The first-ever Pepperpot Festival will be held later this month and promises a diverse lineup of delicious and mouthwatering delicacies.
With this brand-new celebration of Guyana’s cuisine, the aim is to create an experience captivated by music and culture that is part of the Christmas season here. Guyanese will also have the opportunity to showcase their talent at the festival slated for November 26 at Thirst Park in Georgetown.
Andrea Bryan-Garner, food enthusiast and Managing Director of the Pepperpot Festival, said the event will also include entertainment for kids and a Christmas market made up of local businesses and vendors.
The festival is the perfect opportunity to try different types of pepperpot, including vegetarian and wild meat.
For Andrea, it all started with a dream.
“I had a dream that I was at a Pepperpot Festival with a pressure cooker in my hand and a sample bowl in the other and when I woke up, I said this is a good idea,” Andrea told the News Room.
A year later, her dream is now a reality.
Persons can expect a ‘taste off’ competition where participants will have their pepperpot judged in traditional mixed meat, vegetarian, single meat, fish and wild meat categories. The judging criteria will include the aroma of the pepperpot, taste and overall presentation.
“Initially I wanted to have a cookoff but we know that pepperpot takes at least three days to get those flavours so the idea is to bring your pot of pepperpot, make it beforehand and register it to be part of the pepperpot competition.”
Participants will be guided to make the cuisine not too spicy so that everyone can have a sample.
“Yes, you might like it hot for yourself, but cater for the public and for me if it is too hot, you don’t enjoy the flavours,” Andrea explained.
A maximum of 100 vendors can participate in the festival while 30 will be able to compete for the best-tasting pepperpot and win up to $200,000.
Meanwhile, Banks DIH’s Golden Harvest bread is the official bread of the festival. Pepperpot is commonly eaten with bread but Guyanese would also eat the dish with rice, provisions, cassava bread and even roti.
But, apart from ushering in the Guyanese Christmas season, the festival also aims to create a culinary tourism product.
“I think culinary tourism is something that we can look towards in terms of our tourism product and on our tourism calendar since we are in tourism month.
“Overall, I would like to have an appreciation for our national dish, I don’t think there has been any large event to really celebrate pepperpot and as Guyanese, we need to embrace what is our own and what we enjoy eating and just put it on a pedestal where it belongs,” Andrea related.
While pepperpot has evolved over the years, the festival will also pay homage to the traditional original pepperpot made by the indigenous people and known as tuma pot.
“Persons can see pepperpot as not just some little thing we throw together but something that is vital to Guyanese.”
