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Top V.I. Chefs Bound for Cooking Contest in Miami

May 21, 2007 — Practice makes perfect, so the V.I. Culinary Team tried out its competition menu Monday at a fundraiser held at Caneel Bay Resort on St. John.
The team is off to the Caribbean Hotel Association's annual Taste of the Caribbean competition set for June 17-19 in Miami.
"The development of the culinary arts is extremely important to the territory," said Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson Doty. Local young men seem to gravitate to a career in culinary arts, which gives them a chance to gain leadership positions in the tourism industry, she said.
Culinary arts are an important aspect of the tourism product because one of the things people remember when they go home is what they ate while in the territory, Doty said.
Some restaurants in the Virgin Islands can compare to the top restaurants across the country, said V.I. Hotel and Tourism Association Director Rik Blyth. "And top-notch restaurants keep people coming back," he said, adding that he believes the V.I. team has a good chance to make its mark at the Miami competition.
St. Thomas resident Bill Newbold and his wife Frannie were among the nearly three dozen people attending the dinner. Both also attended a similar fund-raising dinner at the Ritz-Carlton-St. Thomas.
"They've made such great strides over the past year," Bill Newbold said of the team.
Ritz-Carlton manager Marc Langevin said he attended the Caneel Bay event because it was important to support the culinary team.
Team members are Leslie Gumbs of Theo's Personal Catering on St. Thomas, Steve Potter of the Grand Cru Restaurant on St. Thomas, Rodney Rightenburg of Caneel Bay Resort, Dennis Gribbin of the Cultured Pelican on St. Croix and Brian Wisbauer of Salud Bistro on St. Croix.
The team has been "playing around" with regional foods to see what they can develop for their menu, Gumbs said. The menu included three types of conch ceviche for the appetizer, herb-seared airline chicken breast with a Thai coconut curry sauce and a banana brule for dessert.
Several people agreed they needed to take "airline" out of the name for the chicken breast because it conjures up visions of terrible food served on commercial jets. But "airline chicken" is a culinary term that means the breast still has part of the bone intact, Gumbs said.
"It adds the flavor of the bone," he said.
Those in attendance weren't shy with their critique.
"Let it cook some more," said former former Lt. Gov. Derek Hodge, sampling the ceviche. "The conch is too chewy."
His wife, Assistant Tourism Commissioner Monique Sibilly-Hodge, gave the V.I. Culinary Team high marks for presentation. She also noted that the portion size was just right.
Although the Culinary Team has some sponsorship, it still needs to raise additional money for miscellaneous expenses through fund raisers like this one, Blyth said. The total budget for sending the Culinary Team to Miami stands at $18,000, he said.
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