The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman at Dragon Bay has, from the beginning, been a place where special things happen. I think it comes from something in the land itself that gives flight to the passion and daring of the people involved.

Few are as passionate and daring as Eric Ripert. First he, as a young man, took New York by storm and redefined what could be done with seafood and flavors from around the globe refined through a flawless French palate. Then he came to the Caribbean, a place that stole his heart – along with his Caribbean wife Sandra, to redefine quality and excellence by creating Blue and working with local fisherman and producers to make it the finest restaurant in the region. Once this was completed, Eric continued to look for new and greater ways to share his love of the oceans and their bounty. The annual Cayman Cookout food festival hosted at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman has allowed him to share with his friends and the rest of the food world what he has discovered and created in Cayman.

Eric’s generosity of spirit and lack of star chef ego has garnered him an army of friends and supporters, and the festival gave many of them a chance to come together and celebrate food, wine and the beauty of the Cayman Islands.

Acclaimed chefs Anthony Bourdain, Dean Fearing, Gail Simmons of Top Chef, Grant Achatz, Jose Andres, David Chang, Cindy Hutson, Michael Schwartz, Paula DiSilva, Dean James Max and Alex Grunert along with the Food and Wine magazine made the Cookout’s third incarnation proof that, like fine wine, the event does get better each year.

Despite his humble personality, Eric continues to become increasingly well known for his talent and his ability to spread his passion for food. When he and I were discussing the then upcoming Cookout in New York in December 2009, he told me about how well his PBS TV show ‘Avec Eric’ was doing and that the second season was exceeding their highest expectations. I asked him why he was not doing an episode at the Cookout and he said he wanted to but things had gotten bogged down in bureaucracy. It was one of those ideas that was so obviously a great thing to do that we decided together right then and there to make it happen. We ended up with two episodes. The first on the Cayman Cookout and Eric’s fellow chefs and the second on the Cayman Islands and what it was about the country that persuaded Eric to come and work with me to create the greatest restaurant in the Caribbean and to make Cayman his second home.

So with one quick call to the Department of Tourism describing an opportunity to get two TV shows with Eric on PBS with over a million viewers who perfectly match our demographic and which would be picked up in over 90% of the country with a focus on Cayman as the food capital of the Caribbean, we were in business. This meant that along with the hundreds of guests, local media, and international media from Food and Wine, the New York Times and other print and electronic media outlets, we also had a full camera crew on site. It was lots of fun and also a bit surreal.

On the Friday night we were sitting on the beach at sunset having Eric cook some lobster and having a glass of Champagne, watching the sun go down and sharing stories of Eric’s attempts to fish and just behind us were people holding light shields and camera mounts. In the midst of this relaxed scene, we had mikes up our shirts, power packs digging into our lower backs and at the edge of our vision were people holding back crowds on the beach. In the middle of all this, I was reminded that I was sitting only a few feet from where I sat a couple of years before having another glass of Champagne with some of our owners when Kevin Costner, who just happened to be staying on property, popped out to see the sunset with his guitar and decided to join them in a glass, plopped down in the sand and had an impromptu concert (apparently he is not a half bad singer/guitarist) as the sun set and the stars came out.

There is really something about this place…