The Anguilla Culinary Team was given a rousing welcome at Blowing Point when it returned home from Miami, Florida, on Friday, July 4, having performed very well at the 2014 Taste of the Caribbean Culinary Competition.
The Anguillian chefs, who won gold plate awards last year, have now won gold for Team of the Year, with Darren Connor winning overall Best Chef in the beef category of the competition.
“I don’t even know what to say”, an excited Gilda Gumbs-Samuel , Executive Director of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, who accompanied the chefs, remarked on returning to Anguilla. “We are at a point where the only thing that has eluded us is the Overall Team of the Year for the entire Caribbean. We have now won a Gold Team Award which means that the next step is Overall Gold. We promise that next year it is going to happen.
“We are going to restructure and do whatever we have to do. These youngsters are incredibly talented. At the dinner award they had the best tasting menu. It is such a natural talent they have, but I don’t think we have harnessed it enough. As long as I am sitting at the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, with the support of the Tourist Board and the Ministry of Tourism, I will continue to support and push these young men. I really cannot do it without the Tourist Board. It is in fact a joint and collaborative effort.”
Mr Haydn Hughes, Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism said in part: “The Anguilla Culinary Team has competed against the best of the best. The team has proven its worth and that is what I have been saying for many years. The Anguilla Culinary Team continues to get better and better and younger and younger. So the future looks bright for our team. It is indicative of who we are: a strong and resilient people, and we applaud them and give them our respect.”
Mr Delroy Lake, President of the Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association, joined in congratulating the culinary team. “From year to year they continue to make Anguilla proud and we are happy for them,” he remarked.
Mrs Candis Niles, Director of Tourism, said: “On behalf of the Anguilla Tourist Board, I want to extend my congratulations to the Anguilla National Culinary Team. This is really a wonderful occasion and the atmosphere we have here is one that is indescribable. We have so many of our supporters on hand to welcome our team. Our culinary experience is beyond comparison anywhere in the Caribbean, and we congratulate our team once again.”
As mentioned above, the Anguilla chefs won Gold Team of the Year. Mtima Daniels won Junior Chef of the Year. (He did not return with the team as he is now living in the United States.) Jimme Matthews won Silver, missing a gold award by just two points. Taffy Hodge won silver in the bartending competition. Lester Gumbs won Bronze in the Chef of the Year competition. Darren Connor won a gold medal plate for overall best cooking of beef, as well as a gold plate for the best use of beef.
Connor was awarded an opportunity by Angus Beef, sponsor of the beef competition, to travel throughout the Midwest, United States, in the spring of 2015. He will be visiting farms to learn about the process of beef manufacturing.
The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association has awarded Connor with a beautiful black marble and glass plaque for being the most cooperative chef of the team.
