Last weekend, young Bonairean chefs once again went for gold during the Caribbean Junior Duelling Challenge in Barbados.
The junior chefs arrived Monday 25th of August with Insel Air at the Flamingo International Airport with their trophy and gold medals. Family, friends and colleagues were awaiting the arrival of junior chefs Ronald (JoJo) Gosepa and Giovannie Veld along with the team manager Floris van Loo from Rum Runners and also Kendrickson Theodora who went to the competition as an observer. The junior chefs who were representing Bonaire at the Caribbean Junior Duelling Challenge competed in 2 rounds before they reached the final.
The first round competition was a signature dish they had to prepare in 35 minutes and the second round was a mystery basket, which they had 45 minutes to prepare. In these competitions they got gold and went to the finals to compete against the Caribbean islands of Barbados, Guyana and St Croix in the final round which was also a mystery basket in which they succeeded in preparing a wonderful dish and became overall winners.
Bonaire has been playing an important role in the culinary world these last few years and has been producing some of the best chefs in the Caribbean. Not too long ago Bonaire chefs won numerous prizes at the “Taste of the Caribbean” and also made Taste of the Caribbean history, when they announced that Rashindra Donge won the Caribbean Chef of the Year, which made her the first woman chef to ever win this award at the Taste of the Caribbean.
The Bonaire Hotel and Tourism Association (BONHATA) is very proud of these culinary achievements and wish these youngsters all the best in their future careers as chefs. The culinary sector is a very important part of tourism, and Tourism is key to the beautiful island of Bonaire’s economy.
Bonaire will soon not only be known as “Diver’s Paradise” but also as a culinary paradise.