Two local Nevisian chefs vie for the 2020 Virtual Nevis Mango Festival Cook Off.
Chefs Erica Berecia Stapleton and Wentworth Smithen competes in two rounds of competition.
Erika Berecia Stapleton assisted by Joyelle Phillip
Chef Erika Berecia Stapleton is a happy culinary artist. She has been a chef for 8 years. Her aunt was a chef and she saw how happy she made the entire family with food and she wanted to do the same. What she likes best is making delicious food from unlikely paired ingredients. He is a chef at the prestigious Four Seasons Resort and has been with the Nevis Mango Festival for the past 4 years.
Wentworth Smithen assisted by Calesia Caines
Wentworth Smithen is one of Nevis’ young aspiring celebrity chefs. He studied at the CFB College and received an associate degree in Culinary Arts. Last year he applied and got accepted for a 3 month culinary course in Taiwan where he received a certificate in Chinese Cooking from Hungkuang University. Prior to COVID19, Wentworth worked at Park Hyatt, St. Kitts. He is no stranger to the Nevis Mango Festival as he interned with the festival for 2 consecutive years before joining last year as one of the festival’s featured local chefs. He received much inspiration from Iron Chef Judy Joo.
Round 1
Chefs are to prepare a dish of their choosing using the following guidelines
1. Should be an appetizer
2. Contains mango
3. Contain a small portion of protein
4. Final plated dish should not more than 6 – 8 oz
5. ½ hr to complete and plate dish
6. Chefs submitted a list of the ingredients needed for this round
7. Chefs are allowed to walk with any special ingredients they may need
Round 2
Chefs are to prepare a dish using ingredients from the mystery basket below
Guidelines
1. Total of 1 hr to prepare and complete. Time to be allocated as follows
a. 15 minutes to plan and present dish in paper for the judges
b. 45 minutes to prepare the dish
c. Final product should reflect what was given on paper
2. Mystery basket
Judging Criteria
Taste / Flavour 25 pts
Presentation 25 pts
Creativity 20 pts
Work ethics 20 pts
Use of ingredients 10 pts
TOTAL 100 pts
Judges
Francois Verhulst
Silvester Wallace
Kacey Jeffers
C Desery Ottley
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