Next month a team of three chefs, a pastry chef and a bartender will represent  Antigua and Barbuda and compete in the region's most prestigious culinary competition. TASTE of the Caribbean will take place at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico from 12th to 14th June. The national team will compete under the leadership of Verman Banham, Executive Chef at Hermitage Bay and Graham Singer, Executive Chef at Bluewaters and will introduce young chefs Andy Henry of Sandals, a previous AHTA Young Chef of the Year, Charlesworth Jeremy of Bluewaters and Marika Anthony of Carlisle Bay to the international competition. Dago Ariaza of Sandals will represent the nation as pastry chef and Tajah Philip of Hermitage Bay will take part in the bartender competition.

At Taste of the Caribbean, a random drawing will determine whether the team will prepare a lunch or dinner. The competition is a hot food competition where the competitors cook and present food to be judged on taste as well as execution of skills and presentation. These competitions are somewhat larger in scope than cold food competitions, in that kitchen space is required, raw products and servers are provided. Hot food competition making use of a market basket is best in determining the skills required of Chefs and Cooks.

Ingredients for the basket (the provisions for the competition) are the same for each team and contents will not be revealed in advance. Each basket will include main items: meat, fish, poultry or game. Other items will be available in a community pantry.

Teams will have a set time in which to create and submit a menu, prepare and serve an appetizer, entrée and dessert for 35 covers which will be presented to conference attendees for tasting in the Restaurant of the Nations, the Taste of the Caribbean competition dining room. 

The national team is currently in training and will very soon be offering AHTA members the opportunity to taste their culinary creations at two fund raising dinners to be organized in the next two weeks before their departure to San Juan.

The Antigua and Barbuda Toursit Authority Paris will be participating in the next  TOP RESA Travel show that will be held in Paris later this summer from the 22nd to 25th September. This annual trade show is the largest professional travel show in France and will be celebrating its second year in Paris having left its traditional home of Deauville for the capital.

 

Parallel to annual Top RESA there will be another large important event organised in Paris at the Place Saint Sulpice in the 6th arrondissement  called Paris-Caraïbes from 18th to the 27th September. This will take the form of a Caribbean Village highlighting the French West Indies. The Tourist Office considers this an excellent opportunity for Antigua and Barbuda to take part and expose the Antiguan culture, its history and its tourism product and hotels to a wide Parisian audiance. This event will benefit from a very wide national press coverage with a highly visual inauguration at the Paris City Hall.

 

The Tourism Authority is encouraging the support of hoteliers and is asking that representation from the hotel sector be present at both of these events. Although the France represents a small part of our European market, a closer partnership with our neighbouring islands will open up the destination to the French national population.

 

For further information contact the AHTA office or Manuel Preud'homme in Paris.