The Barbados Food and Rum Festival returns for 2023 and the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) has partnered with 22 local chefs and mixologists to showcase the best of Barbados’ culinary talent and cuisine.
The Festival will take place this year, October 19th-22nd under the theme ‘Feed the Future’, once again showing the company’s commitment to developing the future of young, local talent.
In addition to the local chef line-up, the BTMI has also partnered with three international chefs as they continue to elevate the Festival on the world stage.
Culinary Talent on display
BTMI’s Director, Public Relations and Corporate Communications, Aprille Thomas said that this year’s group of chefs and mixologists highlighted the diversity of Barbados’ culinary talent.
2023 Chefs Announcement
This October, the chefs were challenged to create dishes using 50 per cent Barbadian ingredients, rum and a mystery ingredient that they selected from the Mystery Box.
Similarly, the mixologists selected their local mystery ingredients to incorporate in their rum cocktails.
International Chefs
Thomas also announced the names of this year’s International chef line-up.
She explained that the US and UK represent the largest percentage of visitors to Barbados and therefore, believed that this will be a great selling point as they marketed the Festival in these markets.
In fact, the BTMI will be showcasing the Barbados Food and Rum Festival at the upcoming National Geographic Food Festival in London from July 15-17.
Two Barbadian mixologists and one chef will be on display, accompanied by UK Chef for the Festival, Shelina Permalloo.
Furthermore, the Director explained that the partnership with Chef Juan Diego was integral as the BTMI continued to focus on further establishing Barbados’ presence in the Latin American market, which is considered a new and emerging market.
For the BTMI, this partnership and setting up an office in Panama will help the organization to further solidify its presence in Latin America.
Tickets for this year’s Barbados Food and Rum Festival go on sale to the public on July 14, 2023 on www.foodandrum.com.