Top U.S. chefs will converge on St. Croix next month for a week of dinners, wine tastings, lectures and book signings, climaxing with St. Croix’s best chefs and cooks competing at the annual Taste of St. Croix at Divi Carina Bay Resort April 18.
This is the 13th Taste of St. Croix, an annual benefit for the St. Croix Foundation, that attracts upwards of 2,000 food fanciers out to mingle and taste the artistry of more than 50 competing restaurants, caterers, amateur and semi-pro cooks, and chefs of every description.
The Taste of St. Croix, which the Forbes Magazine online travel site, Forbestravel.com, has named one of the 10 best food events in the world, has blossomed into a weeklong slate of food events raising money for charitable work and career culinary training and education called the St. Croix Food and Wine Experience.
Taste of St. Croix is now the third largest event on St. Croix’, after the Crucian Christmas Festival and the V.I. Agrifest, according to St. Croix Foundation President Roger Dewey.
A panel of judges, including celebrity chefs from around the U.S. and the Caribbean, will taste the offering of St. Croix’s chefs, cooks and restaurateurs. This year’s visiting chefs include:
– Mike Lata of FIG and The Ordinary in Charleston, S.C.;
– Paula DaSilva of 1500° in Miami.;
– Todd Gray, chef and co-owner of Equinox in Washington, D.C.;
– Simon Stojanovic of Altamare Restaurant in Miami;
– and Josef DeSimone, Tony Castelluci and Dean Spinks, the Facebook culinary team who serve 2,300 meals a day at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.
Tickets are already on sale online for every event except the Taste of St. Croix, which will go on sale Saturday at a price of $95 per person. Click on St. Croix Food and Wine Experience Tickets in related links below to purchase.
St. Croix Food and Wine Event 2013 schedule:
– Cuisine on the Green – A fun tournament with bites and spirits at select tees at Carambola Golf Club and Resort (April 14);
– Gourmet Vintner Dinner – Fantastic dinner with Chef Todd Gray of Equinox (April 16);
– City Crawl – Sample food & beverages at Angry Nates, John Eddie’s Low Life Bar & Refuge and You Are Here (April 16);
– Food Fight! on the Beach – Cheer on celebrity chefs in a part game show part iron chef competition (April 17);
– Book Signing – Chef Todd Gray’s newest book – The New Jewish Table. Pre-order it today at Undercover Books (April 17);
– The Galleon Wine Dinner – Wines by Banfi Vintners (April /17);
– A Taste of St. Croix – Tickets on sale Friday at 10 a.m. (April 18);
– Cork & Fork Dinners – Elegant private dinner in a fantastic private home on St. Croix. Paula DaSilva of 1500 degrees prepares one and Mike Lata of FIG Restaurant and The Ordinary prepares the other (April 19);
– Sunset BBQ – Chefs Josef DeSimone, Dean Spinks and Tony Castellucci of the Facebook Culinary Team, Chef Simon Stojanovic of Altamare and St. Croix’s own CTEC students "make magic under the Caribbean sunset" (April 19);
– Kids Cooking – Local Chefs Cleantha and the Crucian Contessa make cooking fun for the whole family (April 20);
– Wine in the Warehouse – A tasting of wine in the chilly Leeward Islands warehouse to finish a fantastic week (April 20).
