PHILIPSBURG:--- Top Promotions Foundation is proud to announce, that after an absence of 5 years, their culinary event, Fete de La Cuisine, is back and will be held from November 4 through 12, 2022.
The Sint Maarten Tourism Bureau has deemed November as the culinary month. The Fete de La Cuisine provides excellence in gastronomy for foodies and to once again, positions Sint Maarten as the dining capital of the Caribbean.
The Fete de la Cuisine vision is to showcase, promote, celebrate and educate culinary excellence that exceeds the industry standard while creating dynamic community engagement and building a multi-faceted epicurean center for locals and visitors, utilizing local and visiting chefs.
This year, seven (7) chefs from the USA, Canada, and the Netherlands will demonstrate their cooking skills at a food/wine pairing event for local professionals and a 6-course Grand Gala Dinner Event on November 10. Proceeds of the Grand Gala Dinner Event will go towards the importance of disability awareness.
The invited chefs will also engage in a social activity with the students at the culinary institutes.
The invited chefs are:
USA – Preston Clark, Executive Chef at Lure Fish Bar in New York.
USA – Jake Sawabini, an alum of Wylie Dufresne’s Michelin-starred wd~50 and Shea Gallante’s Cru and Master Distiller at Empire Spirits Project in New York.
Canada – Robin Filteau-Boucher, chef/owner of Le Theophile Restaurant in Montreal
Netherlands – Dennis Middelkoop, chef/owner of Sense Restaurant in Den Bosch, a Michelin Restaurant
Netherlands – Willem Dankers, chef/owner of Restaurant Dorset in Borne, a Michelin Restaurant.
Netherlands - Joris Peeter, chef/owner of Aan de Zweth Restaurant in Schipluiden, a Michelin Restaurant.
Netherlands – Emiel Kwekkeboom, chef/owner of Restaurant Joann in Enschede, a Michelin Restaurant.
Netherlands – Andre van Doorn, Parton Cuisenier, Private Dining
Local chefs from the Dutch as well as French side will also get an opportunity to expose their talents. They will be engaged in preparing the Welcome Dinner of Fete de La Cuisine. This Welcome Dinner will be a fundraising event for the culinary team of Sint Maarten to attend the annual Caribbean culinary competition, Taste of the Caribbean in 2023.
Our local chefs will also prepare a farewell dinner for the guests from abroad on Saturday, November 12.
Fete de La Cuisine offers an opportunity for educational and social activities for the future chefs of Sint Maarten. Interaction between the visiting chefs and the local youth works as an inspiration for our youngsters. This year, the visiting chefs will engage in preparing a local lunch with the culinary students at Sundial School on Tuesday, November 8, for which dignitaries, some senior citizens, and less fortunate children will be invited.
In the afternoon of Tuesday, November 8, a Wine Tasting event will be held. Local wine purveyors and importers of fine foods and delicatessen will display their products. The public can visit the individual booths for tastings. Bottles of wines will also be available for purchase
From 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, the event will be open to professionals in the culinary field and invited guests only. They will be engaged in masterclasses in food and wine pairing.
From 6:00 pm, the Wine Tasting fair will be open to the public and will end at 9.30 pm.
A new element of this year’s Fete de La Cuisine is the Sint Maarten’s Spirits Tasting event on November 3 and 4. This 2-day event will allow attendees to set their biases aside and evaluate the spirits based solely on what's in the glass, and not what is mentioned on the fancy label. But even when you know what you're drinking, you can still learn a lot about spirits by tasting. A Master Distiller will be on hand at this event as well as two well-known two mixologists from New York City. An event which one can’t miss.
On November 11, Sint Maarten’s Day, Fete de La Cuisine will organize a Grand Beach and BBQ party with lots of fun activities.
A farewell dinner for the Fete de la Cuisine with jazz and cocktails, on Saturday, November 12, will mark the end of the culinary week. This dinner will bid farewell to the foreign participants of Fete de La Cuisine 2022. Jazz and cocktail tastings will be part of the program. This dinner is also open to the public. Prior to this dinner, there will the opening of an art exhibit by one of our local artists.
An event, held once before by the Fete de La Cuisine which was a great success, is the Lime Punch and Guavaberry competition. A team of experts will judge the entries and the winners will be crowned as the best Lime Punch and Guavaberry makers of 2022. The top 3 winners of each category will receive a monetary prize and a Fete de la Cuisine sticker, which they can place on their product mentioning their ranking in the 2022 competition. So, we would like to say to our local brewers, start preparing for this competition. Get information from your ancestors about how to make Lime Punch and Guavaberry and get to work.
More detailed information will be released leading up to the event. This publication is meant to get the first word out.
For more information on Fete de La Cuisine, contact Henri Brookson at +1.721.587.2678. Visit us at www.fetedelacuisine.com or www.fete.sxm.com. Facebook at sxm-fete.
