The winning entrée - salmon a la garde served with mashed plantain. Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
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Jody-Anne Lawrence • Staff ReporterThe STAFF of the Ministry of Finance and Planning proved that they were experts in more than addition and subtraction as they showed off their culinary skills during their first Go Green Cook-off last Friday.
The five teams, each having five members, smartly named after their departments. These included the Corporate Services Department's 'CSD Giants'; Economic Management Division's ' EMD Eco Chefs'; Public Service Establishment Division's 'SHRM Foodies (Strategic Human and Resources Management); Internal Audit's Culinary Auditors; and Finance and Accounts' Chefs in the Balance.
The cook-off had a smooth start as teams were allotted 30 minutes to prepare a scrumptious appetiser. Judges took note of how the teams worked together and kept their stations, but the proof came in the tasting.
CSD Giants were the first to present their vegetable medley, which included salt fish.
EMD Eco Chefs prepared what they called a fiscal spread on French bread, which was an avocado-based spread mixed with callaloo, feta cheese, garlic, salt and lime juice.
SHRM followed with their own SHRM Medley served with garlic bread.
OUT OF THE BOX
Culinary Auditors took it out of the box, preparing a vegetable cupcake without flour which, unfortunately, did not turn out as well as they had hoped, because they did not have enough time for it to cool, but their efforts were commended.
And finally, Chefs in the Balance prepared a guacamole surprise - seasoned diced avocado.
The judges - Chef Theo Smith from Great House Caterers and Shina Cole from Papine High - took their time to taste each dish, cleaning their palate after each bite so that they could fully embrace the taste of each element of each dish. The end result was EMD Eco Chefs stealing the show with their fiscal spread.
The entrée section then followed with the teams creating flaming, healthy dishes in 45 minutes. Those who watched were caught up in a real culinary exhibition. Teams expertly prepared dishes such as shrimp à la vegetaria wrap by Culinary Auditors and sweet potato mash with herb chicken in red wine sauce by SHRM Foodies. There was also the spicy chicken breast in creamy pasta served with healthy stir-fry by Chefs in the Balance, while CSD Giants prepared grilled fish in pineapple sauce, and EMD Eco Chefs prepared international salmon a la garde.
While the judges took their time to savour the flavours of these dishes, the contestants went back to prepare their healthy beverages in 15 minutes. They blended, strained and mixed. SHRM Foodies were the winners for the juice category with their SHRM Medley that included beet root, mango and carrots. The juices were to be made without any added sugar.
The winning entrée was EMD Eco Chefs' international salmon a lagarde. In third place was CSD Giants, with SHRM Foodies in second. The second- and third-place winners received gift baskets, while the first-place winners received a trophy and $20,000.