T&T chefs share their secrets

Haute cuisine meets sweet T&T flavours. This was T&T Culinary Team’s recipe for emerging as the overall winners of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s Taste of the Caribbean 2011 Culinary Competition for the fifth time. T&T won the Competition in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009, more than any other country in the region. The Competition was held this year at the Hyatt Regency in Miami, Florida from June 22 to 26. The T&T Guardian sat down with the eight winning chefs last Wednesday to discuss their sweet recipe for success and how a little bit of T&T found it’s way into their cuisine at the Movie Towne Conference Centre, Invaders Bay. The team consisted of six chefs including Raymond Joseph, the head chef for the Marriot Courtyard, and two bartenders Danyiel Jones and alternative Abiola Jules. Chef of the Year Gold medal winner and chef at Chaud restaurant, Devon Joseph said all recipes included local ingredients and cooking methods indigenous to T&T. One of Joseph’s winning recipes was smoked beef, the beef however was not smoked with chipped pine as it is normally done. Joseph used local tonka bean and balata wood to smoke his meat, giving it a rich flavour. Joseph said the teams goal was to see “how best we could take Caribbean flavours and bring it up to Haute Cuisine.”

Bronze medal winner in the beef category, Courtyard Marriot chef Jeremy Lovell wowed judges with stew beef served with provisions and a mango chow. Junior Chef of the Year silver medalist, Hyatt sushi chef, Ryan Bailey turned the everyday dumpling into a gourmet treat, by stuffing it with zesty pepper jack cheese and serving it with tropical spiced pan seared chicken. Team Captain Raymond Joseph said: “We infused traditional local flavours into gourmet cuisine to put a Trini spin in each dish.” Joseph credited the teams success not only their natural talent but to the hard work and dedication each chef put in before leaving for the competition. He said before departing, each chef worked on three concepts, so no matter what they were faced with on the day, they knew what to do with it. In the bartending category, Danyiel Jones, owner of Martini Makers, dominated with four wins. Jones was named first place winner in the Vodka, Rum and Best Cocktail categories and walked away with gold in the Mystery Bar category.

He said the use of local ingredients helped his drinks stand out from the rest. Jones said for example, in the rum category, he used mauby and in the unusual creative category used shadon beni. The T&T Culinary teams represented the strength us Trinbagions have every time we enter the kitchen, that strength being our local flavours combined with creativity. To celebrate the team’s success a gala reception was held last Wednesday at the Carousel Room of the MovieTowne Banquet and Conference Centre. In attendance were Tourism Ministry PS Melba Dedier; Tourism Minister Dr Rupert Griffith; Restaurants & Tourism Association president Michelle Palmer-Keizer; T&T Hospitality and Tourism Institute Executive Director Pat Butcher; competition judge Debra Sardinha-Metivier; Bernadette Nathaniel; and, Kapok’s Diane Cohen-Chan. In recognition of Team T&T’s continued success in this competition, Minister Griffith disclosed that the Ministry of Tourism is awarding two scholarships, tenable at the T&T Hospitality Institute in the sum of $10,000 per year over a three-year period.

Results

• Seafood Mystery Basket Competition - Bronze Medal - Adrian Cumberatch
• Beef Mystery Basket Competition - Bronze Medal - Jeremy Lovell
• Pastry Chef of the Year Competition - Silver Medal - Cheryl-Ann Shortt-Charles
• Bartender Competition - Vodka Category - First Place - Danyiel Jones
• Bartender Competition - Rum Category - First Place - Danyiel Jones
• Bartender Competition - Best Cocktail - First Place - Danyiel Jones
• Bartender Competition - Mystery Bar Category - Danyiel Jones
• Junior Chef of the Year Competition - Silver Medal - Ryan Bailey
• Chef of the Year Competition - Gold Medal - Devon Joseph
• Team of the Year Competition - Gold Medal

Taste of the Caribbean Criteria

The competition takes place over four days with individual and team competitions. In the individual competitions, chefs must prepare dishes from items in a mystery basket. Categories include seafood, beef, junior chef and pastry. In the team competitions, teams must prepare an entire fine dining experience—appetiser, entree and dessert. Their meal is then critiqued by a panel of judges. In the bar tending category, bartenders must prepare a variety of drinks. They are judged on their bartending skills, personality, tastes of their drinks and creativity.