By Blox Content Management,By FIONA STOKES Special to The Daily News
Copyright virginislandsdailynews
ST. CROIX — Five chefs who won their food competition during Taste of St. Croix in April will be back creating scrumptious dishes for the ultimate bragging rights.
On Thursday, organizers will host the Taste 2025 Winners’ Cook Off Competition at Ridge to Reef Farm featuring five of nine winning chefs.
Collin Hodge, event coordinator, said that back in April each first place winner in the nine categories was invited to be a part of this finale that will be closed to the public.
“This is really exciting for us and for the participants,” he said. “You know, in this industry the ultimate goal is to do your best and everyone aspires to show and shine in the industry. We have some great restaurants doing really well and this type of event will continue to help showcase their talents.”
During Thursday’s competition, each chef will be asked to create an appetizer and an entrée based on mystery ingredients that will include protein, starches, vegetables and spices among others.
The process is simple and it will be fun, according to Hodge.
Each chef will create three serving of each course in the timed event. They will have 15 minutes to write down the recipes of the dish they plan to create. They will later have 45 minutes to make the appetizer. The appetizer round will be followed by an additional 30 minutes to create and plate their entree.
“All of the chefs will be competing and cooking in one kitchen at the same time and they will be making the dishes for a panel of judges made up of three professional restaurateurs” Hodge said.
Hodge said while the event is closed to the public, he embraces the opportunity to showcase the island’s culinary talents. He said the remaining four winners from April’s Taste of St. Croix, who were not professional chefs, opted out of the cook off.
“Usually those who have little catering businesses or who cook for fun do not join the cook-off because it is judged based on professional standards,” he said, adding he hopes that this year’s cook-off will be a rebirth of sorts.
“We used to do it every year, but when the hurricanes hit in 2017, we stopped. We then brought it back in 2019, then the pandemic came in 2020,” he said. “So as long as we do not have any other disasters or anything else, we plan to continue with this follow-up event uninterrupted.”
Prizes for the competition are $1,000 first prize and gift certificate for dinners for the 2nd and 3rd place winners. The prize has previously been a spot on the Virgin Islands Culinary Team, but since the pandemic, Hodge said the Team has been inactive.
“We have to continue to raise the standards and will continue to look for ways to reward excellence and showcase talent as we continue to grow the industry,” he said.
