Taste of the Caribbean, the annual culinary competition and all-Caribbean food and beverage showcase, is one of the events that bring a great deal of publicity to Anguilla and the rest of the regional islands, but if care is not taken, it could fade into insignificance.

For the second consecutive year the competition between top chefs and bartenders has been held at the Hyatt Regency in Miami. This is mainly due to the overwhelming large number of international tourism personnel including suppliers, tour operators, exhibitors, travel writers and others who have a better opportunity to attend the event. For many of them it is costly travelling to and staying in the Caribbean region and it is not easy to find big convention centres for the various side functions.

It may be argued on the other hand by persons in the region that it is difficult for them, for more than one reason, to travel to Miami to attend the culinary competition in particular and to serve as cheerleaders for their teams. Notwithstanding this assumed argument, it is important for Anguilla and other islands to be well represented at such a function which offers a splendid opportunity for persons from the international community to interact with and get to know the people of the Caribbean.

It is in this nderecontext that we regret that there were very few people from Anguilla at the Taste of the Caribbean function. While it is acknowledged that the Minister of Tourism and other local tourism officials were recently in the United States on travel shows and appeared in a CBS interview, it was readily noticeable that there were no representatives present from the Ministry of Tourism or the Anguilla Tourist Board. Surprisingly there were a very small number of hoteliers at the function as well. This also appeared to have been the case with other Caribbean islands. There were questions at the event and various side functions which could have best been answered by persons in key positions in Anguilla and in the other islands and perhaps some investment deals which could have been entered into if this island had been better represented.

This aside, however, the Anguillian chefs and bartender performed very well and attracted much attention as they went about their cooking. They were good ambassadors for the island which is known for its fine cuisine and must be commended for their work.

Commendation should also be given to the small staff of the Caribbean Hotel Association who organised the Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference (Chic 2006) and had so much to do surrounding the culinary competition. They were under enormous pressure as they worked very hard in the interest of Anguilla and the other islands.

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