Anguilla is among a number of regional islands to be represented at this year’s Taste of the Caribbean Culinary Competition in Miami but by a reduced team as a result of Hurricane Irma.
Rather than having a full team at the competition, Anguilla and several other hurricane-affected islands will have one combined group of chefs and bartenders at the contest. Anguilla’s reduced team comprises Lester Gumbs, Executive Sous Chef at CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa and The Reef by CuisinArt, who will be competing in the Individual Beef Competition; Lester Hodge, Bartender, also of CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa; and Leontes Richardson (Chef Lee) who has entered the Individual Seafood Competition.
The chefs and the bartender left Anguilla this week accompanied by Mrs. Gilda Gumbs-Samuel, Executive Director of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association who coordinated the local arrangements for their participation in the culinary competition. They left Anguilla on Thursday, June 21, and will be returning to the island on June 25.
Mrs. Gumbs-Samuel spoke to The Anguillian newspaper about the absence of the island’s full team at the culinary competition. “Due to the passing of Hurricane Irma, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association made a unanimous decision that none of the islands that were affected would compete as a team for fear that it would put the teams from those respective destinations at a disadvantage,” she explained. “The Associations’ Executives got together on a conference call and we understood that rationale, but the islands are very passionate about tasting and we heard from the different islands that they still wanted to be included in some part of the competition.
“We therefore suggested a 305 team which was originally ‘Taste of the Islands’ – a big food event in Florida that attracts about one thousand people. We decided that instead of having individual teams from the six hurricane-devastated islands, we should have one combined team with one person from each island. We undertook to go with that and to create the Caribbean Strong 305 Team.”
According to her, the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association received three separate calls. The first was an invitation to send Jamal Hodge to compete as a Bartender. The second invitation was for Lester Hodge, who won the Caribbean Chef of the Year for the Best Seafood Competition a couple years ago, to take part in the Best Seafood Competition, but he has opted instead to participate in the Beef Competition and which was accepted, but only in the Individual Competition. The third call was for Leontes Richardson (Chef Lee), who has never been in the competition, to be among the participants as the newest chef. He has agreed “to be thrown in the fire” and will be take part in the Seafood Competition. Chef Lee works with Little Harbour Estates and also runs his own business.
