CHEFS RECEIVE A MYSTERY BASKET of food items from which they are expected to present a creative dish that excites the palate and meets the approval of discriminating judges with a keen sense of taste.
This is the Taste Of The Caribbean competition in which a Barbadian team will be competing in Miami this week, and they are looking for gold, hoping to beat out the other nine competing teams from aroundthe region.
The event, organized by the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association, is a celebration of Caribbean food and beverage.
Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) assistant executive vice-president Michelle Mayers speaks to the value of participation for young men and women in this specific area of the Barbadian hospitality industry.
Ever since Barbadians started participating in the regional competition, they have been bringing glory to the island year after year, winning medals and building a culinary reputationfor the island.
Participants go into competition following an intense period of practice, in which dishes are tried out on discerning palates in a series of gourmet lunches and dinners hosted by leading hotels and dining establishments.
The team prepares for a competition in which they are assigned a mystery basket from which a three-course meal consisting of appetizer, entrée and dessert must be developed within one hour and served to patrons within three hours.
Bartenders have 30 minutes to review the contents of a mystery bar and prepare a cocktail of their choice.
Young Barbadian chefs have been ingenious, setting aside traditional ways of preparing familiar dishes, infusing them with different herbs and spices. By so doing they have often introduced an entirely different flavour just by adding a seldom used herb to a dish, or by spiking a cocktail with pepper or some other tantalizing ingredient.
A finished dish invariably ends up being a new interpretation of Barbadian cuisine, and in the long term creates wider international appeal for Barbadian cuisine of a gourmet standard.
Participating in the competition forso many years, Barbadian chefs have managed to put local cuisine in the international spotlight, attracting the attention of the world’s foodies who now seek out the island to savour the culinary creativity in events like the annual Barbados Food & Wine andRum Festival.
Today, names like Peter Edey and John Hazzard figure prominently among accomplished Barbadian chefs benefiting from exposure to Taste Of The Caribbean. Both readily tell of the impact the experience has had on theircareer success.
Hazzard, twice winner of the Chef Of The Year award in the prestigious competition, said: “It has allowed me to be an entrepreneur, which I am right now. It has allowed me to think creatively in the use of Caribbean ingredients because it is only when I got involved in the competition that I started realizing that our local stuff can be used and done wonderful things with.
“Generally, everything I use now inall my cooking is all local ingredients.”
Mitchell Husbands is anotherChef Of The Year who, through the competition, has secured top positionsin other Caribbean hotel kitchens since being spotted participatingin Taste Of The Caribbean.
“It has driven me to excel in my everyday profession as a bartender, mixologist,” reports Jamaal Bowen, bartender training manager for Barbados’ 2013 team of competitors.
Team manager, executive chef Graham Licorish, who has been associated with Barbadian teams to Taste Of The Caribbean for about 20 years, believesthe competition is a good development tool for young chefs in Barbados.
“We have always felt chefs goingto the competition would come backwith a wealth of knowledge. They getthe opportunity to interact with a lot of their peers, they get the chance to interact with people who are sometimes more experienced than they are and it servesas a good avenue for learning.”
