Photo By Sgt. Tayler Schwamb | Yuriko Simpson, left, and Miles Simpson, second from left, prepare a to-go box for a...... read more read more
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CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan— Food and game vendors lined the parking lot, creating a maze of mesmerizing sights and sounds as savory smells of both Japanese and American food wafted throughout the Foster Festival. One of these vendors stood out from the rest, offering Jamaican style cuisine instead of the typical funnel cakes or yakisobu.
Retired Staff Sgt. Fredrick I. Simpson prepared and sold Jamaican jerk food from his stand, coined 2 Jerks, with his high school best friend and business partner, Jamie Gibson, April 23 at the festival aboard Camp Foster.
The Camp Foster Friendship Festival is an annual event that allows Okinawa residents to come on base to enjoy an assortment of American and Japanese food, games and music. The festival presented an opportunity for Marines to get to know and exchange cultures with the community members as well as giving Simpson a chance to follow his dreams.
Simpson’s whole cooking career was jumpstarted by a fun sized grill at a Marine Corps Community Service festival on Okinawa and one simple suggestion.
“I was at a barbecue and there was a little kid’s birthday party at the Kinser pool,” said Simpson. “One of my friends, Gunnery Sgt. Charles Weatherly, was there and about halfway through, Weatherly introduced me to Gunnery Sgt. Albert Carrasco. Weatherly said, ‘You both cook! You should get a booth together at the upcoming festival and run a little stand.’”
Simpson and Carrasco ran with the idea.
“So we rented one booth,” said Simpson. “We were so small time that we didn’t know what to do. I had this tiny little grill and my line was a mile long. Everyone was getting mad at each other. We even ran out of chicken. It was crazy. I had never done anything like that before. So we learned from our mistakes and from our victories and we came back again and again. Eventually we were so big that we were each holding our own stand.”
Simpson and Carrasco were able to share parts of their culture through food with a diverse crowd because of the festival. As Simpson grilled Jamaican jerk chicken, Carrasco tossed together tacos and people ate it up.
As people walked around and tried various foods from different stands, Simpson found that his food was a hit. The positive feedback fueled his motivation to open his own little shack. After another year and another successful festival, Simpson called his best friend back home and said,
“I’m going to do it.”
“Do what?” asked Gibson.
“I’m going to start my own business and I am going to call it the Jerk Shack,” said Simpson.
“What are your other options?”
“2 Jerks.”
“2 Jerks from Chicago? Me and you?”
Once Gibson finished recalling the conversation he explained that Simpson just laughed in response because they were always joking about how they were just two jerks from Chicago and it stuck.
The term jerk refers to the method of food preparation which requires the chef to poke holes into the meat repeatedly so the flavor is easily absorbed. Jerk spice is commonly known as the Jamaican jerk spice and refers to a spice rub.
“The Marine Corps gave him something that a lot of civilians don’t have, and that is the ability to just do and not overthink,” said Gibson. “I have my food truck in Chicago but when Simpson decided he wanted to do the same thing, he did what took me six years in about one. 2 Jerks is going to go anywhere it wants to. It has no boundaries because Simpson has no boundaries. We want the best of the best, so we decided to step up and make it happen.”
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.25.2017 22:31 |
| Story ID: | 231557 |
| Location: | OKINAWA, JP |
| Hometown: | CHICAGO, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 122 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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