Honey peanut encrusted tofu with chick peas puree. IN ANOTHER dominating performance by the SuperClubs resorts, the 38th Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) National Food Festival (formerly Professional Culinary Arts Exposition) climaxed with the village resort from Trelawny, Grand Lido Braco, walking away with the coveted Dutch Pot trophy, for best performance by an establishment.
All seven of the local SuperClubs resorts totalled over 20 gold, 62 silver, 79 bronze medals and 39 certificates of merit.
The highlight of the show was the newest category, Master Chef Mystery Basket competition won by Adrian Weichenberger from Starfish Trelawny resort. It was a category judged not only for taste but also for presentation and creativity. This was along a vegetarian theme where participants were given a basket, clueless as to its contents. The judges' mandate is that each chef, upon receiving their basket, is to create a vegetarian dish within an hour, using the mystery items.
In his basket Weichenberger found large variety of local fruits including pineapple, banana, mango, lime and grapefruit; vegetables; spice and herbs; tofu; protein substitutes; variety of beans, grains and peas; Asian sauces such as Soya and Mirifu Sweet rice wine.
The chefs got approximately 45 minutes to create a recipe- Adrian completed his in 35 minutes.Then the contestants selected ingredients needed. They were also judged on the ability to minimise waste, so ingredients needed had to be fairly exact. Each person had one hour to complete his/her dish.
To the judges' delight and taste buds, Weichenberger created Honey-Peanut crusted Tofu with Chick Peas Puree presented on crispy Vegetables and Sweet Potato Roesti accompanied by a Mango Yogurt and Pineapple Chutney.
It gave Weichenberger the gold medal in the category as well as the JCDC's Master Chef award, $30,000 and the Governor-General's trophy.
In another first in the history of the JCDC, the Bartender of the Year was won for the first time by a female, Alicia Essor from Hedonism II in Negril, a performance that earned her a two-year scholarship from the Western Hospitality Institute to study for an associate degree. The scholarship is valued at $75,000 per year.
