Katherine Hinrichs Culbert, who has been the chef on Mystique, a Morgan 49 based out of St. Thomas, since 1987, continues to refine her menus even after twenty years. She comes from a family of cooks. Her brother and two sisters have always loved to cook and Kate caught the bug too.

Kate was previously a nurse at the Maine Medical Center in Portland for some years. Then she heard about a job cooking on a charter boat in St.Thomas. It sounded like it would be doubly fun because she loved both cooking and sailing. She met Ken Culbert, the owner and skipper, and they hit it off right away.

Kate soon found out that getting ingredients for some of her recipes in 1987 in St. Thomas was a real challenge. If you missed out on the mid-week food supplies that came only once a week, you had to improvise.

"You really have to be adaptable," Kate said. "I was uptight about it back then, but now I just substitute or use a different recipe."

Kate recently entered the Cooking Light magazine's Ultimate Reader Recipe Contest with her Caribbean Shrimp Salad with Lime Vinaigrette. One of some 7,000 entries, which were to be narrowed down to twelve contestants, she was told that she would be notified of her status. The phone call never came, so she called Cooking Light which did not have her correct phone number and couldn't contact her.

Her perseverance paid off because she was one of the twelve finalists who had submitted recipes in one of the four categories: starters and drinks, side salads and side dishes, entrees and desserts. On August 27, she and Ken flew to New Jersey to the kitchens at Kings Cooking Studio for the final eliminations. There, she won the Grand Prize of $20,000 and another $5,000 for first place in the Entrees category!

Kate said that the hardest part was writing the recipe out. Usually, she just modifies dishes, depending on what is on hand. But for the contest she had to be very precise.

Kate is donating the $5,000 prize to the Boothbay Region Land Trust, dedicated to the memory of John Hall and John Adams, both of whom died this spring of melanoma.

Here is her recipe, which is easy to make, delicious and colorful.

Caribbean Shrimp Salad with Lime Vinaigrette
4 C. chopped, cooked shrimp (about 1-1/2 pounds)
5 Tbsp. Nakano seasoned rice vinegar, divided
2 Tbsp. chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee)
1-1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. grated lime rind
¼ C. fresh lime juice (about 1 large lime)
½ Tsp. paprika
½ Tsp. ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
Dash of salt
8 C fresh baby spinach
1 C. julienne-cut radishes
1C. chopped, peeled mango (1 large)
1 C. chopped, peeled avocado
2 Tbsp. unsalted pumpkin seed kernels, toasted
½ C. thinly sliced green onions

Combine shrimp, 2 tbsp. rice vinegar and chili sauce in a large bowl; toss well. Chill one hour.
Combine remaining 3 tbsp vinegar, oil and next 6 ingredients (through salt), in a small bowl. Stir with a whisk.
Place 2 cups spinach on each of four plates; top each serving with 1 cup shrimp. Arrange ¼ cup mango, ¼ cup radishes and 1 tbsp avocado around shrimp on each plate. Top each serving with 1 tbsp green onions and 1 tbsp kernels. Drizzle each salad with 2 tbsp vinaigrette.
Yield: 4 servings
CALORIES 281 (32% from fat), FAT 10g (sat. 1.7g, mono 5.7g, poly 2.2g), PROTEIN 30.3g, CARB 18.4g, FIBER 3.6g, CHOL 252mg, IRON 6.3mg, SODIUM 879mg, CALC 126g