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It's that time of year again when the best of the best chefs and bartenders step out of their kitchens and bars to compete in the Taste of Belize Culinary Competition.

Next Saturday 16th October at the ITVET compound, the BTB's ninth annual taste Of Belize will have new and exciting twists. BTB's Director of Quality Assurance, Laura Esquivel tells us more:

Laura Esquivel
"Every year we have our signature competitions; the professional chefs competition; cake decorating competition and the bartending competition. This year in addition to that we have added a new twist, one of the complaints we've been getting is that people don't really get to sample from these competitions so we have change our buffet event into a competition on its own and we have 8 destinations who have come up with themes, a theme of 2 restaurants had to come together and they will be competing for the best destination in terms of food so we'll be seeing food from truly all over the country and we are calling this competition the 'best of Belize competition'."

Andrea Polanco
"So what kind of food do people expect to be tasting at this competition?"

Laura Esquivel
"Ok well one of the rules was that no destination can duplicate food from another destination, so we are going to have a wide variety from Placencia; you are looking at curried lobster and a surprise suite and conch soup and from Orange Walk we have puc-chuck and tacos de relleno; Hopkins, we have something call harabada and a seafood caserole; Punta Gorda, we are going to see grated cocoyam fritters, calaloo in soy sauce and soy and sesame sauce. From Cayo; boyitos and eschabeche. Belize District of course they are coming in with their rice and beans but they are bringing an extra twist; we are going to see gibnut, armadillo, deer, warrie, pecarie from them. From Dangriga we have a cohune cabbage; we have hudut, darasa and casava pudding. From San Pedro; conch fritters, conch seviche, something call che-chak and plantain rice; Like I said I say something call because these are things that some of it we are familiar with, some of it we are not familiar with so it's really giving people an opportunity to taste foods from all of these destinations. we are going to able to see a bartending competition happen where we are going to see all the showmanship and people are going to be timed to make all their drinks. This is sponsored by Travelers, so in term we are going to have a bar from Travelers and also we are going to have a Bowen and Bowen bar too also providing the drinks."

"Well this year it will definitely be much better in that we will truly have that audience participation where the audience that is there will have a say in the winner in the best of Belize competition and this is really making it more interactive for the audience that is there. Everyone in the general public will get to vote for their favorite in this best of Belize competition and your public votes go for 25% of the overall tally for these destinations."

Food samples will also be on sale for three dollars and up from the Best of Belize booths.

Tickets cost ten dollars.

Channel 7

The Taste of Belize

The countdown to the annual Taste of Belize is underway. The event attracts participants from all over the jewel to compete in all that is culinary. It takes place at the ITVET next Saturday so mark that date on your calendar and save space to savor the numerous samples of cuisine that will be available. News Five's Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano Reporting

The annual food festival which sees chefs and bartenders across the country vie for coveted titles in the culinary field is a week away and preparations are being finalized for what should be one of the more memorable Taste of Belize since its inception in 2001. This year's competition will be held at a new location and while it is being scaled down in attendance it promises nonetheless the complete experience for food and beverage aficionados.

Laura Esquivel-Frampton, Director of Product Development, BTB

"This is the ninth year that the BTB is hosting the Taste of Belize Competition. We have our signature competitions this year. We have the professional chef competition, bartending competition and we also have the cake decorating competition. In addition to that we're always trying to do something new with our events and so this year we've introduced a new competition which the entire public that goes to the event will be able to participate in. It's called the Best of Belize Competition and what this is is that we've turned the buffet of the night into a competition itself so we have eight destinations who have come up with teams and each of those teams will be presenting plates for the general public to be able to taste."

Like the commercial expo which returned to its original venue in September the Taste of Belize will be held on the ITVET compound. The reason, says Esquivel-Frampton, is that the Belize Tourism Board has over the years worked closely with the institution in developing its hospitality curriculum.

Laura Esquivel-Frampton

"We do a lot of tourism training at ITVET. We know that they have a lot of new programs that are rolling out that are catering for the tourism services and so we want to, you know, highlight the services also that ITVET has and give back to that school for all that they do in turn for tourism. As you know it's brandly remodeled and they have the kind of facilities that we think we need and we can use to really bring the Taste of Belize to a bigger event."

Along with securing a bigger venue however is a downsizing in attendance. According to the Director of Product Development the decision was taken to discount ticket prices and reduce the numbers in order for guests to fully enjoy what is being offered.

