Palm Beach – The upcoming Aruba Wine, Food & Art Festival in its 5th edition will unfold at the Westin Aruba Resort this week. Programs highlights include:
Thursday May 21st, 2009
The Taste of Aruba, Best Chef Competition, at the Pago Pago Restaurant at 7 p.m.
A special dinner will be served prepared by Aruba’s top chefs from the Westin Resort, Aruba, Papiamento Restaurant, Waterfront Crabhouse, The Flying Fishbone, Screaming Eagle, Las Ramblas and Aqua Grill.
Each chef will prepare a signature course and pair it with a special wine selection. An award will be given at the end of the evening to the chef presenting the “People’s Choice” dish.
Tickets at $85 per person are available at the concierge desk.
The annual Art Exhibition in the resort gallery currently displays works of local artists under the theme Arubian Cuisine, curated by Aruba Art & Management Consultancy. It features artists Stan Kuiperi, Irene Peterson, Ciro Abath, Marian Abath, Elvis Lopez, Eliza Lejuez, Glenda Heyliger, Elvis Tromp and Eefje van der Straten-van Twillert.
The exhibition will remain open for viewing and for sale until July 10th, 2009.
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
The much-anticipated Wine & Food Pairing Exhibition will take place from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The Wine & Food Pairing in the Grand Ballroom offers an opportunity for exquisite food & wine tastings with the Westin Culinary Team, Aruba Culinary School Students and invited wineries from around the globe. Music will be provided by Daniel Aguirre’s Jazz band. Â
The Wine & Food Pairing is open to the public and the admission is US$30 per person at the door. Pre-sale tickets are available at the concierge desk for $25 per person.
As part of the festival activities that day, a Trade Fair will be organized by local and international Wine and Liquor Purveyors, in honor of their local clients, by-invitations only. Sessions will take place from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m.
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
The highlight of the festival is the elegant and unique Capturing the Champagne Sparkle, from 7 p.m. to midnight, the Final Champagne event which will highlight dinner with South America’s most famous celebrity chef, Colombian-born Harry Sasson Tchira.
The evening will be sponsored by Moet Chandon and Dom Perignon, matching the chef’s east-west creations with delectable, bottomless flutes of Champagne.
Tickets for a limited number of participants are available in the hotel lobby at the concierge desk at US$140 per person. The festival will culminate with a great concert by Edjean, singing a classic tribute to Frank Sinatra including Strangers in the Night, My way, New York, New York, Fly me to the moon, As time goes by, Cheek to cheek, I won’t dance, Come fly with me, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, Deep in a dream, The girl from Ipanema, Something Stupid, Moonlight serenade, Luck be a lady, I’ve got you under my skin, All of me, It was a very good year, That’s life & Nothing but the best.
About Harry Sasson Tchira
 Chef Harry Sasson Tchira is the graduate of Colegio Anglo Colombiano. He cooked for a while for the Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje SENA, and spent six years in Vancouver, Canadá, working as sous chef at Joe Fortes and the Westin Bayshore Hotel. Going back to Colombia in the 90s he opened H. Sasson Wok & Satay Bar, which he has been operating successfully since in additional to other brands he developed, employing 400 people in six different restaurants, namely Balzac, Club Colombia, H&B Bakeries & Harry’s Bar, boating 1,000 seats, as well as a line of sauces and dressings sold in supermarkets, a book whose second edition was translated into English, a weekly newspaper column in El Espectador and a popular international television program on Canal Gourmet y Discovery Travel & Living.
The proceeds from the sale of his books are earmarked to Fundación Corazón Verde and the Hogar Nueva Granada. He also fundraises for the foundations by coordinating two gastronomic festivals each year.
Always a man with a social conscience he is an active benefactor for children’s charities and support an adoption home, a university and a kid cardio clinic. His flag ship restaurant H. Sasson Wok & Satay Bar is recognized for excellence by the international Chaine des Rotisseurs.
Festival Sponsors include:
Sponsors and partners: the Westin Resort, Aruba
Local & international liquor purveyors: Aruba Trading Company, Pepia Est, Romar Trading, Playa Liquor, Licores Aruba, and Arion Wine Company.
Important wineries from the USA and food purveyors: Caribbean Overseas NV and Frasa NV, Aruba’s Chefs, the US Poultry Federation, the US Meat Export Federation, the Buckhead Beef Company.
