Above: Nina Compton
By the Caribbean Journal staff
St Lucia native Chef Nina Compton has a date with destiny Wednesday night, when she will find out if she won the Bravo network’s “Top Chef” competition.
Compton would be the first Caribbean-born winner of the competition, which is now in its 11th season.
She and Chef Nicholas Elmi of Pennsylvania are the only two finalists remaining.
Compton is not the first Caribbean chef to find acclaim on the show. Noted Chef Ron Duprat, a native of Haiti, starred for several weeks on Top Chef’s Season 6.
Compton, who was born in St Lucia, is currently the Chef de Cuisine at the Scarpetta restaurant at Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau hotel.
St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony said Compton had “made St Lucia proud.”
“She has taken the United States of America and the rest of the television world by storm in her quest to become America’s Top TV Chef,” Anthony said.
The government has helped organize a viewing party in Derek Walcott Square in Castries on Wednesday night to watch the season finale, with a similar viewing party planned at the Vieux-Fort Technical Secondary School.
“I call on all Saint Lucians to join the live broadcast of Top Chef, decked out in our flag colours,” Anthony said. “I call on all local television stations and other media houses able and willing, to make appropriate arrangements to broadcast the event on Wednesday night.”