In 1974 Armando Chang and his wife opened the first Chon Saan Restaurant on Douglas Jones Street. It was a small family restaurant then but today 34 years later Chon Saan is one of the biggest names in restaurants. It now has three locations, one on Kelly Street and another on Euphrates Avenue in Belize City and a third restaurant in Belmopan – with a combined staff of 50. But the most famous of the Chon Saans is the palace on Kelly Street. It is probably Belize’s biggest restaurant, and if not it certainly has the largest menu – a combination of size and scale which surely makes its kitchen Belize’s busiest. And more than that, it’s probably the only restaurant where you can get fried chicken with pepper and extra ketchup, while the table beside you dines on spicy octopus and Szechwan squid.

And so tonight, to launch a new series called “7 on the inside”– we’ll take you into the kitchen at Chon Saan Palace which is unlike any kitchen you’ve probably ever seen. Keith Swift has the story.

Keith Swift Reporting,
The building is a behemoth but its hulkish exterior, speaks nothing of the culinary conjuring and precision that happens inside. And this is the side of Chon Saan you don’t know - the kitchen. If it looks like an assembly line in a factory – that is because Lee Mark Chang says it is.

Lee Mark Chang, Manager – Chon Saan Palace
“In here is filled with smoke because the exhaust is trying to pull out the smoke and it is all noise. All the fire blowing, the exhaust fan, the hustle and bustle. So it gets really busy in here at certain times. We have a chain of command, a line, where everybody knows what they are supposed to do whenever certain orders come in. So every thing goes according to process.”

At any given time more than 15 workers are a part of that process in the kitchen: dicing, chopping, saut̩ing, frying, and serving Рanything from your regular fry chicken and fries, to river lobster, squid, and maybe even a fresh catch.

Lee Mark Chang,
“We have two sections in the kitchen, we have the fry section and we have the stir fry section. And they would come either or. If the stir fry also includes the steam, like when we have the steam whole fish or the steam river lobster, everything will come over this side and everything will be prepared on these tables behind me.”

Little is said but much work is done. Everyone knows their role like Adelma Alvarez – the washer.

Adelma Alvarez, ‘The Washer’
“My job is usually to wash out but when I don’t have anything to do I help chop chicken.”

Keith Swift,
What is like for you?

Adelma Alvarez,
“Good.”

Keith Swift,
How many chickens do you cut a day?

Adelma Alvarez,
“About 800 pounds.”

Keith Swift,
Is it fun?

Adelma Alvarez,
“It is fun yes.”

Meet 22 year old Rufino Chiac - the kitchen assistant.

Rufino Chiac, ‘The Kitchen Assistant’
“My job is the kitchen assistant. I chop chicken, sometimes I fry chicken back there.”

Keith Swift,
How long have you worked here?

Rufino Chiac,
“Three and a half years. We have to rush. Sometimes orders pop up and we have to rush.”

Keith Swift,
How many chicken you cut up a day?

Rufino Chiac,
“It depends, it is a lot of us. Every two days we get between 600 and 700 pounds of chicken.”

Keith Swift,
Do you ever get tired of cutting up chicken?

Rufino Chiac,
“Dis da fu we job.”

And chances are that the chicken Rufino chops up will end up in Kevin Leiva’s frying pot. Meet the fryer.

Kevin Leiva, The Fryer
“I fry chicken. Anything consisting of frying – it is my job that. Anything which needs to be fried, I have to fry it. I recently started, I’ve been here for four months now. Other than that everything is okay. Right now it is slow hours but rush hours is excitement, excitement.”

Keith Swift,
What is the best part about the job?

Kevin Leiva,
“Well you get to eat when you want.”

It is work Lee Mark Chang knows all too well. He now manages Chon Saan Palace but isn’t exempt from kitchen duties. He is as meticulous and multi-talented in the kitchen as he is in business. He can make a mean plate of chicken chop suey and personally does special orders like this one, where a customer requested these two groupers fresh from the aquarium.

It was an easy catch but in the kitchen there was a mad dash to prepare the fish in 15 minutes. Lee Mark first clubbed the thrashing fish, and then he gutted them and then scaled them. They were then sliced and seasoned with a special sauce. Flour was added and then the pair of groupers were tossed in the fryer. A few minutes later they were taken out and arranged on a platter – and lunch was served.

It is all in a day’s work for Lee Mark Chang who inherited the restaurant from his father Armando Chang.

Armando Chang, Founder of Chon Saan
“In 1974 I start on Douglas Jones Street.”

Keith Swift,
Did you ever think it would get this big?

Armando Chang,
“Yes because me and my wife worked hard. We worked everyday to improve it.”

Keith Swift,
Is it hard work?

Armando Chan,
“Restaurant is very hard work, no rest. Everyday you work from morning to night.”

But now that responsibility falls on the lap of the younger Chang – Lee Mark.

Lee Mark Chang,
“Everything is cooked from scratch. As you see right here earlier every thing is prepared when ordered and then cooked. Nothing is cooked beforehand.”

Keith Swift,
This is hard work Lee Mark.

Lee Mark Chang,
“Yes I know, tell me about it. It is hard work, very demanding, and it kills my social life.”

But it is Lee Mark’s, Rufino, and Adelma, and Kevin’s jobs. So while you eat, they work because whether it’s your typical fried chicken or exotic fresh fried grouper, Belizeans have got to eat and they want it fast and that’s how they serve it up from inside Belize’s busiest kitchen.

Chon Saan opens 11 in the morning and closes 11:30 at night. And the new series which will air b-weekly on 7NEWS will take you inside a place or an operation that you may take for granted but whose inner working have their own compelling story. If you have any ideas for something you’d like to see the inside of, send your mails to tvseven@btl.net.