The Ministry of Tourism announces the celebration of the country?s leading culinary competition this coming Tuesday, 21 June and Wednesday, 22 June at the Salon Las Carabelas of the Hotel V Centenario Inter-Continental. The Gastronomy Festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, the National Hotel & Restaurants Association and its Ladies Committee, the Association of Hotels of Santo Domingo, Association of Chefs of the Dominican Republic, and Caribbean Traveling Network, CTN, Channel 30, Telecable Tricom.
Organized by Simon Romero, the event seeks to stimulate the creativeness of chefs in the Dominican Republic and that of their work teams.
On Tuesday, the judges will choose the best dishes in the categories of sancocho, appetizers, corn and salted dishes, meats, Norwegian codfish, Dominican cuisine, rices, and sweets and pastries.
On Wednesday, the evening is dedicated to soups and stews, salads, pastas, poultry, fish and seafood, corn and sweet dishes, Dominican sweets.
The rules stipulate that participants can enter up to four dishes per variety. Judges rule on the first, second and third prize, with a special award to the best presentation.
For the 2005 edition, a RD$20,000 award and trophy will be presented to a dish prepared with beer, in the name of the Dominican Association of Beer Producers (Adoface). Likewise, Mercasid is donating RD$20,000 for the dish considered most creative by the judges. Mercasid is also contributing a RD$30,000 award to the chef of the hotel that receives the most first, second or third place awards in the contest.
Winners will be announced every evening at 9:30 pm. The deadline for their vote is 8 pm, time when the general public purchasing admission tickets to the event will enter for tasting.
Registered already for the event are the Hotel Embajador, Quality Hotel, Melia Hotel, Hodelpa Gran Almirante, Ocean Bavaro hotels, Hilton Santo Domingo and Restaurant Palmito Gourmet.