’d not been working.”
Cavel’s first passport photo, at eighteen years old.
But all her hard work over the years hadn’t gone unnoticed. One day, a friend called her with some extraordinary news: they had both been selected and recommended by the hotel to the local embassy for a visa program to work in the United States. While she was ecstatic about the opportunity, she knew it would mean she would have to leave her new infant daughter. “I’m not a pessimist, but I am a realist,” she said. “I never dreamt of coming to America because I didn’t have family or friends here.”
Soon, she had locked down a job at the Jared Coffin House, so that April, Mattison said goodbye to her 16-month-old daughter and boarded a plane bound for Boston and a whole new life.
It was a typical, volatile day when she landed. Stormy, with a cutting wind that chilled her to her bones. Within a few hours she was in Hyannis, climbing the aluminum platform to the slow boat. It was a packed boat for one reason or another, and the only available seat was right by the drafty door. “It was grey and bumpy over the ocean,” she laughed. “We couldn’t see anything. I felt like I was going to Alcatraz.”
Cavel at the Jared Coffin House, 2001.
The Jared Coffin House put her up in a duplex on Orange Street, along with a few other Jamaican immigrants. For the next five years, she worked seasonally as a desk and reservations clerk in the summers, then traveled back home to Jamaica to be with her daughter in the winters. By 2006, her daughter and her daughter’s father were able to migrate to the States.
Mattison’s work ethic didn’t diminish when she came here. If anything, she worked harder. She was a babysitter, a house cleaner, a barista at The Bean, she waited tables at The Even Keel Cafe, worked catering gigs all over the island, and was waking up before the sun to work for Daily Breads. Her persistence paid off, and she became a US citizen. That’s when she started to live and work on island all year around.
Naturally, she dealt with the“Nantucket shuffle,” bouncing from one housing arrangement to the next, and she met a lot of interesting people in the process. One of the more notable living arrangements she found herself in was with the son of a commercial fisherman, which, in a round about way, led her back to her roots in cooking.
“I connected with new people through food,” she explained. “I learned a lot about the local seafood industry from those new friends. We would go out on their boat and catch scup and black seabass. Then we would anchor up at Coatue, and I’d fry up the fresh fish for them in peanut oil.”
Local mackerel, cooked on a wood fire by Cavel.
Cavel was inspired to seek out any type of local food she could get her hands on. She discovered scallops, oysters, bluefish, mackerel, redfish and other seafood from local seafood markets and through buying them direct from the fishermen down at the docks. She came across local deer meat from the island’s many hunters.
She became dedicated to learning where to forage for wild blueberries, beach plums, and concord grapes. More importantly, she made friends everywhere she went and further connected with her island community. “I would always cook and share that food with new friends. I’d put classic twists on my Grandmother’s staple Jamaican dishes, using local ingredients.”
For the next decade, Mattison worked at Nantucket Island Resorts. She quickly became one of their top selling rooms reservations agents & pre-arrival concierges. Part of her job was making dinner reservations for people, and they would come back and share their dinner experiences with her. “It piqued my interest in the restaurants, so I tried to go to every one I could,” she said. “I quickly realized how many amazing chefs there are cooking with local ingredients, and just how much of a melting pot Nantucket is. People from all different backgrounds are in those kitchens, cooking up some of the most fantastic cuisine from all over the world.”
By this point, Mattison was definitely a gal about town. People knew who she was. She was inspiring many people with her Instagram, posting photos of deliciously cooked meals using local ingredients. She soon became somewhat of a “foodie figure” on the island, and in 2017, her status as someone passionate about food and community caught the eye of Amy Zielinski, the then Executive Director of Sustainable Nantucket. Zielinski had an offer for her she couldn’t refuse.
Cavel, during her time as Sustainable Nantucket’s market manager.
“She said, ‘I know you’re passionate about food, and you know a lot of people through your love of hospitality. I think you would make an amazing farmers market manager,’” Mattison recalled. “It was then that I thought of my grandmother and the farmers market we went to so often. How her love of food and nourishment connected our family with our community. I could feel myself returning to my roots as the granddaughter of a woman who farmed six acres of land in Jamaica.”
She’s as passionate about farmers markets as she is about food. Over the next two years, she felt her passion for food and community come full circle. “It was such an amazing thing to see sixty-something small business owners and farmers doing such amazing things on their own,” she said. “The skill sets are beautiful. There are things there that you can get that you cant get anywhere else. There are people down there showcasing passion. Just imagine if everyone championed that, and breathed life into it. I’d like to see more of it for our community.”
She connected with 100 Mile Makers, an organization championing sourcing food as locally as possible, playing a large role in connecting people to ways they could find food grown or produced here on island. In 2019, she spearheaded Sustainable’s local food festival. Utilizing her connection with chefs, farmers, fishmongers, growers and foragers, she organized and executed the festival, which she aptly named Culture on a Plate.
Eat with your eyes, indeed. One of many beautiful culinary creations by Cavel.
“I had a bunch of chefs that I reached out to that attended it,” she said. It was powerful for me. I’ve always wanted to plan a food festival, especially being Jamaican, and being an immigrant. It felt so amazing. It was a big goal for me personally, from both a culinary and community standpoint.”
After two years with Sustainable Nantucket, Mattison was in high demand on island. Just as they had all those years ago in Jamaica, her talents were being noticed. The Westmoor Club offered her a job as their new House Manager, and she returned to the fast-paced world of hospitality. Food, however, is still a huge part of her life and she’s still tapping into her passion for it and community. She continues to offer food consultation services, helping local growers and distributors connect with Nantucket’s community, fostering the systems and conversation for a stronger local food system.
“If I can help nourish the island in any way, I’ll continue to do that,” she concluded. “It’s something I believe in. Community is important, especially on Nantucket. People have been good to me and shown me respect, and I think we should all do the same.”
Follow Cavel on instagram, @caviarandhighheels
