Marriott International announced the winners of Masters of the Craft, a culinary, beverage and pastry competition designed to foster creativity and innovation while highlighting exceptional chefs and bartenders within the company’s food, beverage and pastry community. Adding pastry to the competition brought attention to a space that has extraordinary talent across the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of brands.
Over the past three months, over 1,600 exceptional culinary, pastry and beverage professionals from 181 Marriott Bonvoy properties across the U.S. & Canada competed in local and regional Masters of the Craft competitions to prove their prowess through quick-fire cooking, baking and mixology challenges. During the timed, rapid-fire competitions, each contestant was tasked with incorporating a mystery ingredient into a signature dish, cocktail, or pastry which was then judged based on technique, creativity, and taste.
“Each year, we look forward to hosting the Masters of the Craft event to highlight the amazing talent we have within our hotels and restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. We were especially excited to add pastry to the competition this year and give our pastry chefs, in addition to culinarians and mixologists, the opportunity to showcase their passion,” says Matthew Von Ertfelda, Senior Vice President, Food + Beverage, Global, U.S. and Canada Operations, Marriott International. “It’s a priority for Marriott to support pastry artisanship at our properties and celebrate these talented chefs.”
This year’s championship competition was held at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles on Monday, September 16, 2024, where 30 semi-finalists (10 from each category) went head-to-head incorporating culinary mystery ingredient Sweet Garleek, mixology mystery ingredient local honey, and pastry mystery ingredient mango. Following the semi-finals, three finalists from each category were chosen to then compete and incorporate mystery ingredients cobia from Open Blue Farms in Panama for culinary, coconut for mixology and fair-trade organic Mayan roast single origin coffee for pastry in their efforts to take home the winning title.
Among the finalists, one winner was selected from each of the respective culinary, beverage and pastry competitions, including:
Culinary Competition Winner
- Jessica Lumbre, JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort
Beverage Competition Winner
- Heidi Finley, The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota
Pastry Competition Winner
- Raena Narae Lee, Delta Hotels Toronto
In addition to winning the 2024 Masters of the Craft Championship title, winners were awarded an all-expenses paid trip to the Charleston Wine + Food Festival taking place from March 5-9, 2025. Winners will experience culinary excellence from local and national talent and taste Charleston’s legendary ingredients.
The competition featured high-profile beverage, culinary and pastry personality judges including Douglass Miller (Senior Lecturer and Beverage Educator at Nolan Hotel School, Cornell University), Jake Kalick (President and Co-founder of Made In Cookware), Tara Marshall (Multicultural Advocacy Lead Bacardi US at TEAM), Masako Morishita (Perry’s DC Executive Chef and 2024 James Beard Award Winner) and Daniella Senior (CEO & Founder of Colada Shop). Notable judges from Marriott International included Gary Gruver (Beverage Director, Global, U.S. and Canada, Marriott International) and Stephen Toevs (Senior Director, Culinary, Global, U.S. and Canada, Marriott International).
“I’m thrilled to be a judge at this year’s Masters of the Craft competition,” said Masako Morishita, Perry’s DC Executive Chef and 2024 James Beard Emerging Chef Award Winner. “Judging such talented participants is an immense honor, and I’m excited to see chefs and bartenders from many different culinary backgrounds go head-to-head with their dishes and drinks. I’m grateful to be a part of Marriott’s efforts to foster creativity and innovation across their food and beverage teams.”
Marriott is committed to making a positive and sustainable impact across the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of more than 30 hotel brands, an intention fully realized through the company’s sustainability and social impact platform, Serve 360, which puts the core value of “Serve Our World” into action. This year’s Masters of the Craft pantry utilized sustainable seafood, cage free eggs, and crate free pork products. In addition, the culinary and pastry mystery ingredients were sustainably sourced.
