On Oc­to­ber 19, Goa­to­berTT ig­nites the culi­nary scene with Feasts of Fire—billed as one of 2025’s most dis­tinc­tive food events. This “Fes­ti­val of Goat” unites three pow­er­house fe­male chefs who will show­case the ver­sa­til­i­ty of one of the Caribbean’s favourite meats in bold, cre­ative ways.

St Lu­cian-born Ni­na Comp­ton, along with T&T’s De­bra Sardinha and Brigette Joseph, will head­line the event. To­geth­er, they promise an evening of live-fire cook­ing, in­ven­tive menus and Caribbean flair.

Comp­ton rose to promi­nence as the run­ner-up on Bra­vo’s Top Chef in 2013 and has since col­lect­ed nu­mer­ous ac­co­lades, in­clud­ing the pres­ti­gious James Beard Award for her New Or­leans restau­rant, Com­père Lapin.

Sardinha—af­fec­tion­ate­ly known as Chef Deb­bie—broke bar­ri­ers as the first fe­male ex­ec­u­tive chef at a Hilton Ho­tel in the Amer­i­c­as and has ded­i­cat­ed her ca­reer to el­e­vat­ing lo­cal in­gre­di­ents.

Joseph, the youngest of the trio, marks her 20th year in the in­dus­try this year. Renowned for her in­ven­tive takes on lo­cal pro­duce, she’s a fix­ture at high-pro­file events such as Free­bird’s Oil and Mu­sic Food Fes­ti­val and the Bar­ba­dos Food and Rum Fes­ti­val.

Launched in the US in 2011, Goa­to­ber has grown in­to an in­ter­na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tion of goat meat, spread­ing to the UK and Eu­rope be­fore be­ing in­tro­duced to T&T in 2019 by jour­nal­ist and me­dia en­tre­pre­neur Fran­ka Philip.

The in­au­gur­al Goa­to­berTT fea­tured UK chefs James Whet­lor and James Cochran along­side Brigette Joseph and lo­cal favourite Bian­ca Savary Bian­co. When COVID-19 halt­ed in-per­son gath­er­ings, the event piv­ot­ed to live cook-alongs, in­ter­views and on­line dis­cus­sions. But Philip re­mained com­mit­ted to re­viv­ing the com­mu­nal din­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

“I’m re­al­ly ex­cit­ed to bring back Goa­to­ber cel­e­bra­tions this year,” she said. “Af­ter COVID, it was a strug­gle to do it, but in 2024 I was in­spired by di­as­poric culi­nary events that were putting Caribbean food at the fore­front.”

Philip even trav­elled to New Or­leans to se­cure Comp­ton’s par­tic­i­pa­tion.

“I’ve been talk­ing to Ni­na about com­ing for Goa­to­ber since 2018. The food com­ing out of her kitchen at Com­père Lapin is pos­si­bly the best I’ve ever eat­en,” she said. “She vis­it­ed Trinidad in Au­gust, and af­ter spend­ing time with Brigette and Deb­bie, she’s ea­ger­ly look­ing for­ward to cook­ing with them.”

Feasts of Fire of­fers two dis­tinct ex­pe­ri­ences:

Lunch (12–4 pm), cu­rat­ed by Brigette Joseph, will cel­e­brate her 20-year jour­ney in the kitchen. “It’s an an­niver­sary cel­e­bra­tion,” Joseph said. “Peo­ple can bring a lime and get friends to­geth­er for a ca­su­al way to en­joy se­ri­ous cook­ing.”

Din­ner (6–10 pm) sees all three chefs col­lab­o­rate on a four-course menu billed as “a sul­try evening of Caribbean chic and culi­nary ex­cel­lence,” spot­light­ing the bold flavours and ver­sa­til­i­ty of goat.

While goat cur­ry re­mains the coun­try’s most pop­u­lar prepa­ra­tion, Goa­to­ber aims to chal­lenge din­ers’ per­cep­tions and show­case new ways to en­joy this beloved meat.

“We’re invit­ing re­al food lovers to have their taste buds chal­lenged by some of the Caribbean’s most ex­quis­ite chefs,” Philip said.

Feasts of Fire will un­fold in the el­e­gant sur­round­ings of Veronique’s Events, St Clair. Tick­ets and fur­ther in­for­ma­tion are avail­able at Is­landEt­ick­ets.