Categorized | National News

Student Chefs Battle It Out Another Year For a Chance At Scholarships

Student chefs are again wiping their brows in busy kitchens, eagerly anticipating the day they will put their newfound culinary skills to the test and compete for a chance at a scholarship to prestigious culinary university Johnson and Wales.

 

Island Flare’s sixth annual Food Fight, which fires up at the Bahamas National Trust on Friday June 3rd, will again feature plantain as its prime ingredient for each of three dishes the judges will critique.

 

The ultimate winners will be awarded a culinary boot camp at Johnson and Wales University’s Miami campus. And students preparing to graduate are eligible to receive a $10,000 per year scholarship to Johnson and Wales, if they maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher.

 

“This time of the year is when my anticipation begins to build and I get to feed off the passion and drive all these students have to win.” Said Island Flare president, Chef Jamall Petty.

 

“Every day after school a student comes over to the hotel to practice, so even when you feel tired you have someone in front of you who is hungry, and you know that whatever happens over the next couple of days will shape their career. That makes it all worth it.”

 

The Sandals Foundation has again given a generous monetary donation to Island Flare’s food fight and Master Technicians, Sunset Resort and Bahamas Local, have all come on board to make sure this event is a successful one for the students.

 

“None of this could be done without the sponsor,” said Chef Petty. “I’m just the bridge that brings it all together, whether it’s the chefs who coach or the companies who are community minded and see it as an opportunity to develop our youth. It’s that collaborative effort to help someone to succeed that makes it all come together.

 

Year after year the companies step up to the analogous plate, and according to Chef Petty, the Sandals Foundation has been a trendsetter in community development, “especially in the development of young industry professionals.”

 

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

 

“They may have talent, but not the means or resources to develop that,” said Chef Petty. “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 realize what their dream is.”

 

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Written by Jones Bahamas

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