A local chef won a prestigious culinary prize for having the best tasting recipe in the Caribbean.

Local chef, Colin Lloyd won the International Food service Competition held in Mexico City this month.

For the last five years, the US Meat Export Federation has sponsored the competition for chefs in the Caribbean and Mexico.

Chefs in the region who sold the most US meat were invited to compete in the cook off.

This year, over 50 chefs were eligible to cook, 100 percent more applicants than ever before.

But only the twelve finalists who had bought the most US meat were invited to the all expense paid trip to Mexico?s capital.

Mr. Lloyd said that once he knew he was a finalist, he had to submit three different recipes.

?The recipes had to have a Caribbean flavour, and had to be used for three different cuts of meat. We had to make dishes out of either pork, beef or lamb,? he said.

?All three recipes had to be original,? Mr. Lloyd said.

On the day of the competition ? August 11? his three recipes were placed in the ?mystery basket? for judges to randomly pick out the type of meat he must prepare.

To Mr. Lloyd?s great relief he picked the beef out of the basket, he said.

He said the judges were especially critical of the way the chefs ?handled themselves in the kitchen,? as they were inside their kitchens watching their every move.

To prepare the dishes the chefs needed to produce two perfect ?show? plates to be photographed and five ?tasting? plates for the judges.

?All of us had two hours to prepare that dish? and were judged on ?sanitation, presentation, taste,? he said.

His winning recipe was called: ?Caribbean-style tri-tip with brown sugar-peanut spice rub, sweet potato casserole and crispy plantain chips.?

@EDITRULE:

Three to four pounds of Beef,

half a cup of finely ground roasted peanuts

half a cup of packed light brown sugar

one tablespoon Kosher salt

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

teaspoon ground cloves

teaspoon ground nutmeg

teaspoon ground cinnamon

teaspoon ground bay leaf

one cup of beef stock

lime juice

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter.

Sserves four.

?It was a spicy Caribbean rub .... I rubbed on a mix of spices and peanuts onto a tri-tip piece of beef,? he said.