Junior chef sets sights on Taste of the C’bean 2018

Junior Chef Kiara Riley is just 19 years old, but she has big goals.

As a member of the Barbados Culinary Team, she is practising hard to achieve her goal of attending the Taste of the Caribbean 2018, to be held in Miami, Florida, in the USA later this year, so she can make her mark there in her chosen field.

While on location at the training base at Divi Southwinds Hotel in St. Lawrence, Christ Church recently, Riley spoke about what pushed her to enter the competition in the first place, to allow her to be a part of the Barbados Culinary Team and she also spoke of how the training has been going so far.

“I am one of the juniors practising with the Barbados Culinary Team for 2018. The whole thing came about because I did a competition in Michigan last year in October, to represent Barbados,” she explained.

“This is basically four months I have been working in the industry so far. So when I started, my chef was like, ‘The Barbados team is selecting persons, why don’t you go ahead and (sign up)?’ So he brought the form and I was like, ‘Chef, I am not ready as yet.’ He said, ‘Don’t mind, go and try your hand at it. I know you can do it’, and I went and did it and I was able to make the finals on the day of eliminations and that is where it all began,” Riley said of her experience.

“Right now for me it is a whole learning experience, because as I said this is only roughly four months that I am in the industry and the knowledge that I have gained from the seniors, from chef, it is an eye-opener. I can only go forward (from here). In the future, I can see myself pushing far because I have the support of people that I have now met and people that I have known before,” Riley asserted.

Taste of the Caribbean is an annual event that highlights the art of Caribbean cooking, as it brings together top chefs and bartenders from the region to compete for honours in a variety of food and beverage competitions.

Henderson Butcher, Manager of the Barbados Culinary Team, has meanwhile noted that last year’s team claimed most of the gold medals in the disciplines allotted. Following on from last year’s success at the event, there are even higher expectations for this year’s group. (RSM)