Cook Off to take place at newly adopted Animal Park
If barbecue is your favourite Saturday meal, you need to head to the San Cas Park, formerly the Animal Park, this weekend. As part of official activities for the annual Kraft Barbecue Cook Off, chefs from across the country will compete for the public’s approval. According to the organisers, the event is designed to satisfy the pickiest palate.
Santino Castillo, C.E.O., San Cas Group
“It’s sponsored by Santiago Castillo and Kraft and it’s a barbecue cook-off where each contestant gets a grill and they have to make the best chicken and pork chops, then there is tasting and people taste it and at the end of the day the judges decide who is the best chef. The champion chef gets to take home one thousand dollars and all of them get to take home their barbeque grills. Second place is seven hundred and third place is five hundred dollars. … And we had many entries, dozens and dozens of entries from Belize, out-district, and we had to kinda have a raffle between them to pick the final six that will be barbecuing tomorrow.”
The event starts at nine and ends around three tomorrow afternoon. Plates of barbecue will sell for six dollars and up.
Visitors to the cook-off will also get the chance to see the renovations planned for Animal Park. Two months ago, the San Cas Group of Companies officially adopted the site and renamed it the San Cas Park. According to Castillo, that means a complete overhaul of the location.
Santino Castillo
“The adoption entails us taking over the park, refurbishing it, renovating it, making it more modern, taking care of it, cleaning it. All the responsibilities that were formerly for the Belize City Council now are our responsibility.”
Marion Ali
“So at the end of the day how will the park look?”
Santino Castillo
“Well we have a design that we brought out. … Basically we’ll have a little area for people to congregate. We’ll have a little concert area, we’ll have a beach volleyball area as well and of course the usual thing for children, et cetera, et cetera. We hope it’ll be a pretty modern park that people will congregate to.”
Marion Ali
“Why did you undertake this initiative?”
Santino Castillo
“Well the Belize City Council called me up and offered me several parks that were up for adoption and if I’d be interested and clearly it’s something that I think is good for the community. Our company, Santiago Castillo Limited and in fact the San Cas Group of Companies is always giving back to the community and we felt this was a positive way to do so and I chose this specific park out of all the others because of the Baron Bliss grave, the sea, you know, it’s just Belize and I think it’s a park that could really do a lot for this area.”
The proceeds of tomorrow’s event will go towards remodelling and renovating the park. The San Cas Group says its investment in the area will be approximately fifty thousand dollars.
