Delectable Food. Exceptional Wine.
All Celebrated in the Birthplace of Rum.
Spanning four sun-filled days, the culinary event of the season in the Caribbean will bring together the very best in food, wine, rum and culture; all framed by the beauty of one of the most luxurious and desirable destinations in the world.
Cou Cou Meets Haute Cuisine
From the simple to the refined, the chefs, food and wine experts featured at this year's event bring a wealth of knowledge, unique perspective and impeccable artistry to everything they create. Now you have the chance to meet and interact with these culinary aficionados as they share their talents on our tropical stage. To learn more about this year's featured guests, select their photo from the gallery provided on the right.
Acclaimed Chef, Author and Head Judge
of Bravo’s “Top Chef”
Tom Colicchio spent his childhood immersed in food, cooking with his mother and grandmother. It was his father, however, who suggested that he make a career of it. Tom taught himself to cook with the help of Jacques Pépin’s legendary illustrated manuals on French cooking, La Technique and La Méthode. At age 17, Tom made his kitchen debut in his native town of Elizabeth, New Jersey at Evelyn’s Seafood Restaurant.
Tom later cooked at prominent New York restaurants including The Quilted Giraffe, Gotham Bar & Grill, Rakel, and Mondrian. During his tenure as executive chef of Mondrian, Food & Wine magazine selected him as one of the top 10 “Best New Chefs” in the U.S. and The New York Times awarded the restaurant three stars.
In July 1994, Tom and his business partner Danny Meyer opened Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. In 1996, Ruth Reichl of The New York Times awarded Gramercy Tavern three stars, noting that Tom was “cooking with extraordinary confidence, creating dishes characterized by bold flavors and unusual harmonies.” Tom’s cooking at Gramercy Tavern earned consistent recognition – after three nominations for The James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef-New York” Award, he won it in 2000.
In 2001, Tom opened Craft one block south of Gramercy Tavern. Soon after, William Grimes of The New York Times awarded Craft with three stars, deeming the restaurant “a vision of food heaven.” Craft was awarded The James Beard Foundation Award for “Best New Restaurant” in 2002. That same year, Tom received The Bon Appétit American Food and Entertaining Award for “Chef of the Year.”
With Craft and its casual sibling, Craftbar, established in New York City, Tom set out to expand his simple, elegant brand of cooking. He has since opened Craftsteak at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (2002), Craftsteak in New York City (2006), Craft in Dallas (2006), Craft and Craftbar in Los Angeles (2007; 2009), Craftsteak at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods (2008), and Craft and Craftbar at The Mansion on Peachtree Hotel & Residence in Atlanta (2008).
Tom opened his first ‘wichcraft – a sandwich shop rooted in the same food and hospitality philosophies as Craft – in New York City in 2003. Today ‘wichcraft has 11 New York City locations, as well as locations at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Westfield Center in San Francisco.
Tom has published three cookbooks to date. The first, Think Like a Chef (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, 2000), won The James Beard Foundation “KitchenAid” Cookbook Award in May 2001. Tom’s second cookbook, Craft of Cooking, was released by Clarkson Potter/Publishers in 2003. A sandwich book inspired by ‘wichcraft, was released by Clarkson Potter/Publishers in March 2009.
Since 2006, Tom has been applying his experience and expertise to cable television as the head judge on Bravo’s hit reality cooking series “Top Chef.” The Emmy-nominated show is now in its sixth season.
In October 2008, Tom opened Tom: Tuesday Dinner. The restaurant, open every other Tuesday, is the embodiment of Tom's earliest ideals: a signature place that defines him, small enough that he can cook straight from the hip, with his hands on each and every plate.
Inspired by his time behind the stove at Tom: Tuesday Dinner, Tom opened Colicchio & Sons in New York in January 2010. He improvises and explores with small-batch ingredients from the micro-producers and family farmers with whom he has forged decades-long relationships.
Tom regularly appears on local and national television shows, including The Today Show, The Martha Stewart Show and ABC’s Nightline. He also continues to be celebrated in food and lifestyle publications such as Saveur, Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Esquire, GQ and New York Magazine. He consults at the restaurants at The Core Club (NYC), Liberty National Golf Club (Jersey City), Voysey’s and Tides (Kiawah Island, SC), and Doonbeg (Ireland) – all private clubs.
