BETHESDA, Md. — Marriott International has announced the winners of Masters of the Craft, a culinary, beverage and pastry competition designed to foster creativity and innovation while highlighting chefs and bartender’s within the company’s 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, more than 1,600 culinary, pastry and beverage professionals from 181 Marriott Bonvoy properties across the U.S. and 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,SVP, 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 September 16 where 30 semi-finalists 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 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.
The winners from each of the respective competitions include:
Culinary competition winner
- Jessica Lumbre, JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Report
Beverage competition winner
- Heidi Finley, The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota
Pastry competition winner
- Raena Narae Lee, Delta Hotels Toronto
The winners were awarded an all-expenses paid trip to the Charleston Wine + Food Festival taking place from Mar. 5 to 9, 2025. The competition featured high-profile 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 U.S. at TEAM; and more.
