Edward Bottone and food became synonymous during the ten years he lived in Bermuda, so it is more than appropriate that he is responsible for the Goslings Gourmet food line that brings together Bermuda's best known drink – Black Seal – and food.

Mr. Bottone, who has lived in Phliadelphia since he left the Island in 19998, is relaunching the line at the Goslings Wine Cellar, on Dundonald Street this evening.

Mr. Bottone said: "We have some new items, such as hot toddies for the cooler months, which will be nice for Christmas parties," he said.

"With Madagascar vanilla and you just add hot water to that or hot cider and of course the elixir of Goslings rum and life is transformed.

"We also have a new rum swizzle mix, which is a party in a packet and you need to add water, and both Goslings Black Seal and Goslings Bermuda Gold Rum."

He said that they would also be running around town and sampling all of their famous rum cakes.

"We have the Cocorumba Chocolate cake, the Rum Swizzle cake and the Dark 'n Stormy cake," explained Mr. Bottone.

"Everything that we make is based on the Bermuda cocktails and unless it is part of a cocktail, like the toddies, every formulation is formed from a cocktail and then reconstructed as a cake or preserve."

Two of the three hot and sweet sauces won first place in a prestigious award for hot and spicy sauces.

"We have three hot and sweet sauces, two of which just this year won Scovie Awards," he said.

"That is at the fiery foods competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Mango Tango and the Gombey Passionate Plum and they emulate flavours from the corresponding cocktails."

They used habanero peppers to kick it up a notch said the food and rink designer.

"They are obviously used for glazing and dipping and adding to recipes."

Along with that, he explained that they also had a selection of preserves, which includes the rough-cut marmalade with seven-percent rum to give your morning or chess board a kick-start.

"We are trying to spread the word of Bermuda and its delights," he said.

"And that things that go in are for the most part, available in Bermuda. So we are all about Bermuda, we are all about the rum and we are all about the quality."

Before moving to Philadelphia, Mr. Bottone worked in Bermuda for ten years.

"It was more than my home and it was very hard to leave," he said.

"I have many friends there. I think that I willingly embraced Bermuda right from the beginning and that doesn't go unrecognised, and people accept you when they know you honestly and sincerely appreciate the place in which you have decided to live."

His relationship with the Island began in 1971 and it was love at first sight,.

"It's like you fall in love and then you finally move in together, so when I moved there in 1988, I couldn't have been happier.

"So it was rough leaving, but things as they were – now we are talking about long distance."

While here, he worked for The Bermudian Magazine, the Department of Tourism and on the Curious Cook TV show.

He said that while on the programme they explored numerous cuisines with unbridled curiosity, while also celebrating the local cuisine.

He also helped to found the Bermuda Culinary Team, which was a group of students and professionals who went to compete in Puerto Rico.

"In my time there, and I am not saying that it had anything to do with me, but the whole restaurant and culinary culture there became very lively and the Gourmet Getaway was initiated," he said.

"Bermuda became a place to eat well and high creativity, and I guess you have to be a certain age to remember when it was a novelty to buy something called unfrozen meat–- and it was not that long ago."

Mr. Bottone was in graduate school when he opened his bistro, figuring that he would work at night and write during the day, but alas, that wasn't to happen.

"It was a lot of hard work for many years and I did have a radio food show," he said.

"And even now, I work full time for Goslings in America, developing new products and marketing them, but I also teach at Drexel University and it is nice sharing all that I have learned, what I remembered that I learned with the youth that come fresh faced and eager every year."

He explained that it was good to come from a different discipline, as he said the old French tradition meant that you went into a kitchen at 13 and ten years later, you have some standing and ability.

"But their intellectual development was pretty much – you could cook and everything, but you couldn't much of anything else.

"I always encourage people to develop skills and one of those skills is to think and to learn as much as you can!"