Chef of the Year contest set for October
The heat will be on in October of this year when many of the nation's leading kitchen maestros take part in the St. Kitts and Nevis Hotel and Tourism Association's Chef of the Year competition. Also at stake will be places on the team representing the country at next year's Caribbean Hotel Association's Taste of the Caribbean competition. The HTA contest will be held on October 24 in the Kitchens of the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant School of Hospitality Studies and Culinary Arts. The CHTA showdown will be held at that association's annual conference in June 2008.
The chefs will have two hours to create their culinary masterpieces at the HTA event. And, until it starts at 10 a.m., they won't know what ingredients they'll be working with. Each chef will be given a "mystery basket" consisting mainly of local produce, and each of the baskets will be different.
The chefs will have an hour to assess the ingredients, decide what to do with them and write down their menu and method of preparation. They'll have another hour to do the actual cooking, and will be asked to present a meal for four.
~~Adz:Right~~ Pastry chefs in the competition will have an extra two hours to work with. Says Michael Head, manager of the HTA: "The goals of this competition are to raise the standards of Caribbean food excellence and professionalism, to promote camaraderie and education opportunities among chefs and to act as a staging area for development of service and presentation."
The event will be open to the public, who will be invited to sample the chefs' creations in the hotel ballroom after the judges have delivered their verdict. Ticket prices have not been set, but Head expects them to be around EC$20.
Head also says that while the competition is open to all chefs working in St. Kitts and Nevis, the six-man team at next year's CHTA Taste of the Caribbean finals will include at least three nationals. Adds Head: "We're really encouraging local chefs to take part in the competition. We firmly believe we've produced some of the finest chefs in the entire Caribbean, and we want to prove it on the big stage next year."
