In just four days, I had the most relaxing and fun filled getaway with delicious food and wine. What more could you ask for? The Grand Lido Negril did such a wonderful job with its 10th Annual Epicurean Escape. I had the opportunity to meet and learn from some of the most world renowned chefs and somelliers. 
There is nothing that turns me on more than someone who cooks healthy, and so when “Rock and Roll Chef” Kerry Simon, a winner on Iron Chef America and owner and chef of restaurants in Las Vegas and LA, made a delicious raw salad, he had me hooked. My brother had a pseudo crush on Nikki Cascone, owner and chef at 24 Prince in NYC and a former Top Chef Season 4 contestant , after he experienced her style of healthy cooking and environmental consciousness. In Jean-Francois Bonnet’s class, we sampled delicious chocolate that he hand crafts at his shop, Tumbador Chocolate, in Brooklyn. “The Royal Chef” Darren McGrady has been the private chef for Queen of England and Princess Diana and shared his culinary expertise with us as well. Sommeliers from Las Vegas, California, and Jamaica were also there to share their outstanding knowledge of wine with us and we definitely benefited from their expertise!
Our days were a great mixture of cooking and wine classes, and activities like kayaking, water ski lessons, snorkeling, pilates and yoga classes, spa treatments on the beach, and parasailing. Most activities are included with the resort, but if you’d like to go parasailing, you can contact the concierge and they can hook you up with Ray’s Watersports. You can even renew your vows, as the resort does an outstanding job at creating a romantic ceremony on a beachside gazebo, complete with a terrific minister, champaign, delicious rum cake, and Bob Marley music for the walk down the aisle.
The food was outstanding. In addition to the formal dinner Saturday night, which featured an eight course meal prepared by the celebrity chefs with well researched (and incredibly rare) wine pairings picked by the sommeliers, the resort’s six restaurants offers a diverse selection. We ate at the French restaurant, Piacere, where the food was magnificent and the ambiance romantic with a pianist playing throughout the meal. Other cuisine specific restaurants include Jamaican, Italian, and Japanese Hibachi. Even the lamb chops at one of the poolside eateries were delicious! 
Every Friday night, the general manager puts together a grand gala featuring over 100 local and international dishes and a room dedicated just to desserts. Plus, there is a live dance band after dinner to work it all off!
We did head over to Hedonism II for an hour during the day and checked out the Saturday night dance party which was a lot of fun. If you’re open minded and would like to see what all of the talk and excitement is about, you can purchase a day pass. When I talked to two couples over there, they told me they had been going there since 1989 a few times a year and have made friends that last a lifetime.
If you are planning a trip for next year, definitely try to make it for this culinary event. The resort itself is amazing, but couple that with outstanding meals and wine, and you have the perfect romantic escape!
