With thousands of attendees at Taste of Cayman casting their votes for Cayman’s Favourite Restaurant, it was a night of anticipation for the 36 participating restaurants at the festival. When all the tokens were collected and counted, the coveted title of ‘Cayman’s Favourite Restaurant’ was awarded to Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink! In addition to the bragging rights that go with the title, Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink will also be able to display ‘Cayman’s Favourite Restaurant’ logo for the next year and wins a CI $1000 cash prize.

‘It’s a huge honor to be voted ‘Cayman’s Favorite Restaurant’ and extremely gratifying to know that the team’s hard work on this event and everyday in the restaurant had paid off,” says Thomas Tennant, executive chef of Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink. “We wanted to showcase the importance of supporting local farmers and products on Grand Cayman in our dishes. It feels great to see that fresh, simple and pure philosophy translate to delicious food on the plate that is enjoyed and appreciated by the Island.’

Each ticket holder to the festival received a wooden voting token on entry. They were then asked to vote for their favourite restaurant by giving the wooden token to the restaurant of their choice between 5pm-10pm at the festival.  Tokens were collected and counted that evening by event staff.

‘Competition was stiff, with the difference between the first and fifth place winner a mere 33 voting tokens,’ states Robyn Larkin, project manager at CITA. ‘The excitement of the competition pushes the restaurants to create beautiful booth displays and serve extremely high quality food at Taste of Cayman. Of course this all makes the festival a better experience for attendees, which is a win-win for everyone!’

In addition to the people’s choice award of Cayman’s Favourite Restaurant, a panel of five anonymous judges tasted items from various booths to award Best Food, Best Dessert, Best Drink and Best Booth at the festival. Competition in each of these categories was also close, but when the final results were in, the winners were:

Best Food: Jerk & Maple Glazed Niman Ranch Pork Belly with Caribbean cole slaw (Seven at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman)

Best Dessert: Churros (Ortanique: Cuisine of the Sun)

Best Drink: World Famous Mudslides (Wreck Bar at Rum Point)

Best Booth: Thai Orchid

The winning restaurants will be presented with an engraved plaque to celebrate their respective awards.

‘We at CITA congratulate the winners on capturing these titles for our 25^th anniversary Taste of Cayman. They had very challenging competition, and they truly earned their titles.’

PHOTO CUTLINES:

Thai Orchid Best Booth: Thai Orchid was awarded the title of Best Booth the Taste of Cayman judging panel.

Chef-Thomas: Chef Thomas Tennant and the team at Michael’s Genuine Food & Drink took home the coveted people’s choice award of ‘Cayman’s Favourite Restaurant’ at the 25^th Anniversary Taste of Cayman.