Recommended Experience – Paradise Plates

This past Saturday I attended Hands For Hunger’s annual Paradise Plates event. Just having seen its fourth year the continually sold-out event was a first for myself – needless to say having far exceeded my expectations it will not be my last. For those of you that are foodies, with myself being a recent self-proclaimed sort, this is a night for you.

Walking in to a 13,000 sq. ft ballroom I experience some of the island’s top chefs in action, my eyes sweeping over a succession of culinary displays that lend to the notion that resident chefs are just as much members of the creative class in The Bahamas as ever. With twenty-six restaurant and beverage purveyors participating, including the exclusive Old Fort and Lyford Cay Club – host to otherwise inaccesible restaurants, you feel as though you are teleporting from one restaurant’s table to the next. It gets better, your attendance is for a cause. The event was created to fund an organization started by a group of local students who recognized that a great deal of high-quality food was being discarded daily while there was a percentage of the Bahamian population going hungry; as Will and Laura of Young’s Champagne said “We were extremely proud to be a part of this fantastic event and work alongside so many amazing vendors in the common cause of fighting food insecurity and chronic hunger in the Bahamas.”

With all this being said, those of you visiting the capital, this is a must on your Island Itinerary as it is undoubtedly a great introduction to the Bahamian culinary experience; with your taste-buds serving as an official handshake you get a real taste for the islands – pun intended. Also, who doesn’t want to support a good cause?

P.S. About Hands For Hunger –
Since 2008, Hands For Hunger has provided 500,000 pounds of food, equating to half a million meals provided to those members of the New Providence Community facing hunger and food insecurity through their food rescue program that currently serves 12 Recipient Agencies with feeding programs throughout the island. In addition, their efforts have prevented more than 400 tons of CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere.