While liv­ing with his grand­moth­er in Grena­da, chef Dex­ter Bur­ris was on­ly nine years old when he de­vel­oped his pas­sion for cook­ing. He re­calls as a young child, his old­er sib­lings did most of the wash­ing and clean­ing while he con­cen­trat­ed on "one pot" meals of ei­ther fish broth or oil down. Like any­where else in the world, life can some­times be chal­leng­ing and to young Bur­ris, this did not go un­no­ticed. As he grew old­er, Bur­ris soon re­alised that the vil­lagers did not have much to eat. So what did he do? When­ev­er he had ex­tra mon­ey, he made a pot of food for them.

For Bur­ris, it was these child­hood ex­pe­ri­ences that laid the foun­da­tion for the per­son he has be­come.

It mo­ti­vat­ed him to do his best and it was the fu­el he need­ed to pur­sue his dreams. To­day, Bur­ris is the head chef at the lux­u­ri­ous and ex­clu­sive Cal­abash Ho­tel in Grena­da-home of the world-renowned Gary Rhodes Restau­rant. He is among sev­er­al chefs in­vit­ed to be part of Taste T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Culi­nary Fes­ti­val 2011 which takes place at the Jean Pierre Com­plex and Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Port-of-Spain at the end of Oc­to­ber, and host­ed by the Tourism De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny.

Chef Bur­ris' sto­ry cer­tain­ly adds cre­dence to the fact that Caribbean peo­ple pos­sess a unique spir­it-one of de­ter­mi­na­tion and a com­mit­ment to beat the odds. A strong fam­i­ly up­bring­ing al­so can­not go un­no­ticed, as is the case of chef Roan Hyl­ton from Ja­maica. He will al­so be tak­ing part in the event and is look­ing for­ward to shar­ing his knowl­edge of the culi­nary in­dus­try. Hyl­ton is the sous chef at the Half Moon Re­sort, which is among the top con­tenders for the cov­et­ed ti­tle of Caribbean's Lead­ing Ho­tel in the 2011 World Trav­el Awards. "Cook­ing and cre­at­ing new dish­es have al­ways been my pas­sion," he said in an in­ter­view. This affin­i­ty to the kitchen was ob­vi­ous, even as a child.

From as young as ten years old, Hyl­ton was in charge of prepar­ing meals for his younger sib­lings. He re­called, "When­ev­er my moth­er was late in re­turn­ing home from work, I au­to­mat­i­cal­ly knew it was my re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­vide a warm meal for my sis­ters and broth­ers, and this I did hap­pi­ly." This in­nate pas­sion drove Hyl­ton to study home eco­nom­ics in high school, then straight to the kitchen of He­do­nism II in Ne­gril, Ja­maica. So im­pressed were his man­agers with his culi­nary tal­ents that they ho­n­oured him with a schol­ar­ship to the John­son and Wales Uni­ver­si­ty in Mi­a­mi, Flori­da, where he com­plet­ed a de­gree in Culi­nary Arts, even mak­ing the dean's list.

Af­ter re­turn­ing to Ja­maica, Hyl­ton en­tered the Ja­maica Cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Com­mis­sion's (JCDC) an­nu­al Ja­maica Food Fes­ti­val where he won the sil­ver and bronze awards for his cre­ative dish­es. In ad­di­tion to work­ing at He­do­nism II (where he served for 13 years), Hyl­ton al­so worked as a sous chef at Starfish Trelawny and Breezes Run­away Re­sort and Spa. He joined Half Moon in 2007 as sous chef for the re­sort's sea­side restau­rant, Sea­grape Ter­race. Like her col­leagues in Grena­da and Ja­maica, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da chef Mau­rine Bow­ers is pas­sion­ate about food.

In fact, her love, pas­sion and knowl­edge of bak­ing have earned the young moth­er of three rich re­wards and nu­mer­ous ac­co­lades. The as­sis­tant pas­try chef at the San­dals Grande An­tigua Re­sort and Spa, chef Bow­ers is the Caribbean Ho­tel and Tourism 2010 Pas­try Chef of the Year and the on­ly woman to at­tain this pres­ti­gious ti­tle. So how does it feel to be recog­nised as one of the Caribbean's ris­ing culi­nary stars? Well, she is ready and will­ing to share her sto­ry when she comes to Trinidad and To­ba­go for Taste T&T 2011. Al­so on the list of re­gion­al chefs for Taste T&T this year is Glen­don Car­ty from An­guil­la-Caribbean Chef of the Year 2009. The 34-year-old An­guil­lan said he had nur­tured a pas­sion for the culi­nary arts just about all his life and has been a chef for the past 17 years.

All of Car­ty's train­ing has tak­en place in An­guil­la, but he has worked and gained knowl­edge from many in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed chefs. He has been the ex­ec­u­tive chef at Rip­ples Restau­rant in Sandy Ground for 11 years and al­so works at An­guil­la's pop­u­lar Cap Ju­lu­ca Ho­tel on Maun­dy's Bay. Car­ty has been in­stru­men­tal in as­sist­ing the An­guil­la Na­tion­al Culi­nary Team to win sev­er­al gold and sil­ver medals and has par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Taste of the Caribbean Com­pe­ti­tion in 2004, 2007 and 2011. These four chefs, Car­ty, Hyl­ton, Bur­ris and Bow­ers all have sim­i­lar sto­ries of strug­gle and suc­cess. On Oc­to­ber 29 and 30, 2011, their paths will cross in Trinidad and To­ba­go for Taste T&T 2011.