Laura Esquivel-Frampton

"We've actually reduced the cost of the ticket this year. Tickets are on sale right now for only ten dollars a person but we're capping it off at about five hundred tickets. The reason for that is because of this new option that we're putting in, the new competition. I don't want to overwhelm the destinations. We have told them that they need to provide at least five hundred sample plates so that everybody in attendance gets to taste a sample plate from each destination."

The Taste of Belize Competition is scheduled for Saturday October 16^th. Guests of the event will be given an opportunity to participate in the judging of various categories. Last year's winner for professional chef is Ernest Bradley while Mariano Coc took home the Bartender of the Year Award. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

TASTE OF BELIZE ONLY DAYS AWAY

The Belize Tourism Board's ninth annual Taste of Belize competition is slated for this Saturday at the ITVET Compound in Belize City. Chefs from all over the country will bring cuisines unique to their culinary culture to compete in several categories. Laura Esquivel Frampton is the Director of Quality Assurance at the Belize Tourism Board.

Laura Esquivel Frampton; Director of Quality Assurance, BTB

"We have our main stay competition, the professional chef completion, the cake decorating completion, and the bar tending completion. In addition to that, this year we sort of changed up how we traditionally done the buffet. Instead of people paying thirty-five dollars to come and have a buffet, there will be a ten dollar entry fee and after which point they will be able to purchase sample plates from the various destinations, who will now be competing against each another for the best of Belize competition."

The Best of Belize Competition is a new category where the samples purchased by those who attend will count for 25 percent of the points for the overall competition.

Laura Esquivel Frampton

"They're going to be able to see these professional chefs at their best competing against each another but in addition to that, like I mention, they are going to be able to see all these destinations competing with each other and they will be able to purchase sample plates, where for example, Placencia is bringing in shrimp ceviche, conch soup. Orange walk is bringing puc chuck and tacos sariano. Hopkins has boholobo and coconut rice and seafood casserole. Punta Gorda has barracuda stuff cho cho and grated coco yams fritters. Cayo is bringing in pibil dumplings and bollitos and escaveche and�Belize district is coming in of course with rice and beans and stew beans and white rice but they will also have the gibnut, the armadillo there, warrie peccary. All of these things we look forward to in the Belize district. And Then we can't forget Dangriga who be bringing in cohune cabbage and hudut and darasa and just very wide variety of food coming in from all the destinations."

Frampton says that they continue to boast the fact that the taste of Belize is the only one of its kind of Belize because it provides a unique opportunity for more Belizeans to see the culinary arts as a viable means of employment.

Laura Esquivel Frampton

"Throughout the years, we have seen some foreign chef's who live here competing but more and more now we have Belizeans chefs competing against each other. I would say that 90% of the competitors this year are all Belizeans born and bred and grew up in the industry kind of."

Those interested in attending this year's Taste of Belize Culinary Competition are advised that there are limited spaces. Tickets are available at the BTB office for ten dollars.

LOVE FM

Taste of Belize This Weekend

Did anyone attend? How did it turn out? MMMmmmm just thinking about it!

I didn't attend but the newspaper blogs (links on the right side of this page) have some great pix! You can almost smell the delicious food and imagine tasting those yummy dishes.

sugar city won. more real soon....

On Saturday The Belize Tourism Board held its 9th annual Taste of Belize Competition in which Chefs and Bartenders from all across the country compete to display Belize's finest culinary talent. It was staged at the ITVET building and At the end of the night, it was Belize City's Calbert Santiago; a chef at D-Deck walked who walked away with the title of Professional Chef 2010. We spoke to him today�.

Calbert Santiago, Professional Chef 2010
"All I did was I combine; they give us gibnut, beer and chocolate and chaya to combine all together. First time I have ever worked with gibnut, beer and chocolate. All of them were the first time. I have never cook gibnut in my life yet although I am a chef for the last 18 years since I start my profession at the Bellevue Hotel and as the taste of Belize start to come up then I start to move on, but i have never work with any of these product yet, so what I did was combine a spice rub, bake gibnut with a chocolate beer sauce, then for the starch I did a root sprockets which=h was coco, sweet potato and the regular Irish potato and combine it together, mash it then fry it, then I did a version of their ratatouille which is vegetables with yellow ginger and cream, so it work out good for me; The judge they like it obviously, its a dish I would want to continue and work on, I never thought about beer and chocolate working but it works, I taste it and it was good. This is my 6th time. I have won it already in 2007 so this was a good step again for me to come back and prove myself, last year I was in and got chop early in the 1st round. So I went and I train myself a lot with my family; I just want to say thanks to my wife and my kids that supported me. What I did was train myself a lot at home."

Andrea Polanco
"So you've won before. Did you go in this competition with expectations to win?"

