By SHAVAUGHN MOSS, Lifestyle Editor

The Bahamas' culinary team to the 22nd IKA World Champions wowed the judges to a bronze medal showing in the hot food category, now you can wow your guests at home with some of the recipes the countries' team laid out at the highest competition in the culinary art world.

While not all of the 50 items on their menu which they took with them to prepare in Germany are easily adapted for your home kitchen, don't despair, because Chef Jamall Petty, the Olympic team rookie, picked out three dishes which he says should be the easiest ones for you to make at home.

"Each one of those dishes, require a tremendous amount of skill, because all of them have a certain degree of difficulty in them, which we could capitalize on by getting a bunch of points, and not something that just anybody can do."

Pressed to pick an appetizer, main course and dessert that you could try at home, Petty settled on the Seared Caribbean lobster with Mango Cucumber Salsa as the appetizer, Pork Tenderloin with Red Cabbage and Apple and Bacon Pork Wrap with Market Vegetables Apple Chutney and Port Reduction, and Chocolate Banana Fritter with Caramel Banana Puree for dessert.

"If they follow the recipe they should be okay, but the reason why I think these would be the easier recipes to prepare, is because they have less different cooking methods, and these three are much more user-friendly recipes.

As an appetizer, he says the Seared Caribbean Lobster with Mango Cucumber Salsa would be a good choice to serve at home, because it offers an adventurous change from the norm.

"In the industry, people marry fruits or sweet foods with savory foods all the time, and this does not happen a lot at home, but this recipe gives your guest a different kind of taste adventure, and the opportunity to experiment with something that they would probably walk away loving.

For serving at home, instead of leaving the lobster meat whole, he says he would put it into strips and serve on a kebab, and allow guests to put the salsa on as they desired.

"It would make it easier to eat, easier to serve. It would be more of a pleasure type of food. The salsa would be something you would put on. And the marriage of sweet and savory provides a flavorful contrast. "You would have the spicy lobster and you marry that with the fruity salsa. With a dish like this, it could literally come over well for any type of palate whether you like it spicy or mild," he said.

For the main course, he says the Culinary Olympic team's finished pork tenderloin dish has the ability to wow you when you taste it, because it is incredibly flavorful, and has a lot of textures. "It's like a unique balance between sweet and savory, marrying the pork tenderloin with the apple chutney, and you also have layers of flavor with the bacon pork wrap, and the red cabbage, which absorbs the flavor from the pork, and apples are perfect with pork.

The Olympians made miniature florets of broccoli, cauliflower and chanterelle mushrooms and croquette potatoes to serve with their pork dish . Chef Petty says you can serve a good mashed potato and be just as impressive.

He advises that you mound the mashed potatoes in the center of the plate, and garnish with vegetables.

Even though the port reduction has a rich, deep flavor, he said it isn't necessary for the home cook to do. The team used it for visual appeal in their presentation to the judges. "It was used to help with more eye appeal on the plate, because the dish doesn't really need it, but it helps to lift the visual."

To complete the meal, the Chocolate Banana Fritter with Caramel Banana Puree he says is the perfect, and easiest choice out of what they prepared. "It's like a chocolaty taste of paradise. It is literally like you have a little fried chocolate cake, a rich chocolate cake, but a hint of banana, pieces through it to give you more taste experience."

It's fairly simple to make, and would make the perfect entertaining kind of food. Put the fritters on a tray, sprinkle with icing sugar, place the sauce in the middle, and you're an instant star."

The six-man Olympic culinary team served 110-115 plates during each competition to judges who were randomly mixed in with regular diners.

"The judges eat with other people, so you could be serving your 60th, 80th or 100th plate, but you don't know which plate the judge got, so each plate had to be on the Olympic standard. And this is done to you deliberately, so that the standard remains the same, and there is no shortcutting by putting extra preparation into a plate that a judge would get from one that a patron would get. "You don't have a clue, so you had to have your "A" game all the time," said Petty.

When he wasn't in the heat of battle, Petty took time out to try out the foods that his competitors also did, and he said it was literally like sitting down to a piece of edible art.

"The first thing you know something is really good is the eye appeal, when you get a plate in front of you, and you don't want to mess it up — you know that team has something going on, and then the flavor backs it up." And he felt that way about one country in particular. "Norway blew me out of the water. Norway's food was just incredibly perfect . . . everything was crazy perfect. It was clean, and their food had so much character, so much imagination in it. It was food you wanted to take and put into a frame. After you saw their stuff, you were like it's time to go." He added that the U.S. team was pretty good too.

Of their bronze medal win in the hot food served hot category, he said it was a surprise and shock, considering they overcame serious challenges and circumstances, and had anticipated a better showing.