Tom and his restaurants give back to the community by supporting charities including Share Our Strength, Children of Bellevue, City Meals-on-Wheels, City Harvest, Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and Healthright International. He lives in the West Village with his wife, Lori Silverbush, and two sons.
Wine Expert, Author
Anthony Giglio has a reputation that borders on unique for a wine expert: he's funny and entertaining, and he never indulges in snobbery or intimidation. He is a journalist, sommelier, educator and author who has written several books, including Food & Wine Magazine’s Wine Guide 2009 and 2010 (and currently tasting his way through 2011), the annual guide to 1,100 wines from around the globe, as well as Cocktails in New York and several editions of the enormously popular Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide. Throughout his career Anthony has attracted countless fans and admirers nationally, all of whom appreciate his sense of humor as much as they do his insight and his perspective, which is that wine is best regarded as a pleasure, not a problem. Giglio is an award-winning contributor to numerous publications, including Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, New York Magazine, Esquire, Details, Robb Report, Worth, Every Day with Rachael Ray and Parade. In January of this year Anthony was named the new wine columnist for La Cucina Italiana, the American edition of Italy’s most prestigious magazine dedicated to gastronomy.
Award-winning Chef, Restauranteur
Fergus Henderson was born in London, 1963. He attended King Alfred’s School and went on to train as an architect. It was during this period that he started cooking seriously. Whilst studying at the Architectural Association, he took a job at Smiths Restaurant, in Covent Garden and thus began his career as a chef.
Fergus received an MBE in 2005 for his services to gastronomy and was awarded his first Michelin Star in 2009 for his restaurant St John, in Smithfield. As well as running both St John and St John Bread & Wine in Spitalfields, Fergus continues to spread the word of nose-to-tail eating and is currently working towards the launch of the first St John hotel.
Wine Editor, Food & Wine Magazine
Ray Isle is wine editor of Food & Wine magazine, the modern, stylish, trend-spotting, talent-seeking epicurean magazine with an audience of 7.4 million readers. In addition to overseeing the magazine’s wine department, Isle writes the monthly column, Tasting Room, directs the magazine’s spirits coverage, and is the author of foodandwine.com’s wine blog, Tasting Room. He was promoted from deputy wine editor in 2009.
Prior to joining Food & Wine in 2005 as senior wine editor, Isle was managing editor of Wine & Spirits Magazine. His articles about wine, food and spirits have appeared in a wide range of publications including Wine & Spirits, The Washington Post, Martha Stewart Living and Gastronomica, and he has been nominated for a James Beard Award. Isle has also worked in sales and marketing for a wine importer and taught fiction writing at Stanford University.
Isle regularly conducts wine tasting seminars at epicurean events and appears as a wine and spirits expert on national television, including NBC’s Today, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS’s The Early Show. In addition, he regular reports his wine adventures on twitter.com/islewine.
He has a BA in Literature from Rice University, an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford in Fiction Writing. Isle lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and daughter.
Chef/Owner, The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro
The unofficial mayor of Fort Worth, TX, Tim Love has become a nationally recognized culinary personality, known as much for his freewheeling personality as his signature urban western cuisine. As chef and owner of The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro and The Love Shack in Fort Worth, he’s as comfortable cooking for the Dallas Cowboys as he is for his own kids, and his inspired and innovative dishes have earned critical and popular acclaim.
When Love opened The Lonesome Dove Western Bistro in 2000, he was met with overwhelming success. The restaurant, with its locally sourced selection of steaks, game, seafood, and fine wines, has consistently achieved the highest Zagat rating of any restaurant in the Dallas / Fort Worth region.
In 2007, Love opened a classic burger joint called The Love Shack – a casual outdoor spot adjacent to The White Elephant Saloon, another Love property, in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards district. The Love Shack was another instant hit, earning three stars from The Dallas Morning News, being singled out as having the "most perfect burger on the planet" by The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and was named by Condé Nast Traveler as a 2008 Hot List restaurant. Love’s second Love Shack opened in July 2009 and has already received critical and popular acclaim.
