THERE’s a lot about the African culture that draws people out of their homes year after year to head down to the National Park for the Emancipation celebrations, and the food is a huge part of it.

And for the past three years the ‘Chief Seasoning Cook Up Competition’, has been creating quite the buzz, and bringing about new interests in patrons, many of whom flocked the competition last Thursday to see how it was all going to go down, and to sample the mouthwatering varieties of cook up that were available.

For the third year in a row Linden’s Waveney Doris’ vegetarian cook up proved to be unbeatable, and she prevailed over nine other competitors in the vegetarian category. Taste aside, Doris’ delicious dish had one of the best presentations of the day, and her win came as no surprise.

Doris, who lost her husband just two months ago, said it is her love for cooking that helped her push through and return to defend her title. This year she was assisted by her 35-year-old son.

“I love cooking vegetarian food, I can cook meat but I really love cooking vegetarian,” commented the mother of six.

Second place for this category was shared by Alecia Charles and Brittny Grant, while third place went to Rajdai Doris.

The other category of the competition, the ‘Obstacle’ Cook up category, where participants can add any meat they desire to their pots, was won by Nicola Davis. Last year’s winner in this category, Elvis Shepherd, did not enter this year to defend his title.
It was another shared second place, which went to Pinky Kerr and Tabitha Singh. Third place in the category was Joan Hill.

Sponsored by Ansa McAl under its Chief Seasoning brand, the competition has been growing immensely despite only being three years old. When the competition first began in 2013 it started with 13 entries, this year there were 36 participants, the organizers closed off entries over concerns of the venue to accommodate all of the participants.

Nonetheless, the company is looking forward to see the competition grow even more next year, as are the patrons. Many commended the nice addition that it has been to the annual Emancipation Celebrations. Patrons could not stop praising the food and the atmosphere that the event created.

“The atmosphere is immaculate, the outfits, the ambience, it’s peaceful and friendly,” commented Raphael Douglas, who was at the competition for the first time, and promises he’s going to keep coming back for as long as they keep having it.

“The cook up is an emblem of how tasty our culture is. Obviously I’m coming back next year, definitely inviting all my friends,” he quipped.

Once the judging of the competition is over, patrons can judge the participants for themselves, as the cook up is then shared to patrons free of cost. The cook up was prepared on site, with participants given some 2 hours to get their pots together.

Each participant was provided with the rice, peas and Chief cook up Seasonings but they were responsible for bringing their own variety meats and other ingredients.
One young lady suggested other companies come on board to sponsor even more African food competitions.

“I’ve always loved African food it’s just naturally amazing. Maybe they extended the menu to metem, or white pudding or souse,” commented 21 year old Noelle Gibson, who was out at the celebration with friends and spent the day sampling food from all across the Park.

The contestants were judged on a 20-point system based on the food’s aroma, its presentation, and of course, the taste. This year Media personality Gordon Moseley, comedian Odessa Primus returned as judges and were joined by Principal of Carnegie School of Home Economics, Myrna Lee.

The Cook Up Competition was just one section where people were all abuzz about just how much they enjoy coming out at Emancipation to enjoy the traditional Afro-Guyanese dishes. All across the circuit of the National Park, persons could purchase just about any traditional food that they could think off.
And many of them did.