Catch Ah Fire, Run Ah Boat!
On the eve of the second annual Table Talk Food Awards – The Cayman Islands Edition, presented by the Best Dressed Chicken, The Jamaica Broilers Group President and CEO Christopher Levy hosted a private dinner at the multi-award-winning Catch Restaurant & Lounge — an ocean-front al fresco nook in West Bay, Cayman Islands, which specialises in surf and turf.
With the arrival of guests came good humour and bonhomie as the two-pronged dinner party served to introduce the 2016 Cayman Food Awards judges to the fold, and feature the culinary skills of the award-winning chef Jon Herzog — who copped the Chef of the Year title. The Catch Restaurant & Lounge also got the nod for the 2016 Restaurant of the Year and Best Ambience.
The à la carte affair featured a selection of Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato, and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from vineyards in Italy, California, France, and Marlborough, New Zealand. For the amuse-bouche guests enjoyed a snow crab clove courtesy of Caribbean Gourmet Food & Catering Limited proprietor and Cayman Food Awards judge Stephen Trench. Appetisers included a colourful braised-jerk-oxtail-stuffed ravioli with a creamy butterbean purée and tomato pepper jam, and the scrumptious tuna and wahoo tartare made with diced local tuna and wahoo tossed in a seaweed salad with avocado and sesame soy dressing served with wonton chips — crunch and salty. The salads were most colourful and vibrant, representing a Caribbean taste with specialty dressings like the carrot-ginger-orange vinaigrette, the earthy beet vinaigrette, or its lemon thyme season pepper alternative.
Main options “From The Sea” ranged from the sweet and spicy snapper and shrimp Cayman style — roasted local red snapper and jumbo shrimp in a pepper and onion sauce served with coconut rice and sautéed vegetables — to the sumptuous seafood pasta: linguine with shrimp, scallops, mussels, lobster, fresh fish and crab in a tomato saffron sauce. “From The Land” offerings included the 16 oz Angus ribeye, the 8oz Angus beef fillet, and the Harissa-crusted rack of lamb — medium rare rack of lamb with a couscous salad of cucumber, tomato, herbs and housemade Merguez sausage.
Naturally there were desserts from raspberry crème brûlée to the melt-in-your-mouth blueberry bread pudding with a surprise mango sauce, and the coconut crème pie.
Thursday Life’s napkin is spread.
(Photos: Garfield Robinson)
(Photos: Garfield Robinson)
