A windy last Cayman Cookout day

I absolutely love storms on islands.  The waves and the wind and even the rain fill me with happiness.  So, when I saw the rough chop and heard the breakers and the wind today, I was very pleased.

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Others on the island seem less happy, but for me, particularly on a day when events occupy most of my time, this weather is grand.

The big daytime event was the Bon Vivant Amateur Chef Competition and brunch.

As the amateur chefs on stage compete in a TV-style cooking competition, the judges (chefs Emeril, Irvine, Andres, Boulud, and Ripert) watch them work and eventually eat their creations.  Meanwhile, the huge crowd enjoys brunch from something on the order of two dozen stations scattered down a reception area and porch outside the ballroom.  I focused on not over-eating and on sampling only things I knew (from the reports of others or knowledge of the food and the chefs) to be good.  The approach worked well:  I enjoyed every dish and left full but not overly stuffed.

The next event, Rum and Robusto, is basically a drink-and-smoke-cigars gathering around a pool. I usually make only a quick pass through it, but today I ended up in a few interesting conversations and also just enjoyed the breezy weather--which served to keep the smoke away from me.

This guy had the best job of the event.

A nice addition was a pair of stations at which people could paint.

I liked more of the artwork than I would have expected.

All in all, the attendees seemed to have a good time,

and I enjoyed my brief visit to it.

The traditional final Cayman Cookout event is a dinner at Blue for which each major guest chef prepares a course.  This year, the tenth, brought a gala dinner with, naturally, ten courses.  The table settings were lovely,

and the menu promised amazing treats.

The chefs delivered on the menu's promises.  I enjoyed every single course, but the most amazing was the last, the dessert. 

By description and first glance, it was an apple with a side sauce.  After you pushed into it with your fork, though, it was so much more.

Sweet, complex, and entirely lovely, this dish was a complete success. 

Hats off to all the chefs, but particularly to Chef Thomas Raquel, the pastry chef of Blue, for this wonderful finale.

And so the Cayman Cookout event draws to a close.  I am fortunate enough to be staying here and enjoying this wonderful place until Friday, but I have to admit that I am both done with huge meals for a bit and also already looking forward to next year's Cayman Cookout.

Re-evaluating Emeril

What little I've known about celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse has come from catching snippets of his early TV shows and eating in two of his restaurants, one in New Orleans and one in Las Vegas.  My overall impression from the few minutes of television was negative; I felt he came across more as huckster than as chef.  The food in the Las Vegas restaurant was good but not great, though its banana cream pie remains by far the best I've ever eaten in a restaurant.  The food in the New Orleans restaurant was quite good and made me wonder if I had misjudged him.

Here at the Cayman Cookout, I chose to attend a session of his to learn more about him.

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Though the first dish he made--salmon cheesecake--struck me as not my type of food, the others intrigued me more, and his command of flavors and textures was superb.

When he opened the session to questions from the audience, though, he really won me over.  In person, he's a quiet man who speaks in carefully considered and measured sentences, with no hyperbole and a great deal of passion for both food and his charitable foundation, which focuses on helping children.  A man from New Orleans took the mic and told a story of meeting Emeril when he was first at Commander's Palace and of how great a guy Emeril had been then and still was, and how proud all the people from that neighborhood were, and Emeril teared up a little.

On Sunday night, he worked outside with his team preparing the appetizers for the finale dinner.

I caught him here in a rare moment looking away from the food.  He very politely turned down multiple photo and autograph requests until his team was done cooking all the appetizers and he had individually thanked all of the chefs working there with him.  He was gracious with the servers and praised them and the importance of what they were doing.  Then, he posed as much as people wanted, smiling the whole time--but the only times he looked genuinely happy were when he was working on the food with his team.

I leave the Cayman Cookout determined not only to seek out more of his food but also with the conviction that this is a decent man of great talent, a man I'd like to get to know further.  That's quite a change for me, and one I would not have gotten the chance to make without being here, so I am again grateful for the opportunity to attend this event.

I also learned again, as if I should need the lesson, that seeing only one aspect of a person is almost never enough to make a valid judgment about the person.

Not that this will ever matter to him or even reach his eyes, but I feel obliged to say it nonetheless:  Thank you, Chef Lagasse, for what you did here, for being a trailblazing chef, and for your charity work.