ST. THOMAS - The USVI Culinary Team has returned to the territory with a haul of medals won at last week's Taste of the Caribbean culinary competition.
The annual cooking competition took place in Miami at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from Wednesday to Saturday. The contest pitted about a dozen Caribbean islands against each other for culinary bragging rights.
"We are very proud of the USVI Culinary Team. They worked very hard all year to prepare. They can hold their heads high," USVI Hotel and Tourism Association President Lisa Hamilton said Monday.
Bartender Brandon DeCloux, the only new member to the team this year, had a golden debut - bringing home two gold medals.
One of the gold medals was from the mystery basket challenge. This year, the bartenders were given rums of Puerto Rico to work with.
DeCloux also got a gold medal overall, for his three drinks made during the bartending competition.
Each bartender must compete with a non-alcoholic drink, a rum drink and a vodka drink. They have five minutes to make each drink and show off their creativity, skills, personality and showmanship.
DeCloux made a papaya peppercorn lemonade for his non-alcoholic drink, a peanut butter and jelly martini for his vodka drink and a key lime brul茅e drink featuring Cruzan Rum's newest flavor, key lime, for his rum drink.
Pastry chef Eric Burrell also brought home gold for his deconstructed mojito dessert.
The USVI 2009 All Star New York Mets 57 Johan Santana Red Jerseys Culinary Team took silver for the team competition, in which the team has three hours to develop and prepare an appetizer, entr茅e and dessert for 40 people.
The team includes three chefs, a pastry chef, a bartender and a junior chef, who must be younger than 19 and have fewer than three years of professional cooking experience.
Team captain and Ritz-Carlton chef Fabien Gnemmi said the team did well and used the base recipes they had prepared - with a few tweaks.
"You always make adjustments because of the mystery basket," Gnemmi said. "Overall, it went pretty good."
The mystery basket protiens were chicken, pork and ground lamb.
For the appetizer, the team made a duo of jerk chicken roulade and a spicy lamb patty with a breadfruit, onion and coconut pur茅e.
The entr茅e was braised pork shoulder with plantain dumplings and a pumpkin ginger pur茅e.
The dessert was a shortcake with a white chocolate honey mousse, served with fresh pineapple, passion fruit and mango.
Chef Dennis Vanterpool won silver in the beef competition, as well as silver in the chef of the year competition.
In the Junior Chef competition, Ilejah Crabbe took bronze with her deconstructed stuffing, flank steak, scallops with corn and tomato salsa and breadfruit and dumpling hash with coconut butternut sauce and mango buerre blanc sauce.
Chef Gary Klinefelter took bronze in the seafood competition.
St. Croix chef George Sittig earned a bronze medal in a new category this year - the cheesecake competition.
Sittig made a Caribbean lobster cheesecake with local sweet and hot peppers, smoked Gouda, cracked black pepper white cheddar and cream cheese. The small round cheesecake was served with a Parmesan bread crumb topping and an avocado, key lime, cilantro and coconut milk pur茅e.
The medals do not indicate placement against other competitors, but rather a gold, silver or bronze medal is awarded based on the total point value the judges have given the dishes.
The team also participated in the Taste of the Islands competition, which highlights each Caribbean island's local street food. To represent the Virgin Islands, the team made a seafood-heavy kallaloo with butter bread toast, local root chips and a jerk johnny cake slider with an avocado mousse.
The drink was an alcoholic root beer-flavored concoction called Crucian Confusion, and the dessert was Mets 5 David Wright Road Cool Base Grey 2010 All Star Jerseys a passion fruit secret box.
"It went very well, we didn't win anything, but we got really good feedback," Gnemmi said.
- Contact Aldeth Lewin at 714-9111 or email alewin@dailynews.vi.
Fabien Gnemmi, The Ritz-Carlton - team captain
Dennis Vanterpool, Marriott's Frenchman's Reef - chef
Gary Klinefelter, Buccaneer Hotel - chef
George Sittig, Carambola - chef
Ilejah Crabbe, The Ritz-Carlton - junior chef
Eric Burrell, The Ritz-Carlton - pastry chef
Brandon DeCloux, Fat Turtle - bartender