For centuries, cuisine has been one of the vehicles through which cultures of the world have expressed themselves. Cuisine is a mixture of ingredients, techniques and feelings, that blends centuries of history and of cultural tradition and heritage, through which individuals are able to express their identity, and also communicate and reach an understanding between themselves and others.

With the globe spinning at cyber-speed and the New Millennium here, people around the world struggle to strengthen their roots and cope with change. Amid it all, reaching down to the depths of our cultures can provide the foundation and perspective we need to help keep our lives in balance.  What better place to find those roots than in cuisine? And what cuisine better reflects the "melting pot" at the heart of its heritage than Caribbean cuisine?

Caribbean cuisine is a true representation of all the cultural and migratory influences the Region has welcome since Christopher Columbus arrived to its beaches in 1492. From native Indians, European settlers, and African slaves to more recent migratory streams, such as the Arabic, the Chinese, other European and the Hindu, through their spices, flavors, and techniques, all have amalgamated their individual histories into the Caribbean collective self.  Caribbean cuisine blends the rhythms that season our Region, and culinary experiences have become natural partners for other manifestations of cultural celebration, such as music, and religion.

Blessed with many different culinary influences, the Caribbean has not been defined as a unified cuisine. Unifications and cultural expressions became an important topic in the past decades, when indigenous culinary influences were revalued and accepted by many cuisines of the world.  Caribbean cuisine has been no exception to this trend. 

That interest in cultural roots, and in experimenting with the Region’s ingredients has not been accidental. Much of it is due to the culinary rediscovery of our Region by many culinary professionals from other regions and from our own. They have blended their fascination with our indigenous ingredients, with skills and techniques that have given birth to a more evolved and unique world-class culinary product. The improved access to technology, information, training opportunities in the Region and abroad, along with an expansion of tourism in the Region and the revaluation of their cultural identities, has enabled many Caribbean nationals to become more interested in the culinary, as a profession, and more willing to experiment with new ways of expressing their talents, creativity and cultural identity through cuisine. A new generation of Caribbean nationals has emerged, reinventing their grandmothers’ cuisine into what has become Contemporary Caribbean cuisine.

Contemporary Caribbean Cuisine based on indigenous ingredients and cooking principles traditional to our region’s cultures has emerged as an important influence on international culinary trends.

Through education and in competition, Contemporary Caribbean cuisine seeks to set new standards in the global culinary community. This will be accomplished by using modern nutritional guidelines, state-of-the-art equipment and traditional cooking methods to revisit history and reinterpret it through cuisine. The Caribbean food & beverage sector works together towards this objective.

Moreover, the further development of a cuisine so intertwined in the Region’s own roots, seeks to become not only a vehicle for the professional development of Caribbean nationals, but also an instrument to strengthen and expand other economic sectors, such as the agricultural and the manufacturing, through the increased demand for Caribbean goods and services.