USVI Culinary Team Brings Home Top Honors in 2014 Taste of the Caribbean Competition

After years of competing in the Taste of the Caribbean culinary competition, the USVI Culinary Team finally took home a gold medal.

In past competitions, individual members of the team had won gold in the pastry and beverages categories, but the team had never scored high enough to make it into the overall gold category.

"I remember the first meeting we had and our commitment to work like a team and that's what we're doing. One person doesn't make any difference, the teamwork is key," said team captain Marco Sanchez, chef at the Marriott's Frenchman's Reef Beach Resort.

The team took gold in the team competitions, the street food contest and the plated dinner service competition.

During the five-day competition in Miami - June 28 to July 2 - the team and individual team members won a total of three gold medals, three silver medals, one bronze medal and two honorable mentions.

Bartender Brandon DeCloux, bartender at Sibs on the Mountain on St. Thomas, not only won two gold medals for his drinks, he won the Bartender of the Year competition.

The U.S. Virgin Islands won the Taste of the Islands street food competition for the first time, beating out all other countries who participated.

Team member George Sittig, chef at Greenside Grille Carambola Golf Course on St. Croix, said they wowed the crowd with a seafood ceviche shooter, chili rubbed lamb and cassava cakes and meatballs made with ground lamb and pork butt.

The USVI Culinary Team took gold for the plated dinner team competition, in which the team has three hours to develop and prepare an appetizer, entrée and dessert for 40 people.

The team includes three chefs, a pastry chef, a bartender and a junior chef, who must be younger than 19 and have fewer than three years of professional cooking experience.

The annual event, hosted by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, was at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Miami.

Source: USVI Daily News