The Jamaica Food and Drink Festival (JFDF) emerged as big winners at the grand coronation of the 2021 World Culinary Awards on Tuesday (November 30). 

JFDF copped ‘World’s Best Culinary Festival 2021’, and in the process, beat joint nominees Dubai Food Festival (United Arab Emirates), EatDrinkFestival (Nigeria), Festival Culinaire Bernard Loiseau (Mauritius), Foodies Festival (England), Hong Kong Food Festival (Hong Kong), New York City Wine & Food Festival (United States), Restaurant Week São Paulo (Brazil) and VISA Wellington on a Plate (New Zealand). 

The gastronomical adventure that is JFDF also won ‘Caribbean’s Best Culinary Festival 2021’. 

The Jamaica Food and Drink Festival topped the region ahead of Cayman Cookout (Cayman Islands), Extraordinary Eats (Anguilla) and St. Barth Gourmet Festival (Saint Barthelemy), which were also vying for the best Caribbean culinary festival this year.

The World Culinary Awards, in its second staging, also crowned Jamaica for the second time in as many years as the ‘Caribbean’s Best Culinary Destination 2021’.

According to the World Culinary Awards, the results followed a year-long search for the world’s leading culinary brands. 

“Votes were cast by culinary industry professionals and the general public, with the nominee gaining the most votes in a category named as the winner,” the sister event to the World Travel Awards indicated in a statement.

The Jamaica Food and Drink Festival, currently underway since Wednesday, November 24, culminates this Saturday, December 4.

Other regional winners included: 

• Caribbean’s Best Restaurant 2021: STUSH in the BUSH (Jamaica)
• Caribbean’s Best Fine Dining Hotel Restaurant 2021: Blue by Eric Ripert @ Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands)
• Caribbean’s Best Hotel Restaurant 2021: Blue by Eric Ripert @ Ritz Carlton, Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands)
• Caribbean’s Best Landmark Restaurant 2021: 1919 Restaurant (Puerto Rico)
• Caribbean’s Best Rooftop Restaurant 2021: Altitude, Jamaica
• Caribbean’s Best Culinary Training Institution 2021: A&B Masters (Dominican Republic)

For her part, festival director at the JFDF, Nasma Chin, told Our Today that the organising team is very humbled by its award haul. 

“We’re extremely excited at the Jamaica Food and Drink Company to have been given these prestigious awards. We’re a pretty young festival, seven years in, but we’ve been very strategic and we try to be very innovative in how we deliver our festival—even through the [COVID-19] pandemic,” she said in an interview on Wednesday (December 1).

“We haven’t missed a year; there was some event around Jamaica Food and Drink Festival, and one of the things we are extremely humbled and proud about is that Jamaica is now on a global platform when it comes to our culinary skills and we think that is very important,” Chin told Our Today.

Chin, continuing, was buoyed that Jamaica is beginning to get the culinary recognition it so deserves. 

“We know about the sun, sea and sand; yes, we’re known for music, [but] I think this award really gives us an opportunity to shine as a country in the culinary industry. And to win two of them? I mean for us, we were a little shell-shocked. Going up against other Caribbean countries [that] also have amazing food festivals was one thing, but to be given recognition as being the best culinary festival in the world for 2021 is really important for us. It means that what we’re doing is really world-class,” she explained.

“We’re competing globally, not just in Jamaica or the region, but our brand was meant to be global and that gives us the drive to see we’re going down the right strategic direction,” Chin added.

Acknowledging the many ingredients that make Jamaica Food and Drink Festival a global success, Chin expressed gratitude to the hardworking JFDF team, suppliers, chefs, sponsors and patrons over the past seven years. 

“Across the board, this award is for everyone involved. It’s for every Jamaican, whether they live here or abroad because food and beverage is a big part of our culture and as Caribbean people, food is love. This is how we show our emotions some times,” the festival director told Our Today.