Oh, what a night!

Negril Chamber of Commerce food and wine fundraiser sees biggest turnout

THE NEGRIL International Food and Wine event seems to have had its biggest turnout yet, as hundreds of revellers turned out at The Boardwalk Village on Saturday night, not only to eat, drink and be merry, but to show support to what was the Negril Chamber of Commerce’s fourth all-white party fundraiser.

“We are so grateful. We are so overwhelmed here; it’s amazing. This is the fourth event we’ve had so far. In terms of numbers, we haven’t finalised and tabulated everything yet, but obviously, by just looking at the crowd that was here, it was definitely the best,” president of the 36-year-old chamber, Richard Wallace, told

Hospitality Jamaica. “This is the fourth event and each year it gets better and better, and we had ATL on

board this year. It is very rare that an event in Negril that can pull the type of people who came out tonight and we are very humbled by that,” he added.

First-timers ATL and Margaritaville were the new entrants to the event, sponsoring the non-alcoholic beverages and juices for the patrons, along with the event’s long-standing partners – Hedonism II, Couples Resorts, Sandals Resorts, Rockhouse, Azul Sensatori, and The Cliff.

“Last year, 100 per cent of the proceeds went to the Negril Health Centre. We handed over $1 million to the health clinic fund. This year, not a hundred per cent will go to the health clinic, but a substantial amount will. The rest will go to other charity projects that the chamber does during the year,” Wallace said.

Concerning the food, perhaps the main surprise of the night was the a creation by West End-based The Cliff Hotel, in the form of a breadfruit fish taco, with a black bean and corn salsa topped with picadillo and a cilantro crema.

According to Jonhoi Reid, chef de cuisine at The Cliff, his team decided to pull out all the stops this year to get a better rating than they did last year.

“Tonight we gave them a twist on a Mexican special with a little bit of Jamaican. The response to it was pretty amazing. I didn’t know it would go so well. The line was so long; it was amazing. Everybody really said this was one of the best dishes on the night, so the response was really good,” he explained.

“We have a special piece of equipment that we use to shape the breadfruit like the taco shell. It’s on our everyday lunch menu. We did just one dish and tried to capture the audience tonight and I think we did very well with that. We are looking forward to doing it next year. We said this year we are going to do something that Negril has never seen and it really worked for us,” he said.

PHOTOS BY JANET SILVERA An Azul Sensatori chef displays his food-juggling skills.

Negril Chamber of Commerce Director Elaine Bradley is flanked by (from left) Damion Salmon of the Rockhouse, Negril Chamber President Richard Wallace, and his sons, Craige and Matthew.

Kenroy Williams is sandwiched by his JPS colleagues Simoneese Davis (left) and Annesha Cummings.

Hedonism II’s Executive Chef Michael Barnett serves some tasty Indian butter chicken to Negril Chamber of Commerce Director Sophie Grizzle.

From left: Liniesha Davis, Robyn Hall, and Annesha Cummings are having a grand time at the Negril International Food and Wine Festival.

Tawani Connell dances with her daughter, Arya Headley, at the Negril International Food and Wine event last Saturday night at the Boardwalk Village in Negril.

Samantha Reynolds had the time of her life.

After preparing and serving up their delicious fish tacos, culinary staff members of The Cliff Hotel had a grand time partying with their colleagues.

The Cliff Jamaicanised tacos with their succulent fish tacos made with a shell created from breadfruit.