eight aspiring chefs will compete for top prize 

Under the theme “Feed the Future” the Junior Chef Cook Off Competition returned. 

Twelve aspiring chefs were selected to take part the competition for the last six weeks. Last Saturday, following an elimination round, the eight quarterfinalists were chosen and announced during last night’s Barbados Food and Rum Festival’s Sponsors and Media Launch at Fustic House, St. Lucy. 

The Quarterfinalists are: 

• Dejuan Toppin
• Rojae Griffith
• Raphael Blenman
• Achan Callendar
• Mya Thornhill
• Sian Edwards
• Domonique Grant
• Jade Harewood

About the Competition

The Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc remains committed to empowering the next generation of Barbadian chefs. 

The Junior Chefs will undergo an 8-week training which will include culinary and destination tours, challenges and elimination rounds. For most of the rounds, contestants will work as individuals, however, there will be the occasional team challenges and they will be given the opportunity to hone their skills under the mentorship of the esteemed Chef Peter Edey. 

This year a tourism component will be introduced to the competition so participants will be out in the field during the training process to get hands-on experience. Additionally, the entire competition will be filmed and curated similar to MasterChef Junior and Chopped Junior

The final eight contestants will then compete in the semi-finals and the top four will battle in the finals to see who the next Junior Chef Champion will be. This year the stakes are higher, and the prizes are even bigger as one winner will receive BBD $3000 cash, a scholarship to the Caribbean Cuisine Culinary Institute and an internship at the historic Crane Resort Barbados.

The Junior Chef Cook-Off Competition is a signature Festival event and epitomizes the overall Festival’s theme of ‘Feed the Future’. The finals take place on Saturday, October 21^st from 4pm-7pm at the Bajan Fair, which is a new family friendly event added to this year’s line-up. 

Admission for the Junior Chef Cook-Off Competition finals is $USD 15.

Tickets for the Festival including Junior Chef will be available for purchase at foodandrum.com. 

For more information on the Festival and Junior Chef, visit foodandrum.com and follow @foodandrumbarbados on Instagram and Facebook. (PR)

COP28 President-Designate visits Barbados, meeting with Prime Minister and leaders of the Caribbean Community to keep focus on reforming climate finance

• COP28 President-Designate, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, has visited Barbados, meeting with Prime Minister Mia Motley and addressing leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). 
• In his address, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber acknowledged the significant impact climate change has already had on the region and stressed the COP28 Presidency’s vision for a paradigm shift in global efforts to reduce climate change and support regions, like the Caribbean, that are most vulnerable to its impacts. 
• “The peoples of the Caribbean have been on the front lines of climate change for longer than most. You have been facing some of the harshest climate impacts. And in a very real sense, your experience represents an early warning system for the rest of the world.” 

• “Last month I laid out the COP28 Presidency’s vision… Fast tracking a just, equitable and orderly energy transition; Fixing climate finance; Focusing on people, lives and livelihoods; And underpinning everything with Full inclusivity.”
• “Many of you will be familiar with the global goal I have called for to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030.”
• Right here in Barbados, the Bridgetown and Bowmanston Solar Power plants are expected to displace 1000 tons of CO2 and save nearly 400,000 dollars in diesel fuel costs every year. 
• “Addressing the climate finance gap is so important and why I have made it a key priority for COP28.”
• “As a first step, I have called on donor countries to “show me the money”, when it comes to the long overdue 100-billion-dollar finance pledge.”
• “I am also calling for deep, system-wide reform of IFIs and MDBs to make them more responsive to the climate and development needs of the 21st century.”
• “We need to ensure the right balance between mitigation finance and adaptation finance. This region knows only too well the human and economic costs of too little finance for climate adaptation and resilience.” 
• “I am calling on all parties to double adaptation finance by 2025 and ensure that a substantial portion of all climate finances goes to adaptation in the future.” 

BRIDGETOWN, AUGUST 10, 2023: COP 28 President-Designate Dr. Sultan Al Jaber has visited Barbados to meet with Prime Minister Mia Motley and address distinguished leaders of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). In his speech, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber reaffirmed the COP28 Presidency’s commitment to support communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and to push the international community to close the climate finance gap and address social and economic development in-step with climate action. 

Dr. Al Jaber said: “The peoples of the Caribbean have been on the front lines of climate change for longer than most. You have been facing some of the harshest climate impacts.

And in a very real sense, your experience represents an early warning system for the rest of the world.”

In his address to CARICOM, the COP28 President-Designate emphasized the critical role climate finance will play in the global energy transition, reminding those present that ‘fixing climate finance’ is one of four of his key ‘Action Plan’ priorities for COP28 alongside ‘focus on people’, ‘lives and livelihoods’ and underpinning everything with ‘full inclusivity’.