Calbert Santiago, Professional Chef 2010
"Yes I went in with a lot of confidence. I told myself that I would have pull this off because I prepare myself a lot so went in with a lot of confidence and I was prepare for any recipe they throw at us."

The competition is made up of four categories: Professional Chef, Bartender, Cake decorating and Best of Belize.

Channel 7

SUGAR CITY CHOSEN AS THE BEST OF BELIZE

The pomp and pageantry on Saturday night brought together the best of Belize's service industry to recognize the nation's top taste tempters. The 2010 edition of the Taste of Belize competition saw more than four categories where participants were challenged to bring cultural foods to the table � but with a twist. And this year's competitors brought their A-game.

Terry Valentine-Sabal; Business Action Network, Dangriga

"As soon as BTB told us about it and sent an email we discussed it and we agreed that we were going to represent Dangriga and actually the Stann Creek District. The theme is not only made up of people from Dangriga. We also have the Maya Museum; Julio Saki and his wife who are from Maya Centre are involved as well. So we have Kriole, Garifuna and Maya involved with this organization."

Melinna Martinez, Reporter

How did you decided on what foods to have on display today?

Terry Valentine-Sabal

"Well we had to be representing the area we are from and the main food is more Garifuna Food because the majority of people living in that area are Garifuna. We came up with a full meal; representing the Maya we have an appetizer which is Cuhune Cabbage and homemade corn tortilla and then for the main course we did darasa and stew chicken. We also have hudutu which is green plantain and cassava milk. We did a desert called cassava pudding and a drink which is hiyu."

Shalue Butcher-Casey; Proprietor, Iguana Hotel and Sacred Heard Junior College

"I am a lecturer in the Food and Beverage Program at Sacred Heart Junior College and I am also the Proprietor of the Iguana Hotel."

Melinna Martinez, Reporter

What kind of food do you have here tonight and how are you representing Cayo?

Shalue Butcher-Casey

"We were very fortunate to have the head chef Rudy from Cahal Pech Village come in and work with the students. We took classic Cayo dishes and put an innovative twist to them. We took Chaya Bollito and we fused it with bacon, we also took pebil and dumplings. Instead of the traditional pebil where you have your tortilla we did the pebil where you have your tortilla, we did the pebil and we stuffed them in dumplings and we steamed them. We also took escabeche and we just did a really different twist and made the actually bowl out of masa and instead of just regular chicken we made our own chicken sausage."

When all the presentations were over and the tasting done �. the judges decided that Orange Walk is the best of Belize. Dangriga came in second, Hopkins with its Lasagna made out of cassava came in third and the voters chose Cayo as their favorite. According to Director of Quality Assurance at BTB Laura Esquivel Frampton the new format was a big hit.

Laura Esquivel Frampton; Director of Quality Assurance, BTB

"We were pleasantly surprised with the crowd that came out especially because we changed it up a bit. We changed the venue and we changed the format but we managed to get a good crowd and everybody so far is loving the format that we chose this year."

The theme 'we are Belize' was carried over to this year's cake decorating competition and Belizean Chef Tamara Tingling took home that title. She was followed by Diane Galvez and Sharon Mckay of Nazarene High School. For the Bar Tending Competition Kendra Timons from the Radisson Fort George came out on top. She is followed by Marvin Argereth from Riverside Tavern and Mariano Coc from San Ignacio Hotel. Love News spoke with Coc earlier in the competition.

Mariano Coc; Bartending Competition

"The competition is consisted of three rounds. There is the first round which is the originality of making these concoctions based from Travelers Company Limited. Our concoction has to be made with their products and we created beautiful tasty concoctions. I came up with three exotic flavorful drinks. I came up with a drink named the crabu lada, which is crabu the fruit and I also made a Cayo busta and I made another drink called the Iguana Lash and you know the best comes from the west."

The winner of the professional chef competition is Calbert Santiago from D Deck Restaurant. Jason De Campo from Global Spice took second place and Luis Cawich from the Villas at Banyan Bay took third place.

LOVE FM

Taste Of Belize 2010 Winners

Winners for Bartending of 9th Annual Taste of Belize:
1st: Kendra Timons - Radisson Fort George
2nd: Marvin Argereth - Riverside Tavern
3rd: Mariano Coc - San Ignacio Hotel

*Winners for Cake Decoration of 9th Annual Taste of Belize:
1st: Tamara Tingling
2nd: Diane Galvez - Self Employed
3rd: Sharon Mckay - Nazarene High School

















The Best of Belize destination booth competition was a new addition to this year's Taste of Belize. Destinations around the country set up booths and competed for the best regional food: