The Tribune

Student chefs are busily preparing their plantains for battle in Island Flare’s third annual Food Fight.

Students from Grades 11 and 12 will tomorrow pit their platters against each other in a top culinary competition for high school students.

The ultimate winners will be awarded a culinary boot camp at the Johnson and Wales University, which is renowned for its culinary excellence. And students preparing to graduate can receive a $10,000 scholarship to Johnson and Wales per year if a GPA of 3.0 or higher is maintained.

“We want to provide an avenue through which some of our students can cultivate their gifts,” said president of Island Flare, Chef Jamall Petty.

“They may have talent, but not the means or resources to develop that. We wanted to be a bridge to connect the students who have talent to institutions that would be able to partner with us to help to develop that skill and help them realise what their dream is.”

Chef Petty said plantain was the ingredient students have been challenged to use throughout the first two Food Fight competitions because of its versatility.

He said the dishes created during the past two food fights exceeded expectations, and that the food that has already been created for this year’s battle has been nothing short of “amazing”.

“For high school students you wouldn’t think they could go so deep,” he said.

“Plantain is one of those versatile ingredients. It is almost like a canvas; you can make it sweet or you can make it savoury, so it gives them something that will really take their creativity to build upon it.”

The Sandals Foundation and Sandals Royal Bahamian resort have partnered with Island Flare for this year’s Food Fight.

The Sandals Foundation donated $2,000 towards equipment the students will use to create their culinary masterpieces, and Sandals Royal Bahamian is hosting the semi-final round of the student-chef showdown.

Also backing the Food Fight are Albany, the Mall at Marathon, Kelly’s and Bahamas Local.

Past winners of the Food Fight have gone on to become chefs at the RIU, Paradise Island and Sandals Emerald Bay. A first place winner in Island Flare’s very first plantain challenge is now a chef at one of Walt Disney’s resorts.

“The guy who won the overall competition last year was in grade 11 and has a scholarship to Lincoln Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach waiting for him when he graduates,” said Chef Petty.