The beach­es are fi­nal­ly re­opened and many Tri­nis are head­ing down to Mara­cas Bay for a re­fresh­ing bath and their first bite of long-await­ed fresh­ly made bake and shark. Lykael Ahye, own­er of Ha­vana Bake and Shark (for­mer­ly known as Mona’s Bake and Shark) is ready to wel­come all hun­gry Tri­nis back for the beach’s sig­na­ture dish. Lykael’s fam­i­ly have been fry­ing up bake and shark for over 50 years along the Mara­cas shore, treat­ing beach-go­ers to de­li­cious lo­cal cui­sine. De­spite the chal­lenges of 2020 af­fect­ing many small food busi­ness­es, Lykael is mo­ti­vat­ed now more than ever to con­tin­ue her fam­i­ly lega­cy of ex­cel­lent bake and shark with Trinidad and To­ba­go. Propa Eats sat down with Lykael to hear her sto­ry, goals and aspira­tions as she push­es for­ward as a young suc­cess­ful en­tre­pre­neur.

1) Who are you and tell me about your­self?

Hi, I am Lykael Ahye, I am a be­liev­er in Christ, a wife and a mom. I would de­scribe my­self as mo­ti­vat­ed and self-man­aged in the ar­eas I re­al­ly want to suc­ceed in.

2) How did you start mak­ing bake and shark?

Oh, this is a fun­ny sto­ry. Since I knew my­self, my Grand­moth­er (Mona John) has been sell­ing Bake & Shark on Mara­cas beach. My moth­er (Cheryl- Ann John) would of­ten as­sist her and some­times take me along to help. Boy, oh boy, I was nev­er hap­py about it and I al­ways re­mem­ber telling my­self that I do not want to ever sell Bake and Shark when I grow up. As fate would have it, twen­ty plus years lat­er, I am now here and very ex­cit­ed about the jour­ney ahead. Just a lit­tle back­sto­ry, Ha­vana Bake and Shark was for­mer­ly known as Mona’s Bake and Shark and has been on Mara­cas Beach for over 50 years. Back in Jan­u­ary of 2020 the busi­ness was re­brand­ed, and the team ex­pand­ed to in­clude my moth­er, my­self and my hus­band (Daniel Ahye)

3) De­scribe what is the per­fect bake and shark.

The per­fect bake and shark to me is a bake that’s not oily or too thick, soft with a lit­tle crunch. The shark sea­soned us­ing my grand­moth­er’s recipe which in­cor­po­rates some of our fresh lo­cal sea­son­ings.

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4) What are your favourite dress­ings for bake and shark?

My per­son­al fa­vorite dress­ings may not seem typ­i­cal to bake and shark lovers. I like to rel­ish in the sweet­ness of well-sea­soned shark, so for me all I need is a bit of pep­per sauce. If I had to add oth­er top­pings it would be gar­lic sauce fol­lowed by a lit­tle cab­bage sal­ad.

5) How do you feel about the beach­es re­open­ing?

We are look­ing for­ward to it. It was cer­tain­ly a grow­ing ex­pe­ri­ence piv­ot­ing to­wards de­liv­ery dur­ing the clo­sure of the beach­es, but now we are ex­cit­ed for the new nor­mal and the jour­ney ahead.

6) You can in­vite three peo­ple over for lunch, dead or alive. Who are they?

Prob­a­bly my late pa­ter­nal grand­moth­er who passed away al­most 10 years ago. Jim Rohn (de­ceased) has done much in the area of self-de­vel­op­ment and his work has served to be very im­pact­ful in my life. Last­ly, Farah Mer­hi, an in­te­ri­or dec­o­ra­tor whom I ad­mire. In­te­ri­or dec­o­rat­ing is one of my per­son­al pas­sions.

7) What’s your great­est ac­com­plish­ment in your ca­reer?

Per­son­al­ly, I would say be­ing able to car­ry on the lega­cy of my grand­moth­er’s busi­ness cou­pled with help­ing my mom ful­fill her dream. I nev­er saw this as some­thing I would be so pas­sion­ate about do­ing but it seems like every­thing I did pre­vi­ous­ly led me to this mo­ment.

8) De­scribe the biggest chal­lenge in your ca­reer thus far.

Oh that’s easy - Covid-19. Even though it is a re-brand it’s still a new busi­ness to my hus­band and my­self so it was def­i­nite­ly chal­leng­ing. But we trust in a God big­ger than our­selves, so we are sim­ply hap­py to be here post-covid.

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9) What mo­ti­vates you to per­sist in the com­pet­i­tive restau­rant in­dus­try?

This busi­ness is so much more to me be­cause it’s my grand­moth­er’s lega­cy. She was one of the first six ven­dors on Mara­cas beach. Over the years I have seen how hard my grand­moth­er and mom fought to keep this busi­ness alive and I am fu­eled by pas­sion to con­tin­ue in their foot­steps.

10) Where do you see your­self in 5 years?

In 5 years I hope to be a part of a beau­ti­ful team of per­sons who loves shar­ing the Ha­vana ex­pe­ri­ence with lo­cals and for­eign­ers alike.

11) Any ad­vice for up and com­ing chefs?

I think this ad­vice would work for any­one. No mat­ter what your dreams or goals are in life, you need to push for­ward be­yond the nay Say­ers. I per­son­al­ly think most dreams die be­fore they are even born be­cause we are afraid of what oth­ers may think. Once you can over­come that hur­dle, have clear­ly de­fined goals, and put in the work - why can’t you suc­ceed? Al­ways re­mem­ber life is su­per short so do not take it too se­ri­ous­ly. One of my favourite quotes is “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great” Zig Ziglar. Start and see where the jour­ney takes you.