Tickets are still available for the Taste of St. Croix, the highlight event of the weeklong St. Croix Food and Wine Experience, which brings thousands of food fanciers and some of the world’s top chefs to the island.
The 13th annual Taste of St. Croix will take place April 18 at Divi Carina Bay Resort. An annual benefit for the St. Croix Foundation, it attracts about 2,000 food fanciers, out to mingle and taste the artistry of 50-plus competing local restaurants, caterers and amateur and semi-pro cooks and chefs of every description.
Forbes Magazine’s online travel site, Forbestravel.com, has named the event one of 10 best food events in the world.
Two other St. Croix Food and Wine Experience events have already sold out, according to the event website – an April 17 wine dinner at the Galleon and the $1,000 per person dinner at which a celebrity chef cooks a meal in a private home. That exclusive dinner will take place April 19.
The weeklong slate of events raise money for charitable work and career culinary training and education, and is is now the third biggest event on St. Croix’s calendar, after the Crucian Christmas Festival and the V.I. Agrifest, according to St. Croix Foundation President Roger Dewey.
A panel of judges, including celebrity chefs from around the U.S. and the Caribbean, will taste the offering of St. Croix’s chefs, cooks and restaurateurs. This year’s visiting chefs include:
• Mike Lata of Charleston, S.C.’s highly regarded restaurants FIG and The Ordinary;
• Paula DaSilva of 1500°, Miami;
• Todd Gray, chef and co-owner of Equinox, in Washington D.C.;
• Simon Stojanovic of Altamare Restaurant, Miami; and
• Josef DeSimone, Tony Castelluci and Dean Spinks, the Facebook culinary team who serve 2,300 gourmet meals a day at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Ca.
Tickets for the Taste of St. Croix can be purchased for $95 online at the St. Croix Food and Wine Experience website.
The 2013 schedule is:
• Cuisine on the Green, Sunday, April 14 – A fun tournament with bites and spirits at select tees at Carambola Golf Club and Resort;
• Gourmet Vintner Dinner, Tuesday, April 16 – A dinner with Chef Todd Gray of Equinox;
• City Crawl, Tuesday, April 16 – A chance to sample food and beverages at Angry Nates, John Eddie’s Low Life Bar & Refuge, and You Are Here;
• Food Fight! on the Beach, Wednesday, April 17 – Celebrity chefs compete in an event that is part game show and part Iron Chef;
• Book Signing, Wednesday, April 17 – Chef Todd Gray’s will sign his newest book, "The New Jewish Table." Books can be pre-ordered at Undercover Books.;
• The Galleon Wine Dinner, Wednesday, April 17 – Wines by Banfi Vintners;
• A Taste of St. Croix, Thursday, April 18;
• Cork & Fork Dinners, Friday, April 19 – Elegant private dinners in private homes. Paula DaSilva of 1500° prepares one and Mike Lata of Fig Restaurant and The Ordinary prepares the other;
• Sunset BBQ, Friday, April 19 – Chefs Josef DeSimone, Dean Spinks and Tony Castellucci of the Facebook Culinary Team, Chef Simon Stojanovic of Altamare and St. Croix’s own CTEC culinary arts students;
• Kids Cooking, Saturday, April 20 – Local Chefs Cleantha and the Crucian Contessa make cooking fun for the whole family;
• Wine in the Warehouse, Saturday, April 20 – A tasting of wine in the chilly Leeward Islands warehouse to finish the week.
