This year’s 13th Annual Festival Noel was a night that one should not have missed for many reasons. The main reason would definitely have to be the huge variety of delicious food that was prepared and served by all the participating restaurants. Grand Bahama’s top restaurants were out in full force and ready to delight the hundreds of attendees with special dishes that they prepared as they all competed for the title of Chef Noel 2007.

Restaurants competing this year were the Harbour Room, The Ferry House, The Grouper Grill, China Beach, Sabor, and Joe Ret Catering. The competition was fierce, but in the end it was new restaurant and first time competitor Sabor, located at the Pelican Bay hotel, that took the title.

Under the direction of Chef Worly Volundarson, this team of chefs won over the attendees with zest and pizzazz and let’s face it, their stomachs too. Wowing the crowd with their cooking and dancing skills, attendees lined up wanting more and more of what Sabor had to offer. “I think it’s great and absolutely wonderful that we won” says Chef Worly of Sabor, “my team and I are all so very pleased with the way things turned out”. When asked what it was that he thought tipped the scales in their favor, Chef Worly stated, “It was the fact that we prepared everything from scratch while were out there. We brought everything and prepped right there basically we had the entire kitchen set up right on site. Everything was really fresh!”

Karin Sanchez, Chairman for the Grand Bahama Regional Branch of The Bahamas National Trust was absolutely thrilled about the way everything turned out and commented that “I was just so amazed with the presentation of Chef Worly and his team, not only when it came to the food but their set up was simply fantastic”. She went on to add, “all the restaurants this year were tremendous. We had so many compliments on the variety and quantity of food this year. Our sincere thanks to each restaurant and their teams.”

The winner of this year’s competition receives a month long blitz of their restaurant on Cool 96 FM radio, a year’s worth of free advertisements in the Bahama Buy & Sell, five one hundred dollar gift certificates from Bristol Wines and Spirits, who were also the main sponsors of the event, and five embroidered chef uniforms with “Chef Noel Winners 2007” compliments of The Uniform Place.

With a new winner claiming the title of Chef Noel, there is a new target to beat during next year’s competition. But until then, Sabor reigns as the newly emerged Chef Noel winners for 2007 at the 13th Annual Festival Noel.

photos courtesy of markdacunha.com