YOUNG WEST INDIAN chefs are being encouraged to make Caribbean cuisine more recognisable internationally in order to move it to the next level.
This is advice coming from chef Anton Doos, culinary arts instructor of Executive Chef, of United States Virgin Islands, during the opening of the Caribbean Junior Culinary Conference in Wildey yesterday.
He said West Indians ought to see themselves as a unit culturally but the region was not united in terms of its cuisine.
Participants from seven Caribbean countries attending the four-day conference will be exposed to lectures from a cross section of interests, including sponsors Roberts Manufacturing and the Caribbean Examinations Council.
Doos, who said the World Association of Chefs was interested in combining the Caribbean into one unit, said that the region’s “food has to be sexy” in order “to bring it to the next level”.
He told the aspiring chefs it was in their hands to present the next new idea for marketing Caribbean foods and take a second look at those natural things around them, check what their grandmothers did and share their recipes.
“Never forget your roots and build on them.”
The youngsters were also told to work closely with farmers and think of their clientele.
?Cranston Browne, chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation lauded chef Peter Edey, the producer of the conference, for his initiative in preserving the culture of Barbados and the Caribbean through its cuisine.
“The conference is timely. The culinary arts is probably the most export-ready industry,” he said.
