Caribbean Chefs ready for Culinary Competition
Taste of the Caribbean culinary competition will include 13 national teams from across the region, as part of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Conference (CHTC), to start next Sunday in Miami, Florida.

Peter J. Odle, president of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), announced a return to a more streamlined, efficient annual conference of the Caribbean hospitality industry.

The annual CHA convention (formerly the Caribbean Hotel Industry Conference, CHIC) is now the Caribbean Hotel Tourism Conference, a more inclusive two-day meeting (June 17-19) with greater emphasis on education, following a survey on how the annual convention should be and discuss.

The conference agenda, which is a day shorter, rests largely on ten business development sessions.

In a new twist to the Taste of the Caribbean 2007 competition guidelines, all teams will compete simultaneously, preparing their own unique Caribbean menus based on a mystery basket of ingredients, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, on Monday, June 18th.

The competition culminates with one grand dinner extravaganza featuring all 13 three-course menus.

The competing culinary teams are from Anguilla, Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, Grenada, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad Tobago, United States Virgin Islands.

In addition, each national culinary team will also host a demonstration of its country's indigenous cuisine, highlighting the region's rich diversity and variety.

A third component of CHTC 2007 is a trade exposition, with dedicated business hours that do not conflict with the educational sessions.