Through his restaurants and his work in the community for such causes as the March of Dimes and Spoons Across America, Love has become the de facto culinary ambassador for the state of Texas, always doing his fans proud. Wherever he goes, his charm and genuine southern hospitality are always on display, and guests love watching Love cook whether it’s in The Lonesome Dove’s open kitchen, or with Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, on Top Chef Masters, and on Iron Chef America.
Features Director, Travel + Leisure Magazine
Nilou Motamed is features director for Travel + Leisure, covering subjects ranging from restaurants, hotels, and shopping to trends in the world of international travel. She joined T+L in 2000 as associate editor and was soon promoted to food editor, overseeing (as she still does) the magazine’s award-winning restaurants coverage. Motamed is the driving force behind Travel + Leisure’s annual Food & Travel Issue.
A frequent guest on a variety of television programs, Motamed makes regular appearances on NBC Today, among many others. She was the host of Ultra HD’s Reservations Required and of the Travel Channel series Travel Spies.
Fluent in English, Spanish, French, and Farsi, Motamed is a graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton, and also attended the Sorbonne University in Paris. Motamed currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband, T+L Editor-at-Large, Peter Jon Lindberg.
Award-winning Chef, Restaurateur
Chef Marcus Samuelsson is an internationally acclaimed chef who has thrilled the food scene with a blend of culture and artistic excellence. Celebrated as one of “The Great Chefs of America” by the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Samuelsson launched his career as a graduate of the Culinary Institute in Gothenburg, with apprenticeships in Switzerland, Austria, France and the United States. Chef Samuelsson was raised in Gothenburg, Sweden after his parents adopted him and his sister from Ethiopia at the age of 3. They encouraged him to pursue his talents without geographic bounds. At the early age of 24, Chef Samuelsson caught the attention of the culinary world at Aquavit. During his tenure as executive chef, he received consecutive four-star ratings in Forbes and two impressive three-star rating from the New York Times, the youngest person ever to receive such an accolade.
Chef Samuelsson continues to break new ground, connecting contrasting geographies and palates while lending his exceptional voice to the evolving conversation of food and culture. A collection of successful cookbooks, including Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine (2003), and The Soul of a New Cuisine (2006), have won him numerous awards from The New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.
His recent submersion into the local farms and kitchens of the American landscape, have inspired a new zest for merging worlds. His findings and interpretations can be found in his top selling new book, New American Table. As of late winter 2010, the cookbook has received numerous recognitions such as Best Overall Cookbook from Epicurious.com, a Special Jury Award from Gourmand and, most recently, was nominated for Best American Cookbook by IACP.
Chef Samuelsson has been featured on a number of media platforms including Iron Chef, the Martha Stewart Show, frequent guest appearances on the Today Show, and his own television show, The Inner Chef on Discovery Network. Most recently, Chef Samuelsson has teamed up with AOL to create KitchenDaily.com, a web-based program where he will deliver bi-monthly culinary segments to millions of online viewers. Chef Samuelsson will also appear on the television competition Top Chef Masters, planned for a Bravo Network release in April 2010. Chef Samuelsson was recently honored as a Guest Chef at the White House under the Obama Administration, where he planned and executed the administration’s first state dinner for the first family, Prime Minister Singh of India and 400 of their guests.
Currently, Chef Samuelsson is developing the Red Rooster in Harlem. The restaurant will celebrate the roots of American cuisine in one of New York City’s liveliest and culturally rich neighborhoods.
While Chef Samuelsson has been honored by the prestigious James Beard Foundation on multiple occasions including “Rising Star Chef” (1999), “Best Chef: New York City” (2003), and “Best International Cookbook” (2007), he continues to maintain humility to the art of food and his UNICEF endeavors, working towards immunization and curbing malnutrition for children throughout the world.
Renowned Chef, Philanthropist
and host of “Simply Ming”
Ming was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he spent hours cooking alongside his mother and father at their family-owned restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. His love of cooking (and eating!) great food was forged in these early years, while also gaining valuable experience in front and back of the house. Ming headed east to attend school at Phillips Academy Andover. From there, Ming continued to Yale University, earning his degree in Mechanical Engineering. During this time, Ming spent his junior summer at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. After graduating from Yale, Ming worked in kitchens around the globe. He trained under renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme in Paris and in Osaka with Sushi Master Kobayashi. Upon his return to the United States, Ming enrolled in graduate school at Cornell University, earning a Master’s degree in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing. Ming continued to learn varied styles of cuisine, holding positions in both front and back of the house at establishments in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Santa Fe.