"We did the best we could have done," said Petty. "We executed fully. I think our dish could have stood head-to-head against any of the other dishes or categories, as it pertains to flavor, but from what I saw, some of our dishes could have given a bit more detail when it comes to presentation, and that's where we may have fallen behind the other countries." Petty's favorite, Norway won gold, Germany took the silver.

challenge made it more pressure than was anticipated," he said.

Seared Caribbean Lobster with Mango Cucumber Salsa

Yields:110 Portions

110 lobsters, intestines removed

Fresh minced ginger, as needed

Fresh minced garlic, as needed

1 cup grain mustard

1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

1 oz honey

1 cup olive oil

Salt and ground white pepper, to taste

Clarified butter, as needed

Marinade lobsters with ginger, garlic, mustard, cilantro, honey and oil; season to taste with salt and pepper

Sear lobsters in a hot skillet with butter and finish in the oven;

Mango and Cucumber Salsa

5 ripe mangoes, peeled, fine diced

4 English cucumbers, peel, seeded, fine diced

1 large red onion, fine diced

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 1/4 cups mango purée

1 oz fresh cilantro, chopped

2 oz honey

Salt, to taste

Red pepper flakes, to taste

Place first seven ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and mix thoroughly.

Season to taste with salt and pepper flakes, marinade 1 - 2 hours and serve with lobster.

Pork Tenderloin

Yield: 110 Portions

18 pork tenderloins (approximately 24 lbs)

1 1/2 gallons apple juice

4 cups sugar

2 cinnamon sticks

3 star anise

2 bay leaves

2 cups red wine

2 cups red wine vinegar

5 whole cloves

6 lbs red cabbage, peeled, cored, finely chopped

1 lb onion, julienned

6 apples each, peeled, seeded, diced

Salt and ground white pepper, to taste

Butter, as needed/clarified

6 - 8 lbs caul fat, as needed

Butterfly the pork tenderloin and season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a stock pot bring the apple juice, sugar, cinnamon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, red wine, red wine vinegar and cloves to a boil; simmer 10 - 12 minutes and let mixture steep over night.

Sauté the onion in a little butter until tender, add the apples and sauté 1 - 2 minutes.

Add cabbage and apple stock; season to taste and braise cabbage until tender, let cool.

Portion cabbage among port tenderloin and wrap with caul fat.

Evenly sear pork in clarified butter and place on a rack

Roast to desired temperature and let rest; slice and serve.

Pork and Bacon Wrap

Ingredients:

1 c/s smoked slice bacon

7 lbs lean pork butt, diced

3 1/2 lbs fresh pork fat, diced

1 1/2 Spanish onions, minced

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp fresh parsley

3 tbsp fresh basil

3 tbsp fresh sage

2 tbsp ground black pepper

Salt, to taste

3 oz butter

3 oz brandy

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups diced ham

Sauté the onion and garlic in butter and cool; add herbs to fat back and chill.

Combine the port butt, fat, brandy, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, grind through a medium die.

Take 1/3 of the total ground meat and process with the eggs in a food processor to a smooth consistency.

Fold in the course meat and dice ham; cook off a small amount of the farce to check the flavor.

Line terrine moulds with the slice smoked bacon and pipe in farce

Overlap farce with bacon and unmold.

Lightly seal bottom of terrine in a hot skillet and place on wire rack

Bake terrine with dry air at 350º F to an internal temperature of 145º F; slice and serve

Chocolate Banana Fritter

Yield: 110 portions

7 whole eggs

1 1/4 lb sugar

10 tbsp cocoa powder

7 bananas, dice / 3 bananas, mashed

1/2 tsp salt

10 oz vegetable oil

3 tbsp vanilla essence

10 oz dark sweet chocolate

4 oz brandy

1lb 10oz all purpose flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted

Vegetable oil for frying, as needed

Cream the eggs and sugar, add the vegetable oil and mix thoroughly.

Add the cocoa powder, salt, dark chocolate and brandy, vanille; mix thoroughly.

Add the flour and baking powder, mix thoroughly.

Fold in the bananas and banana purée, chill and let mixture rest 1/2 to 2 hours.

Lightly deep fry over medium heat, drain and serve.

Rum Anglaise

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup sugar

3 vanilla beans

20 egg yolks

Meyer's Rum, to taste

Scald the milk and heavy cream.

Split the vanilla beans and disperse beans with sugar by rubbing together.

Thoroughly mix vanilla sugar and yolks and temper with milk.

Add vanilla pods and cook custard until it coats the back of a spoon.

Strain, cool and chill.

Add rum to taste and serve with fritter.

Banana Purée

Yield: 110 portions

7 bananas, cut lengthways, seeds removed

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 cups water

Make a light caramel with the sugar and water.

While the caramel is still hot, add the bananas and simmer 2 - 3 minutes.

Let mixture cool and purée; serve