City Food Festival makes its return to Hamilton

The City Food Festival is back next week and will be focused on all things culinary.

Starting on Monday, food enthusiasts will be able to enjoy free breakfast, cooking competitions and a street festival.

And new this year is a Chopped-style chef’s competition.

Danilee Trott, event project manager for the City of Hamilton explained why you should attend the events planned for next week.

“The City Food Festival is a celebration of food, beverages, restaurants, bars and chefs in the City.

“This is our second annual festival and we have added a few exciting new features that will add spice to the week long event.

“Monday, March 18 from 8am until 9am, or while supplies last, we will kick off the City Food Festival with a complimentary continental breakfast in front of City Hall.

“Later on in the day we will be having the first round of our chef’s competition taking place at Bermuda Gas from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.

“This competition is a new element to our food festival which will be taking place on March 18, 20 and 22nd.”

She continued: “Chefs will be provided with a box of ingredients courtesy of Butterfield & Vallis, and are tasked with creating three distinctly different canapés from the ingredients — one hot, one cold and one discretionary item.

“The winner of round one and two will advance to the finals on Friday to compete head to head in a cook off for the title Best Canapé.

“This event is ticket only — tickets can be purchased on www.premiertickets.bm.  

The tickets are $30 per night or you can buy a passport for $75 for entry into all three rounds of competition.

“With purchasing a ticket you will be able to sample the chef’s creations while enjoying complimentary signature beverages provided by Goslings.”

On Saturday, the streetfestival is back at the number one car park from 2pm to 10pm.

“There will be more than a dozen city restaurants and bars featured, offering a wide variety of foods and specialty drinks, hosted by Bruce Barritt and Joe Gibbons.”

Tickets are available on sale at www.premiertickets.bm or at the event.

In addition, to the street festival, there will be dining specials available all week at various restaurants.

Trott added: “Last year proved to be a fun and well-rounded event with an amazing turn out of spectators and participants.

“The variety of food is always a special treat, especially with the added bonus of having opportunities to win raffle prizes, vote for your favourite restaurant and enjoy reasonably priced, quality food samplings all in one easy to access location.

“The Saturday event has been improved even more this year by adding cooking competitions throughout the day, live entertainment in the evening and a special Goslings Grand Cru Wine Tent from 7pm to 9pm.

“The wine tent will be a secured entry space for the wine connoisseur or just those that love and are interested in wine tastings.  

“For a set $50 ticket you can enjoy two hours of wine bliss and informative tasting sessions.”

She continued: “The City Food Festival is an opportunity for the city restaurants and bars to showcase the variety of offerings available at their establishments, to celebrate their amazing chef talent and also to give the local and tourist participants an exciting foodie experience and the opportunity to mix and mingle with old and new friends.”

For more information please email [email protected]