J’can food festival, restaurants land World Culinary Awards noms Loop Jamaica

Black Immigrant Daily News

While numerous promoters in the entertainment industry were unable to stage annual events during the pandemic, organizers of the Jamaica Food & Drink Festival pivoted to ensure they were not forgotten.

Hard work brings success, they say, as the festival made it to the finals of the third annual World Culinary Awards 2022 in the category “Caribbean’s Best Culinary Festival”.

The Jamaica Food and Drink Festival is up against Cayman Cookout, borne of the Cayman Islands, and St Barth Gourmet Festival of Saint-Barth?lemy Island (a Leeward Island).

In the category: Jamaica’s Best Restaurant 2022, Mystic India, Stush in the Bush, Summerhouse at Harmony Hall, and The HouseBoat Grill have all been nominated.

While in the Jamaica’s Best Hotel Restaurant 2022 category, Bayside Restaurant at Sandals Montego Bay, FuZion Asian Grill at Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall, Lotus House Restaurant at Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort & Spa; Sugar Mill at Half Moon Jamaica; The Restaurant at Round Hill Hotel & Villas; The Venetian at Beaches Negril; and Three Palms at Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa have been nominated, respectively.

In 2021, the JFDF won the World’s Best Culinary Festival and the Caribbean’s Best Culinary Festival after going up against countries like Dubai.

Nasma Mohammed-Chin, festival director, Jamaica Food and Drink Festival, said that reaching the finals for another consecutive year, was not an easy feat, he was tasked with innovating a virtual concept for the festival’s survival during the peak of the pandemic, the JFDF Experience in a Box.

“For Experience in a Box, we curated a food and drink experience [with items from] top local chefs and sponsors, and was safely delivered to [patrons],” Mohammed-Chin said.

The plans for 2021 not only resulted in the return of the festival but also the creation and launch of a new business concept: Jamaica Food & Drink Festival Kitchen – the first-rate, multi-purpose cooking studio and event space in Progressive Plaza, Kingston – which was launched in November.

JFDF Festival director Nasma Mohammed-Chin

The 2021 staging of the Jamaica Food & Drink Festival took place at that location in the form of a 10-day calendar of events with mixology and cooking with a limited number of patrons who sang praises for the events.

Mohammed-Chin believes the festival is deserving of being among the top three in the Caribbean as the organisers have consistently delivered well-curated events for the past eight years.

“A big part of what we wanted to do was redefine the gastronomy tourism sector in Jamaica because we have persons that come in for sun, sea and sand. We’re really known for our music, but we didn’t have a thriving tourism industry that is around food, and of course, we know that people are looking around for more experiences,” she explained.

She noted that the idea of the festival derived from the annual South Beach Food & Wine Festival and the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience.

Johnnie Walker execs Lyshon Davis (L) and Bethany Young inside the Jamaica Food and Drink Kitchen. (File)

“We travelled a lot. We did a lot of research as we knew what the template for a successful festival should be, and we started implementing here. We spent the last couple of years creating a world-class Festival that is now highly sought after [and on] the Jamaica events calendar, the end of October every year,” she said.

Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett congratulated Jamaica Food and Drink Festival for again being shortlisted among the countries across the globe for the World Culinary Awards, ’22.

“I am very pleased to learn that the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival has again been nominated for the coveted award…this is a clear indication that our culinary offerings are enjoyed and appreciated across the globe and underscores the true value of gastronomy tourism to our destination,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett also stated that the nomination is quite timely, highlighting the commemoration of Jamaica’s 60th year of independence, a celebration of many things, including Rock cuisine.

“We celebrate our island’s ‘melting pot of flavours’ from various cultural backgrounds, which makes the unique gastronomy experience that Jamaica provides distinguishable across borders and traditions. I commend the organisers of the Jamaica Food and Drink Festival on their latest nomination, and for their continued commitment to building Brand Jamaica,” the minister added.

World Culinary Award serves to celebrate and reward excellence in the culinary industry through an annual awards programme. World Culinary Awards is the sister event of World Travel Awards, which inaugurated in 1994.

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