In 1998, Ming opened Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA and immediately impressed diners from Boston and beyond with the restaurant's innovative East-West cuisine. In its first year, Blue Ginger received 3 stars from the Boston Globe, was named "Best New Restaurant" by Boston Magazine, was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as "Best New Restaurant 1998," and Esquire Magazine honored Ming as "Chef of the Year 1998." The James Beard Foundation crowned Ming "2002 Best Chef Northeast" and, since 2002, the Zagat Restaurant Guide has rated Blue Ginger the "2nd Most Popular Boston Restaurant." In 2007, Blue Ginger received the Ivy Award from Restaurants & Institutions for its achievement of the highest standards in food, hospitality and service, and in 2009, Ming and Blue Ginger won IFMA's Silver Plate Award in the Independent Restaurant category recognizing overall excellence in the country.
In 2008, Blue Ginger expanded with a feng shui-inspired addition doubling its size, creating three private dining rooms and the casual-chic Blue Ginger Lounge, serving an Asian Tapas menu featuring Ming's Bings, Ming's take on the classic Asian street food xiar bing, a cross between a dumpling and a slider.
Ming is a national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), and is proud to have developed the Food Allergy Reference Book, first used at Blue Ginger, a pioneering system that creates safeguards to help food-allergic people dine safely. For four years, Ming worked with Massachusetts Legislature to help write Bill S. 2701, which was recently signed into law. This groundbreaking legislation, the first of its kind in the US, requires local restaurants to comply with simple food allergy awareness guidelines.
Ming is the host and executive producer of the public television cooking show, SIMPLY MING, currently in its seventh season. In 2009, SIMPLY MING received two Emmy nominations in the categories of 'Outstanding Culinary Program' and 'Outstanding Culinary Host,' and received two Bronze Telly Awards for 'Lighting' and 'Art Direction.' His SIMPLY MING video podcasts feature tutorials on everything from filleting fish to food allergy basics (available on ming.com and iTunes). Ming began cooking for television audiences on the Food Network, where he was the 1998 Emmy Award-Winning host of East Meets West with Ming Tsai. Ming's Quest, his popular cooking adventure series, also aired on Food Network. In the summer of 2008, Ming traveled to the Beijing Olympics with NBC’s Today show to provide viewers with insight into food customs and traditions that define his Chinese heritage. In addition to television, Ming is the author of three cookbooks: Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai, Simply Ming, and Ming's Master Recipes.
In addition to restaurant, TV and print endeavors, Ming is also a prolific designer and product developer. His Blue Ginger® Multi-Grain Brown Rice Chips are a hugely popular item in club stores across the nation. For the past decade, Ming has used Kyocera Advanced Ceramic cutting tools. His Blue Ginger line of East-West meal solutions launched in Target and SuperTarget stores nationwide in 2000 and has continually expanded. Ming co-designs, with Tru Bamboo, an eco-friendly line of bamboo cutting boards and serveware. Ming is a proud member of Common Threads, the Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Round Table, Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Cam Neely Foundation and Squashbusters. For more information on Ming, visit www.ming.com, his information-based site focusing on East-West living, recipes, culinary gadgets and more.
Mix Food, Wine and Rum with
Equal Parts Sun, Surf and Sand.
The 2010 Food & Wine and Rum Festival features a series of exceptional events all at a number of island venues which are just as equally impressive. To the right, please find the Festival schedule so that you can best plan how you can enjoy all that the event, and our island, has to offer.
Stay in Paradise
As distinct and diverse as Barbados itself, the accommodations available on island range from the refined luxury of a four-star resort to the laid-back and intimate guesthouse or home. Whether you desire to find a cozy all-inclusive hideaway for two, a spacious family retreat or a lively setting for a celebration with friends, Barbados is certain to have the accommodations to complement any preference and budget.
You Don’t Need to be a World-Class Chef
to Attend this Event. Just a Ticket.
To be a part of this remarkable celebration of all things food, wind and rum, tickets can be purchased in advance or on the day of the event you wish to attend. For more details on prices and to pre-purchase your tickets, please check back here when tickets become available starting June 30, 2010 or email