Dozens of lawyers trad­ed their robes for aprons dur­ing the Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion’s (CBA) Lawyers Could Cook event on Sat­ur­day.

It was host­ed by CBA pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan, SC, at his Es­ta­do Nue­vo Es­tate in Mara­cas/St Joseph and saw lawyers from sev­er­al of the coun­try’s top firms, most­ly spe­cial­is­ing in crim­i­nal law, show­cas­ing their culi­nary skills in pre­sent­ing a wide va­ri­ety of dish­es and treats, and their ca­ma­raderie in the process.

In the com­pe­ti­tion as­pect of the event, To­co/San­gre Grande MP and De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge (Regius Cham­bers) won the Best Corn Soup prize, a team from Vir­tus Cham­bers, led by Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land, SC, took home the Best Pelau award. Al­lum Cham­bers, led by John Heath, SC, won Best Fish Broth, and Ravi Ra­j­coomar, SC, of In­vic­tus Cham­bers, claimed Best Cur­ry Chick­en.

The As­sem­bly of South­ern Lawyers (ASL), led by pres­i­dent Saira Lakhan, won for its unique seafood soup, while Free­dom Law Cham­bers took the prize for Best Cur­ry Duck. Khan’s Justi­tia Om­nibus pre­pared the Best Geera Dish, and the T&T Lawyers’ Crick­et As­so­ci­a­tion, led by re­tired Judge Joseph Tam, won for Best Stew to ac­com­pa­ny boiled and fried pro­vi­sions. A com­pos­ite CBA team se­cured the prize for Best Bar­be­cue Chick­en.

Khan said the event was launched over 20 years ago by the late Desmond Al­lum SC and was re­vived over the past four years dur­ing his tenure. He ex­plained that it was de­signed to give both crim­i­nal and civ­il lawyers a chance to so­cialise in a less for­mal, non-ad­ver­sar­i­al set­ting.

Among the at­ten­dees were for­mer High Court Judge and Pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les and for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ters Prakash Ra­mad­har and Jack Warn­er.

Khan said he was pleased with the turnout and hoped events like this, along with oth­er CBA out­reach projects, would in­spire new lawyers to en­ter crim­i­nal law.

The event al­so fea­tured en­ter­tain­ment from ace pan­nists Dane Gul­ston and Jo­hann Chucka­ree and a tas­sa side which fea­tured at­tor­ney Har­ri­nar­ine Singh, who is with Khan’s cham­ber.