Philipsburg – The St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association, the largest private sector representative along with the Organizing Committee Culinary Competition SXM 2016, announces the Culinary Competition Sint Maarten/Saint Martin 2016. The competition will be held on Saturday February 6th, 2016 at the Sundial School from 8.30am to 6pm. This competition is designed to provide the opportunity for local chefs to compete for a place in the 2016 St. Maarten/Saint Martin Team. This team will represent the island and compete in the upcoming Caribbean Culinary Competition in Miami – Taste of the Caribbean on June 11th through 14th, 2016.
After being absent from the competition for several years, St. Maarten is considering re- entering this prestigious culinary competition. The eventual team that would be representing St. Maarten will consist of chefs and bartenders from both sides of the island participating as a unified team. Through this initiative SHTA endeavors to showcase the multitude of Culinary and Bartending talent on St. Maarten.
At the beginning of the New year, SHTA announced an open call for Chef’s that would like to participate in the June 2016 CHTA competition in Miami, representing St. Maarten/St. Martin team. The open call yielded registrations from both the Dutch and the French side of the island. The preliminary competition will see local young and upcoming chefs and established chefs compete against each other for one of the coveted places on the team. Upon determining the National team members, intense practice sessions will be scheduled to get to team ready for international representation. All expenses will be paid for the National team.
Since 1993, Taste of the Caribbean has been the one Caribbean Culinary competition not to be missed! This is an annual opportunity to network, polish professional skills and cheer on colleagues in competition, before a large audience of industry peers and food & beverage veterans. Taste of the Caribbean provides education and inspiration through tastings and demonstrations, created to enhance performance, style and profitability in food and beverage operations. A forum for gathering practical information, sampling, purchasing, strengthening established supplier relationships and meeting new vendors, all on hand to help Taste of the Caribbean registrants build food and beverage business – and yield benefits on the bottom line. Teams from all over the Caribbean will be vying for the titles of
culinary team of the year, Caribbean Chef of the Year, Caribbean Junior Chef of the Year, Caribbean Pastry Chef of the year, Caribbean Bartender of the year, and Apprentice of the year.
To further ensure that the National Team will be able to practice and participate at the 2016 competition, SHTA and the Organizing committee have called on the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and the private sector to support this effort by way of sponsorship for the team. This would be a great opportunity to show that the National Team receives the necessary assistance by way of a great private, public partnership.
“We hope that the public entities and the private sector join in the effort to put this team together and ensure their participation by way of their sponsorship. St. Maarten has always performed well at these competitions and we would like to continue to perform well. This can only be done by providing the team members with the correct resources and tools to execute their skills” said the Organizing committee.
Persons interested in seeing the chefs present their talent and skills are welcomed to view the competition on Saturday February 6th, 2016 from 8.30am at the Sundial School.
The SHTA is dedicated to bringing quality to all aspects of life on St. Maarten by promoting sustainable economic development for its members in cooperation with the social partners and the creation of a fair marketplace. For more information please contact our offices at 542-0108 or visit our website at www.shta.com
