Education
Barbadian Chef Rickeena Kirton Vies for Top Honors in International Culinary Competition
Chef Rickeena Kirton, head chef at Rockley Barbados, won the BHTA competition to compete for a spot on the Barbados National Culinary team. She aims to showcase her pastry skills at the Taste Of The Caribbean competition.
5 min read
Originally published by nationnews.com (opens in new tab)
When life gives you lemon you make lemonade and chef Rickeena Kirton will also use it to make a pastry plate that might win a national or international competition.
The 32-year-old head chef at the Rockley Barbados placed first in the BHTA’s competition to earn a place to vie for a spot on the BHTA’s Barbados National Culinary team for the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association’s Taste Of The Caribbean competition in Miami, Florida come November.
With the competition on hiatus for four years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Barbados team are the reigning champions after being named the 2019 Caribbean Culinary Team Of The Year.
Rickeena will be looking to best her regional counterparts with her eye-catching and tasty desserts.
“This is my first time ever entering this competition. I have entered the Nevis Mango Festival and won but this is my first time trying out for the Barbados national team.
“I wanted to be a part of this and create dishes indigenous to Barbados. Pastry is my passion but I am versatile.”
The former Princess Margaret Secondary School, Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic and the PomMarine Institute student found the judges’ favour as they picked her as the pastry chef who will represent Barbados in that category.
“The day of the competition I put God first. I was confident and had a clear mind. I said ‘I am going to go into this competition and do my best.’”
The young chef was clueless as to who her rivals were. “I only saw them the morning on that day.”
The rules were to create a signature dish.
“In my mind, I wanted to use my dish to be a part of something on the island, so I used the inspiration of the Andromeda Gardens and I plated my dish whimsical and more fun around the garden aspect . . . trying to take you back to some childhood nostalgia, like all the flavours we would have had growing up like picking pomegranates and so on .”
Competitors had four hours to produce a plate to knock the judges’ socks off.
“I tried to use as much indigenous things. The morning before, I spent the day sourcing jamoon with a ladder on a paling,” she said, laughing.
“I wanted to keep it local and try to take it back to the roots. When they called my name as the winner, I was happy, elated and thanking God. Everybody came and put their best foot forward.”
The dish was a chocolate plant pot filled with a molasses gingercake, a white chocolate mousse with a grapefruit pouilly, a soursoup and coconut ice-cream, chocolate coffee crumble, a jamoon and sorrel gel, a starnise pomegranate compote and an old-time ponche crème on the side.
