The St. Mary’s Academy (SMA) has secured the winning position at the 9th annual 4-H Dinner Plate Competition among three other high schools that competed.
The event took place at the Dominica Grammar School on Saturday, May 6, 2017.
SMA came out with an 89 point victory over the Pierre Charles Secondary holding 84 points; Convent High School, 81 points; Isaiah Thomas Secondary, 77 points.
Member of the SMA trio, Casim Birmingham, expressed deep satisfaction over being a part of the winning team.
“I feel extremely elated, and I feel well that all our hard work actually paid off because we really worked hard in trying to achieve our goal today,” he said.
The winning team prepared a dish titled ‘Angel’s Chicken Delight’ which was a boneless, skinless chicken thigh stuffed with mozzarella cheese, Bello peppers and spinach, with a passion fruit and tamarind infused sauce accompanied by sorrel jam with spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg, pulled together with roasted Bello peppers, and mashed potatoes garnished with parsley and carrots.
According to Birmingham, the team ensured that local produce was used as much as possible in the preparation of their dish.
“We tried to use mostly a lot of local vegetables as possible because we knew the judges were actually grading us on the use of local products,” he said.
The winning team is set to go to Barbados to compete amongst other aspiring chefs, and SMA is in the mindset of winning.
“We are ready. We are going to win. I definitely know that we are going to win because, in Barbados, there are a lot of talented young individuals like us, but I really hope that we can push through and actually win the title once again in Barbados,” Birmingham stated.
He encourages aspiring cooks/chefs to immerse themselves in at home practices and “be true to yourself.”
“Put your heart into cooking because once you love what you do, you can reach far,” he remarked.
See the other dishes below.
Congratulations to SMA culinary team. You are gifted. I can see how you won the first prize. The layout of the menu is neat; not crowded on the dish. It looks palatable.
Good luck in Barbados and your future culinary endeavor, if you decide to continue in this field.
Congratulations to all winners. However, a level playing field must be created for all participating clubs and standard rules and guidelines should govern the competition. This activity ought to be a motivating force and not a demotivator. I wish the young men success in Barbados.
So you see … boys can excel. Congratulations!!!!!!!
congrats to my nephew Malik and the others, I am so proud of you all. congrats to all participating. You all did it with a passion.
These dishes are making me hungry.
Congratulations SMA and all the other chefs of the future.
I wish these articles got the amount of comments the political garbage got. congratulations to these young men and women, may your culinary journey be bright.
Congrats guys you have made it again.
wowee! Amazing! Will it be aired anywhere? CBN4? Marpin? GIS?
Congrats guys! The dishes all look amazing. Good luck in Barbados.
Congrats to the winning team and to the other participants as well! It is wonderful to see youth given the opportunity to challenge themselves and produce something they can be proud of! Best of luck to you in Barbados, and in your future endeavours as well. One day you will look back on this as the first of many wins in your journey of success!
Isaiah Thomas Secondary’s dish looking good but the bone in the chicken is a turn off ….The winning dish is a clear wining dish.