Bahamas News
BAHAMAS: Junior chefs infuse locally grown ingredients in dishes to impress judges
#Nassau, March 22, 2019 – Bahamas – Junior chefs from around the country, participating in the 2019 Bahamas Young Chef Culinary Competition, wooed the judges with their interesting creations.
The five chefs, local and international, who judged the competition gave intense constructive critique, and agreed the recipes and colourful presentations of the eleven junior high school students represented the theme, ‘Creatively Embracing Indigenous Foods Through Innovation for Sustainable Development.’
Kicking Beef Rice Kabob (donkey meat), Creamy Papaya Coconut Soup, Mahatma Jasmine Seafood Fried Rice, Crusted Island Grown Vegetable Rice on Watermelon Salsa, Mini Rosemary Trifle, Arawak Cay Pigeon Peas n Rice, Honey Conch and Cassava Pie, Mini Tropical Rice Cheesecake with Coco Plum Topping, Onion Thyme Infused Waffles n Fried Grouper, Tamarind Syrup and Pineapple Salsa were just some of the myriad dishes the students prepared for the competition now in its 27th year.
“Overall, you achieved the goal of infusion,” said Chef Edwin Johnson, Executive Chef and General Manager, Sapodilla Fine Dining. He explained to them: “The infusion theme – some of you missed the finesse and finishing of product because you focused so much on ‘fusion’ which is good – taking the local indigenous stuff from the various islands and fusing!”
Chef Gus Griffith, Culinary Classroom Presenter, Johnson and Wales University, said he was impressed and commended the students on a job well done. He encouraged them to show pride, not just with plating presentations but also by selling their dishes — “The critique across the board is ‘show us your pride.’ All that work that you do for those dishes — show us as if you’re recommending [to] a customer.”
The students impressed Chef Jeremy Haughton, Department Chair and Senior Chef Instructor, Johnson and Wales University, with the flavour profiles they showcased in their recipes. He noted, for example, “People used vinegar, it’s not just sweet. You balanced it on a plate, which is very hard to teach some students…. It’s not just to look pretty.” And he encouraged tasting before submission for critique, sampling before presenting to the judges: “Did you take your dish and try the rice before you put it on the plate? If you didn’t, then maybe we would have told you a pinch more salt, little more sugar in that whipped cream. Give it a little taste before you put it on a plate, and make sure everything is the way you want it.”
Chef Debbie Wheeler, Test Kitchen Manager, Mahatma Rice/Riviana Foods Inc., mirrored all of the comments and recommendations of the other judges. She was pleased with the variety of rice used this year, the overall flavor infusion, the many wonderful dishes – sweet and savoury, and the pigeon peas used in a dessert recipe too.
Chef Johnson, as one of the top in his profession in The Bahamas, advised the young students that the job of a chef is very rewarding, if indeed there is a passion for it.
This year’s participants were Ciara Kessaint – Patrick J. Bethel High School, Abaco; Lynique Saunders – Mangrove Cay High School, Andros; Kristen Ingraham, Preston H. Albury High School, Eleuthera; Johnathan Brown, L.N. Coakley High School, Exuma; Sarah Braynen, East End Junior High School, Grand Bahama; Sierra Turnquest, N.G.M. Major High School, Long Island; Romyah Ingraham, Inagua All Age School, Inagua; D’Asia King, San Salvador High School, San Salvador; Gabrielle Ferguson, Old Bight High School, Cat Island; Anyah Coke, A. F. Adderley High School and Kendra Estil, D.W. Davis Jr. High School.
Emerging 2019 winners were: Kristen Ingraham, winner; Kendra Estil, 2nd; Sierra Turnquest, 3rd and Sarah Braynen, 4th.
The contest is organized by the Department of Education in collaboration with participating sponsors, J.M. Smucker Company and Riviana Foods, Inc., sponsors of Mahatma Rice and Robin Hood Flour.
The aim of the competition is to showcase the knowledge and craftsmanship of Family & Consumer Science Education students throughout the country, to expose students to innovative methods of food preparation & presentation by chefs in the tourism and hospitality industry, and to assist students in obtaining scholarships funding toward higher education at technical schools or universities.
During the competition event, coaches received praise for their dedication.
By Kathryn Campbell
Release: BIS
Photo Captions: Scenes from the 27th Bahamas Young Chef Junior High School Culinary Competition at A.F. Adderley High School. The Hon. Peter Turnquest, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, gave the students a surprise visit during the competition, and is pictured chatting with the young chefs and judges.
(BIS Photos/Raymond A. Bethel, Sr.)
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
