It was a day filled with aromas, flavours, herbs and spices, chicken and tilapia, healthy cooking and stiff competition as Atlantis’ Health & Safety Department showcased its first Battle of the Stars culinary competition.

Focusing on healthy cooking and featuring ingredients ordinarily stocked in Atlantis’ two employee cafeterias – Stars Royal Towers and the Team Dining Room at The Cove – Battle of the Stars was held as a component of Health & Safety’s Love to Live Wellness campaign.

“Love to Live is about encouraging our colleagues to live a healthy lifestyle and we want to drive home the fact that a healthy employee begets a more happy and productive employee,” explains Health & Safety Director Aisha Neely.

She adds, “Battle of the Stars was conceptualized as a fun way to help promote our campaign… Every year we try to ensure that we are encouraging healthy lifestyles with our employees, and we aim to do so through creative and innovative ideas that will peak the interest of our colleagues and make them see the benefits to living healthy so they will want to live and maintain a healthy way of living.”

Representing Stars Cafeteria in the Royal Towers were Omiyo Williams and Deja Rutherford, while Jonathan Rolle and Marilyn Alcinor stood tall for the Team Dining Room at The Cove. Each team had to prepare pre-determined healthy entrées - one using chicken and one using tilapia – within a set time of 45 minutes.

They were judged on taste, appearance, creativity and naturally, whether the dish was truly prepared as a healthy meal. Judges for the event included Chefs Sterling Thompson and Ellie Saunders from the Culinary and Hospitality Management at COB, Nutritionist Donovan Ingraham, and Dr. Inderia Minus Grimes.

When it was all said and done, Williams and Rutherford captured the top spot overall, while Williams, who is also Atlantis’ reigning Chopped FQ800 Champion, was saluted for having prepared the best dish. His winning creation – Soy Orange Chicken and Pikliz (pronounced Picklese) with Mashed Spinach – will be featured in both cafeterias in the near future.

Cooper Neely notes that the event also gave a lesson in Atlantis’ Core Values.

“I think they all did a superb job and our core values were brought to life through the execution of their tasks for this event – they each showed passion and creativity in the preparation and plating of the dishes, they all showed respect for the time given to prepare those dishes and acted with urgency to get the job done at an exceptional standard.

Other colleagues who were present to witness this competition of culinary talent were intrigued and they are now excited to try Omiyo’s dish, once we introduce it in the cafeterias. We couldn’t be more proud with how this event turned out!”