All-student culinary team compete in Miami tomorrow

Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Tourism Trinidad Lim­it­ed gath­ered at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place last Mon­day to ex­tend their good wish­es to the 2019 Na­tion­al Culi­nary Team. The team left Trinidad on Thurs­day to par­tic­i­pate in the Taste of the Caribbean com­pe­ti­tion card­ed for to­mor­row in Mi­a­mi.
Led by Cap­tain Je­re­my Lovell, the team com­pris­es se­nior chefs Shon­elle Greenidge and Ger­ard Cox, ju­nior chef Jo­di Ever­s­ley, pas­try chef Keenan Leza­ma and bar­tender/mixol­o­gist, Isa­iah Trum­pet—all cur­rent­ly en­rolled stu­dents at Trinidad and To­ba­go Hos­pi­tal­i­ty and Tourism In­sti­tute (TTHTI).
"This is the first all-stu­dent na­tion­al culi­nary team that Trinidad has ever sent abroad to the com­pe­ti­tion," said Bri­an Fron­tin, CEO, Trinidad Ho­tels, Restau­rants & Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (THRTA).
Fron­tin said the de­ci­sion to send an all-stu­dent team came about when they recog­nised that over 95 per cent of all for­mer team mem­bers had grad­u­at­ed from the TTHTI over the past 20 years.
Fron­tin said he sees this as a pi­lot project that will pro­vide the stim­u­lus and jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for Trinidad to host an in­ter-school re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al culi­nary com­pe­ti­tion—a ju­nior ver­sion of the com­pe­ti­tion next year, and in­di­cat­ed that or­gan­is­ers of Taste of the Caribbean in Mi­a­mi have al­ready agreed to hold dis­cus­sions on this pro­pos­al.
Fron­tin added, "Host­ing this com­pe­ti­tion in Trinidad has the abil­i­ty to pos­i­tive­ly im­pact our tourist ar­rivals, in­crease des­ti­na­tion aware­ness and presents an amaz­ing op­por­tu­ni­ty and plat­form to pro­mote culi­nary tourism and dis­play our world-class tal­ent."
Camille Camp­bell, CEO, Tourism Trinidad, pledged her com­pa­ny's sup­port to the team and said, "This is a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty for these stu­dents to show­case their tal­ent on a world stage and demon­strate their dis­ci­pline, com­mit­ment, and culi­nary skills. Tourism Trinidad is proud to sup­port this ini­tia­tive and look for­ward to the coun­try's host­ing of the 2020 com­pe­ti­tion."
A re­lease from Tourism Trinidad stat­ed that over the past eight weeks, the team has been dili­gent­ly prac­tic­ing their craft and host­ing 'sold out' Mon­day night din­ners at the Res­i­dence, One Wood­brook Place, where they have been fine-tun­ing their skills in prepa­ra­tion for the com­pe­ti­tion.
"We have the fullest con­fi­dence in the team's abil­i­ty to make us proud and bring home the gold," added Camp­bell. Source: Guardian, June 2019