“How do we make it different?” This was the question facing the officers of the Third Battalion, The Jamaica Regiment, recently, when they first started to think about hosting the Annual Victoria Cross Dinner.

Each year an infantry battalion of the Jamaica Defence Force hosts the event to honour the heroism of two soldiers who served in the West India Regiment in the 19th Century.

The Victoria Cross is the highest honour that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth Forces and was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1856. This then makes it a very big deal for the Force.

The event can be likened to a state dinner and guests are required to wear mess kits (formalwear for the military) or black tie. Invitations are hard to come by, with the guest list restricted to serving and past members of the infantry and few civilian guests. And since it is so restricted, the VC Dinner has gathered a reputation of some mystique. But still, how would they make it different?

With the Governor General Sir Howard Cooke expected as the chief guest this year, the men and woman (there is one female officer in the reserve, Captain Velmore Lyons Morgan) were eager to design something special that would break the laboured monotony of the event, while at the same time respect its tradition.

And so it was to the tradition that they looked for inspiration. Considering that VC medal awardees Sergeant William Gordon and Lance Corporal Samuel Hodge lived in the 19th Century, the event hosts sought to reflect the lifestyle and culture of Jamaica at that time.

The first step was, of course, the menu. Research of 19th century cuisine turned up formidable menus which were intriguing but would not have triumphed on modern palates, with such treats as the English Monkey (breadcrumbs soaked in milk then mixed with cheese eggs and bicarbonate of soda, cooked and served on wafers) or bacon and oranges.

Eschewing the drama of vintage recipes, the team decided instead to create a classic Jamaican menu that would find pleasure in any era: cream of corn soup, roasted salmon on a bed of greens with a mustard vinaigrette; chicken breast braised in pimento; roasted leg of lamb with lime pepper jelly; honey-glazed string beans and walnuts; roasted vegetables and rice and gungo.

For desert, Matrimony (oranges, otahieti apples and naseberries) topped with coconut was ingeniously served in coconut shells, accompanied by Blue Drawers, the traditional pudding of cornmeal and coconut, steamed in banana leaves and this time drizzled with a rum sauce.

Celebrated chef Norma Shirley was approached to have the JDF team observe her kitchen operations so they could gain valuable insight, but Shirley went one up, generously offering to have two of her restaurant’s chefs join the JDF team on the evening of the dinner. This was signal enough that this year’s event was going to be something special.

The next challenge was the staging at the Jamaica Officer’s Club, and grounded by a modest budget the officers-turned-event-planners dug deep into their creative wells to design a setting that was as grand as it was unique.

Referring to Jamaica’s colonial history, sugar cane was used as a design motif, with bunches of cane forming an arch at the entrance and placed throughout the venue. The imagery could also be seen on the room’s two-foot thick columns which were enveloped in cotton, dyed to look like giant stalks of sugar cane.

The JDF has an outstanding collection of silverware dating as far back as the early 1800s. The pieces range from a three-foot high candelabra to intricately detailed salt and pepper shakers, and more than 20 pieces were selected to decorate the tables which were dressed in dramatic red.

A coconut thatch hut was where Wray and Nephew served traditional planters punch, much to the delight of those present. A place à table instructed guests as to the location of their seats, and to recreate the candlelit ambiance of a 19th Century dinner, crepe paper was artfully placed to dim the harshness of the fluorescent lamps.

More than 120 guests were at the dinner, including representatives from American and Canadian forces and the British Army. The dinner was filmed by the BBC for a documentary on the West India Regiment, which will air in the fall.

And so, from its exquisite menu to the history-inspired setting, the 39th Annual Victoria Cross Dinner was executed with precision and elegance from thought to finish.