by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Team Nevis, represented by Chef Margret Castro and Chef Joseph Mwangi from the Four Seasons Resort, secured the top spot for the second consecutive time in the “For the Love of Mangoes” Chefs Competition at the Nevis Mango Festival on July 02, 2023.
The duo competed against chefs Rickina Curtin and Karina Austin from Barbados, the winners of the 2019 edition.
In the first round that began just about 3 p.m., Team Nevis prepared a brunch-style dish consisting of pancakes topped with a gastrique sauce made up of mango, strawberry, blackberry, blueberry and gummy bears. Added to the plate was a shaving of white chocolate coated with peanuts and slices of mango, strawberries and lime.
Team Barbados prepared a plate on a crepe with some mango crumble and a strawberry and cilantro salsa. They reduced the orange gummy bears with some chocolate and created a compote and finished with a white chocolate thyme sauce.
In the second round, Team Nevis created a Burmese Thai mango-papaya salad and added some crunchy fried eggplant.
Team Barbados created a mango and cilantro sauce, a merlot and rosemary sauce and eggplant tikka masala topped with cucumbers, mangoes and peppers.
Included in the judges criteria were Taste and Flavour (25 points), Presentation (25 points), Creativity (20 points), Team Coordination (20 points) and Use of the Ingredients (10 points).
Five judges, including local and international chefs, sampled the food after each round. The judges returned an overall score of 663 points for Team Nevis and 634 points for Team Barbados.
Team Nevis received a stone-crafted mango trophy from the Nevis Tourism Authority, while the representatives each received a Samsung Galaxy A 23 from Digicel.
The “For the Love of Mangoes” Chefs Competition has become a staple activity of the Nevis Mango Festival, which was launched in 2014.