“As a first step, I have called on donor countries to “show me the money”, when it comes to the long overdue 100-billion-dollar finance pledge. I am also calling for deep, system-wide reform of IFIs and MDBs to make them more responsive to the climate and development needs of the 21st century. In short, all forms of finance must be more available, more accessible, and more affordable,” added Al Jaber.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber also praised the work of The Bridgetown Initiative, which he noted was “a wake-up call for the global community to make good on past promises and modernize a financial architecture that was built for the last century.” Spearheaded by Barbados, The Bridgetown Initiative seeks to facilitate access to international financing, an effort that aligns with the COP28 Presidency’s own commitment to modernize global financial infrastructure to support climate action.     

In his speech, the COP28 President-Designate also highlighted that Barbados represents “a living example of renewable energy’s potential not only to deliver carbon free power, but to lower energy costs and create new avenues for economic growth.” He noted that the Bridgetown and Bowmanston Solar Power plants are expected to displace 1,000 tons of CO2 and save nearly 400,000 dollars in diesel fuel costs every year. The UAE itself has partnered on carbon and cost-saving projects across 16 Caribbean nations through the Abu Dabi Fund for Development and Masdar. However, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber noted that the cost of capital is proving a stumbling block to progress.

“We all know that the cost of capital has slowed the adoption of renewable energy in this region, alongside many other climate-vulnerable regions of the world. That is why addressing the climate finance gap is so important and why I have made it a key priority for COP28,” Al Jaber added.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber also warned of the importance of striking the “right balance” between mitigation finance and adaptation finance, noting this will be critical as world leaders begin outlining the parameters for a new, collective goal for finance during COP28, and beyond. “This region knows only too well the human and economic costs of too little finance for climate adaptation and resilience. That’s why I am calling on all parties to double adaptation finance by 2025 and ensure that a substantial portion of all climate finance goes to adaptation in the future,” Dr. Sultan Al Jaber said.

During his visit to Barbados, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber also announced that the UAE will host a meeting of the Independent High-Level Expert Group (IHLEG) on Climate Finance in August. The two-day meeting will bring together world-leading economists, private sector leaders, the COP28 Presidency and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and will prepare the ground ahead of COP28, ensuring the event delivers tangible action on international finance reforms. 

During his stay in Barbados, the COP28 President-Designate held a bilateral meeting with several other dignitaries, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and the Minister of Energy and Business Development. He also conducted a tour of the island, visiting key ecological sites and climate adaptation projects, including the energy-efficient, hurricane resilient homes of the Home Ownership Providing Energy (HOPE) project and the sea defense installation at Holetown, which is designed to protect the local community from rising sea levels. 

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber’s visit to Barbados follows a trip to Brazil, where he delivered remarks at the Amazon Summit and Collaboration for Sustainable Development and urged leaders to build on President Lula’s achievements in reducing deforestation. (PR)

Barbados has earmarked Monday, July 31, as the day dedicated to celebrating Caribbean unity with the CARICOM 50th Anniversary Concert!

Like many of our neighbouring countries, the Government is staging the concert which will showcase the best in Bajan and Caribbean talent featuring a mixture of different genres of music, spoken word pieces, dance and comedy. 

From 6 p.m., the National Botanical Gardens will be a hive of cultural activity. The evening will start with performances from this year’s Crop Over Folk Concert featuring the National Folk Choir.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Culture, Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight spoke about the significance of the day as she appealed to Barbados to come and be a part of the celebrations.

“We want to invite Barbadians to come out because this is really a moment to celebrate, but it is also a moment as well for us to showcase our own cultural heritage. You will see the Israel Lovell Foundation. We will have a number of cultural acts, Neesha Woods will be there, dance groups will be there. 

“We will be telling the story of CARICOM, chronologising through a number of educational clips to make sure that we tell the story and give full ventilation to the moment of the 50^th anniversary. It is a family event,” the minister said during a press briefing on the event.

The concert’s line-up includes: Destra from Trinidad and Tobago, Kevyn Little from St. Vincent and the Grenadines; V’ghn from Grenada, Timeka Marshall from Guyana and more! All on the Bajan stage with Neesha Woods, the Haynesville Youth Group, the Israel Lovell Foundation, Wendy Alleyne, Reniece Bonnett, Sunrokk, Kweku Jelani, Edwin Yearwood & krosfyah, Peter Ram, Blood, TC, Natahlee, Ishiaka McNeil, Lil Rick, Cultural Ambassadors Caribbean Soca Queen Alison Hinds, Stedson RPB Wiltshire, Anthony Gabby Carter and many more! Along with the comedy of Mac Fingall and Damion Melville.

CARICOM is the oldest surviving integration movement in the developing world. It is a grouping of 25 countries: 15 Member States and five associate members. 

The regional group has played a vital role in fostering economic development, social progress, cultural exchange and movement of people among member states; creating an indelible impact on the lives of millions of people across the Caribbean.

On July 3, St Kitts and Nevis held the CARICOM Experience Food Fair and Entertainment Night which featured a representative from each CARICOM member state performing during a cultural presentation.  On July 4, Trinidad and Tobago held a CARICOM 50^th Anniversary Concert. On August 1, St Vincent will stage the CARICOM 50th Anniversary Celebration at Victoria Park where there will be cultural performances and an arts and craft exhibition. (PR)