Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/4597/-1/140/
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Culinary Team Receives Funding From Government
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Anguilla’s Culinary team, last week, received US$20,000.00 from the Anguilla Tourist Board and a further US$4000.00 from the Department of Youth and Culture. The Culinary Competition is scheduled for June in Miami and members of the team have now been chosen.
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Presentation to Culinary Team
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Speaking at the presentation, Director of Tourism, Amelia Vanterpool-Kubisch, said that Anguilla’s cuisine was almost as renowned as its beaches and was very important to tourism. She said it was therefore very necessary to support Anguilla’s chefs for training and competitions of this kind.
Executive Director of the AHTA, Trudy Nixon, announced the team that is captained by Deon Thomas from Overlook and includes Darren Connor from Zurra, Guy Gumbs from CuisinArt Resort and Dean Samuels from Cap Juluca. The manager is Denise Carr, Executive Chef at CuisinArt. The sixth member of the team is the bartender who is yet to be chosen. There was much competition for places on the team and many chefs attended three rounds of highly competitive cooking.
A Junior team has also been chosen. It will be present at all the competitions and should gain first hand experience of the highly competitive environment. Laureen Perkins from Veya, Glendon Carty of Ripples/Cap Juluca and Jordel Gumbs from CuisinArt make up the Junior Team. Nixon noted, “Anguilla has many talented young hospitality professionals who work very hard all year round to support Anguilla’s tourism. They need exposure to high level competitive situations like this to encourage them to be proud and excited and dream that they could be the future gold medal winners of Anguilla.”
Lennox Proctor, Director of Youth and Culture, made the presentation from his Department and noted that Anguilla has a tradition of culinary excellence and that providing young people an opportunity to experience the competition was the essence of sustainable development and would help to maintain excellence in Anguilla’s cuisine.
The Executive Director thanked the many persons and businesses that were already assisting the team including: George Reid and Mimi Gratton, technical consultants, American Eagle/American Airlines for air fares, Cap Juluca and CuisinArt Resort for generously giving access to their kitchens for competitions and practice, restaurant owners who have encouraged their chefs to compete and the Government of Anguilla for its support.