Family teams cook their way to August 31 PAN finals
Workshops teach theory, technique, and business smarts for 2025 hopefuls
Published:Thursday | August 7, 2025 | 12:11 AM
It was out of sheer curiosity that 65-year-old Lorna Kerr and her daughter, 28-year-old Annmarica Irving, decided to attend the second PAN Workshop at the Montego Bay Community College in St James.
An emotional Kerr, a market vendor, was shell-shocked when they were named first-place winners for their parish of Westmoreland.
“This is so exciting. We just entered for the fun of it, we never expected to win, but I am so grateful,” said Kerr.
Irving, her daughter, who assisted her, studied food at the HEART/NSTA Trust.
“My mother entered a pan chicken competition at church last year, and she came fourth, and then she entered again this year, and she won. We came here today with no expectations, so this is like a big surprise to us,” said Irving.
Also heading to the PAN 2025 grand final is the father-son duo of 22-year-old Junord Grant and Jeffrey Grant. The senior Grant, who is a driver with a government agency, assisted his son, who recently started a catering business in Hanover. The team finished in second place for the parish.
“I didn’t have the confidence to enter, but it was my father who encouraged me,” said Junord, who added that the prize money of $1 million for first place caught his attention. Should he win the competition, he intends to use the funds to invest in his small catering business.
Jeffrey is already proud of his son’s progress. “My son and I always collaborate very well in the kitchen, and just by coming here today to participate in the workshop, he’s already a winner,” said Jeffrey.
GRAND FINAL
Twelve finalists from the St James workshop and 16 from the St Catherine workshop, along with two wildcards and their assistants, have advanced to the grand final of PAN 2025, which will take place at Jamaica College on Sunday, August 31.
The finalists include first and second place winners from each parish who earned their place through two intense rounds: a theory crash course and a blazing cook-off. Each parish winner received $50,000 in cash, while the second-place winner received $30,000. The participants who received the highest scores in the theory and practical sessions won an additional $25,000 courtesy of JN Money.
The 2025 PAN Chicken finalists will join six lucky past finalists competing for the first-ever Copperwood PAN Pork title.
Nicole Hall, commercial marketing senior manager at CB Foods, explained that the theory sessions were intentionally designed to help participants build sustainable businesses.
“This workshop is about so much more than preparing for the competition,” Hall shared. “It’s about giving our vendors the tools to grow, thrive, and create lasting opportunities for themselves and their communities.”
On the practical side, Executive Chef Mark Cole of The Jamaica Pegasus hotel led masterclasses on flavour and presentation, where competitors learnt even better ways to prepare CB Chicken and elevate their culinary craft. Other sessions included safe food handling in outdoor settings, customer service essentials like communication and consistency and financial literacy, covering budgeting and savings.
The St James PAN Workshop follows the initial session held at G.C. Foster College in Spanish Town, St Catherine, on Sunday, July 13.