Chef Tim Tibbitts was born in Nassau, Bahamas and raised in Canada where he started cooking in the early 90's.  Schooled at George Brown College's culinary apprenticeship program where he learned the basics which he applied first under the guidance of his mentor, Chef Roger Genoe.  This point in his career gave him the respect for great ingredients and technique which is still the hallmark of his style.  After many years of working through the ranks of small high end restaurants outside the Toronto area he took a position as sous chef at Deer Ridge Country Club in Kitchener Ontario.  There under guidance of Chef Mathew Brook he began his education on the business of food; learning the business side of the restaurants and food service proved to be a tough challenge as it does for many chefs.  But through many years of work with Chef Brook, first at Deer Ridge and then at The Cutten Club in Guelph Ontario, he discovered he could take things into his own hands.  This brought the opportunity to return to his homeland to take on a new challenge.  In 2007, Chef Tim opened East-Fine Asian Cuisine in Freeport Bahamas with his wife Rebecca as General Manager .  The restaurant quickly gained popularity and an impeccable reputation for world class food and service.  It remains the top restaurant in Freeport.  In December of 2009, Tim and Rebecca decided to begin their own company specializing in in-house catering and food & wine education.   They bring another dining option to the residents and businesses of Freeport.  They also are pursuing another restaurant venture.  In his spare time, Tim spends as much time as possible in or on the water. 

Rebecca Tibbitts graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor's degree in Criminology, but having spent half of her life working in a restaurant, she decided food and beverage was the direction in which she should stay. Inspired by learning, training and development courses and the International Sommelier Guild seemed the natural next step for Rebecca and with that, she delved into a new and exciting sector of the food and beverage industry. Naturally loving the business, Rebecca has worked in food service in Nova Scotia and Ontario before making the move to Freeport, Bahamas. The move to Bahamas started with the opening of East- Fine Asian Cuisine in Freeport. Rebecca and her husband were the creative force behind the success of the restaurant for 2 years until they decided to begin their own adventure with 99/1 Food Service Management. Rebecca hopes that her thirst for learning and knowledge will excite the Freeport diners into sharing her passion.

We have had a lot of questions as to the meaning of 99/1: 

There are several meanings to this name; the long and the short of the first meaning is our favorite wine: Tawse Winery, Niagara, Ontario made a wine in 2005 that stood out as a very important wine.  There was an ammendment to the rules on importing grapes into Niagara as it was a bad season and most wineries had no harvest to produce any wine without blending grapes.  While Mr. Tawse had always been a supporter of local grapes and local wines, many wineries around him were increasingly producing wines from cheaply imported grapes.  Tawse went to a premier cru winery in Burgundy to import his grapes- he used 99% Morey St Denis grapes and 1% his home grown Niagara grapes to make his Pinot Noir wine for 2005 and called it 99/1.  He also sold this wine at cost.   This wine stood out to us as a commitment to quality and as a choice to stand on one's moral ground when others around you might not be doing the same.

One of Tim's most mentoring chefs, Roger Genoe, ventured out to create his own restaurant and called it One Ninety Nine.  This signified the address in Orangeville, Ontario for his restaurant.  We decidedly believed it was fate that our company be called 99/1, our tribute to Roger.

Albert Einstein is known for his quote on genius: "Genuis is 1% talent and 99% percent hardwork...".  We hope maybe our talent pool is a bit higher!

Finally, we are 99% owners of our company and proud to be working for ourselves.