BARBADOS HOTEL AND TOURISM ASSOCIATION (BHTA) assistant vice-president Michelle Smith-Mayers is urging Barbados to go after culinary tourism as a niche market.“We love food. We have a rich culinary heritage with the Irish, the English and other people who came to Barbados and contributed to what our cuisine is all about.”Speaking as the Barbados Culinary Team was training at Sandy Lane Hotel for the Taste Of The Caribbean Food Festival being held in Puerto Rico from September 9 to 12, Smith-Mayers remarked, “Barbados is very unique in the way that we season our food – that whole lime-and-salt marination that we do. Sometimes expatriate chefs say we put lime and salt on everything and we kill it.”But, Smith-Mayers countered, “That is how we do it. That is our flavour and we need not to be afraid of that.
We have so much to offer as a culinary destination already.” “There are so many things that we have existing in Barbados already as a culinary destination.” Smith-Mayers disclosed that the Epicurean Product Club would be doing a lot more in collaboration with the Barbados Tourism Authority, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association and the Tourism Development Corporation to push epicurean tourism.This club made up of volunteers drawn from the private and public sector tourism industry operates under the aegis of the BHTA. According to Smith-Mayers, introducing tasting and food trails is among the club’s marketing and product development initiatives. (GC)
