TT triumphs at regional culinary competition

Team Trinidad and Tobago dominated the National Teams Category with a Gold Medal performance and the highest scores overall which earned honours as Caribbean National Team of the Year 2006. The team is composed of chefs Raymond Joseph, Bernard Long, Debbie Metivier, Tricia Oliveire, and Sabrina Rosales. This is the second overall win for Trinidad and Tobago, whose culinary team also garnered Team of the Year honours in 2004.

The top honour in mixology went to Paul Peterson, with the Saint Maarten / St Martin National Culinary Team, who earned the 2006 Caribbean Bartender of the Year. In the culinary competition, Chef Hans Van Triest, with the Curacao Culinary Team, was named 2006 Caribbean Chef of the Year, having scored the highest marks in the preliminary and final rounds of competition; meanwhile, Chef Tracy Sweeting, from the Bahamas National Culinary Team, swept the highest scores in patisserie, winning the 2006 Caribbean Pastry Chef of the Year Award.

Team awards, following the qualifying rounds of culinary competition, were presented as follows: Bronze Medal–Bonaire, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and United States Virgin Islands; Silver Medal - Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico; Gold Medal - Bahamas, Curaao, St Lucia, Sint Maarten / St Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago. Further, Team Bahamas received the Hans Schenk Commemorative Award for the Most Innovative Menu of the competition.

Special awards were also presented to Team Barbados – Spirit of the Competition; Sint Maarten / St Martin – Most Innovative Dish, Coconut Trilogy Dessert; Puerto Rico – Best Use of Certified Angus Beef, Ropa Vieja; and Trinidad and Tobago – Best Use of US Cheese, Roasted Cheese and Okra Choka.

Bartender medals were presented as follows: Bronze Medal – St Vincent and the Grenadines; Silver Medal – Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Curacao, Grenada, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago; Gold Medal – Bonaire, Sint Maarten / St Martin, and United States Virgin Islands.

Special awards in mixology were conferred to Steve Potter, United States Virgin Islands–Most Creative Vodka Drink, White Chocolate Espresso Martini; Thor Berntsson, Antigua and Barbuda – Most Creative Non-Alcohol Drink, Naked Mango; and St Lucia’s Barkus Henry – Most Creative Rum Drink – Oh, La-La. In addition, event sponsor Angostura also recognised Steve Potter of the USVI Team, for the Best Use of Angostura Bitters, with his Tomato Angostura Jam.

The competition brought 16 teams of chefs, who won local culinary contests in their home countries, to Taste of the Caribbean 2006, for qualifying rounds of “live kitchen” competition in which each team prepared a three-course meal for 35 persons in under four hours. The menu is designed from a ‘mystery basket’ of ingredients, whose contents are not revealed until the beginning of the competition.

Teams (in the preliminaries) and individuals from Gold Medal teams (who advanced to the finals) competed for point scores according to standards for professional competition set by the American Culinary Federation (ACF), not against each other.