IEKHS senior Nandi Furet competes at “Taste of the Caribbean” held at the Miami Hyatt Hotel, June 2-6, 2017.
Ivanna Eudora Kean High School (IEKHS) senior Nandi Furet helped the V.I. team win Silver at the organization's Taste of the Caribbean culinary competition held in Miami, June 2- 6.
Taste of the Caribbean serves as “a medium for gathering practical information, developing skills, sampling, purchasing, strengthening supplier relationships and meeting new vendors. One goal of the event is to help attendees build food and beverage business and yield bottom line benefits,” according to the CHTA website. The Virgin Islands Department of Tourism co-sponsored the event as a CHTA member.
IEKHS culinary instructor Chef Kerish Robles, who participated in Taste of the Caribbean a decade ago just after graduating from high school, is passing on the opportunity to her students. “Three of them were eligible to compete for the title and Nandi came out on top to represent the U.S. Virgin Islands as the Junior Chef on the territory’s team," she said. "Each chef competes individually and on a team of six members, namely a team captain, a pastry chef, bartender, a junior chef and two chefs."
The annual event is comprised of a number of competitions, including pastry chef, seafood and beef, Chef of the Year, and Juinor Chef. The event attracts islands from across the Caribbean.
“Nandi Furet represented the Virgin Islands effectively and was instrumental in the V.I. team capturing the silver medal," Robles said. “In the individual junior chef competition, her combination of herbs produced amazing flavors, which received rave reviews. Her menu for the junior chef competition included my famous pumpkin lemongrass soup as a sauce for her dish."
Furet's menu for the "Hawks Nest Paradise" dish she prepared for the the Junior Chef competition included names of Virgin Islands' locations. Ingredients included lemon balm marinated sautéed shrimp, garlic herb mashed yam, coconut nest, tamarind pickled onion, wild spinach accompanied with Bordeaux Mountain Pumpkin and lemongrass crema, and Mum’s Coral Bay Garden Dianthus.
