Courtesy of: Tina Escobedo
PALM BEACH – The students in EPI’s culinary program have been hard at work in the kitchen preparing for the Student Chef Competition portion of the Westin’s Wine, Food & Art Festival. This will be the eighth installment of the annual event that pairs great food, wine, and art in two events held this Thursday, September 12 and Friday, September 13.
Last year, the Student Chef Competition was well received and attended by several hundred guests. The open house format allows festival attendees to sample gourmet noshes prepared by several teams of chefs, each with a professional chef mentor to provided guidance and expertise. Along with each teams culinary offerings, three of our local wine purveyors—Pepia Est., Romar Trading, and Tropical Bottling— will be offering complimentary wine tastings from their portfolios to enjoy with the food. Food for the competition is generously donated by Caribbean Overseas and Frasa.
Tickets are $45 per person, including service charge & BBO, and will be available at the concierge desk at The Westin Resort & Casino, Aruba, as well as at the Valero Gas Station in downtown Oranjestad just before the cruise ship terminal.
The festival’s first event is this Thursday, offering a new concept to the festival—Aruba’s Iron Chef and Iron Sommelier. Competing chefs are Scott Scheurman from Aqua Grill, Urvin Croes from White Modern Cuisine, and Erwin Husken from Screaming Eagle. Each chef will receive a “mystery basket” of four items with a pre-determined amount of time to prepare an appetizer, main course, and dessert. They will present their creations to ta panel of judges who will have the privilege of selecting the first Iron Chef of Aruba.
The evening will consist of a three-course dinner prepared by our Celebrity Chefs. Each course will be served with three different wines, which will be provided by Pepia Est., Romar Trading, and Tropical Bottling. From these three wines, guests will be the judges selecting the first Iron Sommelier of Aruba. Tickets for this event are $69 per person including service charge and BBO, and will be available at the concierge desk at The Westin Resort & Casino, Aruba as well as Valero Gas Station.
