by Curlan Campbell, NOW Grenada
- Grenada captures Caribbean National Team bronze at ‘Taste of the Caribbean’
- Team included junior chefs from TAMCC
After capturing the bronze medal at the recently concluded prestigious ‘Taste of the Caribbean’ competition, the 9-member team that competed received a warm heroes welcome at the Maurice Bishop International Airport on Wednesday.
Each team member was presented with Tourism Ambassador Pins from the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA).
After an 11-year hiatus, the Pure Grenada culinary team participated in the prestigious 21-25 June competition held in Miami, which allows the best chefs and bartenders from around the region to showcase their culinary skills, and the chance to bring home the title.
Team Grenada included senior chefs Josh D Buckmire of Silversands Grenada; Kellon Maximay, Sandals Grenada; bartender Antonio J Bayne of Mount Cinnamon; pastry chef Nelcia Joseph-Mapson of Silversands Grenada; junior chefs Samesha Dominique, Shemar Clarke and Siobhan Mc Quilkin of TA Marryshow Community College (TAMCC).
Founder of Flavours of Grenada, team manager Chef Belinda Bishop was emotional over the team’s performance, and has already set her eyes on competing next year. “We really battled for this and what this means going forward, we are just going to take this to the next level because I want to make sure that we represent our agriculture, our hotels, our sand, sea, and everything, well,” she said.
Bayne came home with the Spirit of the Competition award 2019 and bronze in Caribbean Bartender of the Year category. He said, “We came strong after ten years. We came, we represented strongly and we rock it like a pure jab.”
Maximay who took bronze in the Certified Angus Beef and Street Pork Competition and Josh Buckmire who was awarded bronze for Caribbean Chef of the Year category, both admitted that the experience was quite intense. “I learned a lot. I met people from different countries. I made friends, some good friends and I had a blast. It was a lot of work but we had fun with it; we worked hard,” said Maximay.
Buckmire said, “Coming in we kept our heads down and we still got to pull off the third place in a lot of the categories. I saw some of them breaking down in tears and crying that they couldn’t complete certain things, but we kept pushing.”
Joseph-Mapson captured silver for the Best Individual Chocolate category and bronze in the Pastry Chef of the Year category. She admitted that the experience of competing on that level was quite a daunting task. “The competition was hard. It was a lot more than what I expected. All the teams were great. I managed to capture 2nd place in the chocolate competition – I was so shocked.”
Awards include:
- Spirit of the Competition
- Silver – Best Individual Chocolate
- Bronze – Caribbean National Team
- Bronze – Caribbean Bartender of the Year
- Bronze – Certified Angus Beef and Street Pork Competition
- Bronze – Caribbean Chef of the Year
- Bronze – Pastry Chef of the Year
