Courtesy of: The Morning News
A refreshed and re-invented Aruba Wine, Food & Art Festival opened on Thursday evening, September 12, with the island’s first Iron Chef Competition, pitting three of the most respected masters of Aruban restaurant kitchens in a tense, tough contest in the Westin Resort Ballroom. Hundreds of connoisseurs of fine wine and food purchased tickets to enjoy this exciting evening, which included dinner and a wine tasting contest, where the Iron Sommelier was decided by popular vote of all those attending.
Competitors for the Iron Chef title, Scott Scheuerman of Aqua Grill and Edwin Husken of Screaming Eagle restaurants joined the winner of the contest, Urvin Croes, of Modern White Cuisine, and the Westin Resort’s Chef Darwyn, as the judges of the final festival event on Friday evening, the EPI Culinary School Student Contest.
Six teams of four fledgling chefs, now studying at Aruba’s EPI School, one of the most respected in the region, providing the elegant fare for the congenial event, while also competing for coveted prizes. Each team was mentored by an established chef, but the creations that comprised the evening buffet menu were all their own. It was accompanied by unlimited wine tasting from top island spirits distributors. Romar Trading, Tropical Bottling, Pepia Est and Aruba Trading Company offered dozens of prize vintages to compliment the gourmet buffet prepared by the students.
This popular public event is a bargain, with unlimited food, wine and live music, lasting until 1:00 AM. Completing the “Art” part of the festival is a display and sale of works by island artists, which this year, was quite extensive; over 40 pieces. “Curators on the Go”, Michiko Takatsu and Eduardo Valbuena, who run the Westin Art Gallery, organized the exhibit/sale. This also included a raffle for a work in progress, evolving before attendees eyes, with creative input from several well-known island artists. The proceeds from the raffle and 10% of all art sales will be donated to an island charity.
The competing students presented an assortment of elegant amuse-bouche, tasty, bite size samplings of duck, pork, shrimp, and other gourmet treats, in unlimited amounts. The Westin provided a sumptuous dessert table of tiramisu, triple chocolate cake and mango/passion fruit cheesecake. Frasa Trading, which sponsored the food stuffs for the students to prepare their entries, also featured a table of interesting items they distribute to island markets, easily prepared at home.
Westin’s Food & Beverage Manager, Justin Carson, took on the MC duties for the evening in announcing the winners of the Student Chef Competition. Fourth place went to the team preparing Roast Pork with Raspberry Fizz. As in actual international food events, the judges provided each team with a constructive critique of their creations, such as advising the fourth place winners to have balanced their dish with something sour or spicy, as too many elements were only sweet.
The Third Place Winners, “EPI Team Peace” which prepared a very interesting Duck Ceviche, served in shot glasses, were complimented on the unique cooking method of the duck, but advised to cut back on the alcohol content of the dish.
Second place was won by the team mentored by White Modern Cuisine, which served up an elegant Chicken Yakitori. The judges were highly complementary, but advised it could use “just a little more spicing up.”
All four chefs had no criticism whatsoever of the contest winner, a Mediterranean Fish Cake devised and prepared by student chefs Jaidee, Moses, Yesman and Christy. They termed it “absolutely fabulous, a perfect blend of Mediterranean flavors and textures.” The thrilled team of young chefs were awarded several gift certificates from the Westin Resort.
Festival organizers report that the popular Aruba Wine, Food & Art Festival will return to its regular slot on the local event calendar in 2014, which is usually late June or early July. They feel this shortened two-day version, with competitions that best showcase the talent of Aruba’s most celebrated and future chefs, was a great success, and they look forward to seeing more astounding culinary acrobatics next year.
