Fresh off his showing at the Food Network Concert at Ravinia event, Chef Simeon Hall is on the move again -- this time he's headed for Florida to participate in the Publix Jerk Cook-off and Celebrity Quick Fire Competition.
At the heart of the Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival will be the exciting, super-charged cooking competitions. The 13th annual event takes place on Sunday, November 9 at Markham Park in Sunrise, Florida, during which time pro chefs and amateurs will bring the spices and the flavors.
Hall will compete in the celebrity cook-off during which he will have to prepare a meal that features the technique of jerk, using Grace spices. He will have 30 minutes to produce the meal and has no idea what ingredients he will have to use.
He is confident going into the cook-off, having learned the techniques of traditional jerk through his travels around the Caribbean - including Jamaica, where he worked.
"Having picked up the influences of the Caribbean, I consider myself a Caribbean chef, and not just a Bahamian chef," said Hall. "The influences are all intertwined."
The competition won't be a "walk in the park" for Hall who is known to "paint culinary masterpieces. He will be going up against Haitian chef Vicky Colas, the 2012 Caribbean Chef of the Year in the quick fire challenge. Colas' highly acclaimed cooking style has been described as "sweet, exotic and bursting with flavor. Her food is said to be a portrait of [her] love".
Cook-off organizer June Minto said it will be fun to watch who will emerge the winner when Hall and Colas do battle in spicy Jamaican jerk style.
Hall will also demonstrate a fried bread recipe that he said all Caribbean countries have in some shape or form. The Bahamian traditional fried bread, according to Chef Hall is Johnny "Journey" Cake, which, he said, was traditionally fried in a skillet before people starting placing them in baking pans.
At the Miami competition, he will transform Johnny Cake into a savory island donut filled with smoked jerk pork glazed with honey goat pepper. It's a recipe he worked on last week while in Grenada and which he said worked well.
"I think it's going to be fantastic," he said.
"The competitions will be fierce, intense and maybe even cut-throat [but] at the same time participants having loads of fun," said Minto, who is also one of the festival organizers. "This year's Celebrity Quick Fire Challengers will wow the crowd with their culinary competency. Just imagine Bahamian and Haitian cuisine fusion with the number [one] spice in the world -- jerk."
Hall, who was invited to participate in the cook-off, said that, for him, the invitation meant that The Bahamas was finally getting recognition in outside arenas.
Hall is encouraging Bahamians living in Florida, and those who will be visiting that weekend to attend the event en-masse to lend their support.
"It's a huge event, so I encourage people to come out. And even though it's Jamaican-centric, it's a Caribbean event," he said.
Consul General Franz Hall and newly elected representative of the Diaspora Board, Wayne Golding will duke it out in the Celebrity Quick Fire Challenge. There will be no room for diplomacy in this fierce cook-off.
Publix Cook-off defending champion Jimmie Jackson will go up against newcomers, chefs Rocco Nankervis and Andre Walker, along with two other competitors.
Other cooking demos will come from Sandi Morales, fitness lifestyle coach and author of "Recipe For Life", a vegetarian/vegan cookbook. Other judges include Chef Chad Cherry from Bring Organics Back, who has cooked for President Barack Obama, and Hilton Hotel Executive Chef Nicole Rhone.
In keeping with the family-friendly nature of the festival, organizers have included a cooking competition with children nine to 12 from the City of Tamarac's "Cooking for Kids".
"We have added this new element to the cook-off area as a way to get the kids even more involved in the festival. And, it's also a means by which they can show that they can create wonderful dishes too," said Minto.
The festival has also partnered with Joshua's Heart, a charity founded by a Joshua Williams with the mission to stomp out hunger. For eight years, Joshua, who is now 13, has been working to ensure the less fortunate in Miami have food. To help in his quest, organizers are encouraging patrons and their children to bring a non-perishable food item to the festival. Joshua, along with volunteers from the Partners for Youth foundation, will be on-hand to accept the gifts. For a list of items to bring and to learn more about this charity, visit joshuasheart.org.

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