St. John’s, Antigua – The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority has announced the list of celebrity chefs and culinary arts professionals participating in the second annual Antigua & Barbuda Restaurant Week (ABRW) starting May 4. During the two-week-long celebration, visitors and nationals can enjoy a variety of special and discounted dining and event experiences designed to showcase the twin-island nation’s delicious and diverse food, restaurants, art, and culture.
This year also makes the return of Chef Andi Oliver who will headline events at the “The Pepperpot Rum Shop,” a100-day food and cultural pop-up.
“The Restaurant Week annual celebration highlights the best culinary experiences we have to offer–from favorite casual spots to multi-course menus at the finest restaurants,” said Shermain Jeremy, Special Projects and Events Manager at the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority. “Given the fantastic lineup of Caribbean celebrity chefs and guests confirmed for this year, we expect to draw record-breaking participation from food loving locals and tourists. We’re excited, too, to showcase the diversity of food from our twin-island nation, especially with an elevated twist.”
As ABRW grows in its second year, the event will feature a lineup of celebrity chef and beverage professionals exclusively of Caribbean heritage. Highlights include:
Chef Kareem Roberts
Born in Leicester and raised in Antigua, Kareem first set foot in a professional kitchen at 26. He began composing salads at a small café in St. John’s, Antigua, and quickly moved to the high-volume kitchens at Sandals Grande Antigua. Over the next decade, he would hone his skills in a variety of kitchens in the United Kingdom, ranging from fine dining establishments to hotels to gastropubs. He worked his way up to his most recent position as Head Chef of Trinity, a contemporary British restaurant in Cambridge. Roberts attributes his development as a chef to the foods and cultures he’s experienced, along with the fresh seafood he was exposed to as the son of an Antiguan fisherman. His creativity and passion were showcased recently on the BBC’s cookery competition “The Great British Menu.”
Cookbook Author Althea Brown
Althea Brown is the creator and voice behind metemgee.com, a blog about Guyanese and Caribbean recipes and traditions. She offers simplified recipes, made accessible with diet specific tweaks. She is the author of the bestselling cookbook Caribbean Paleo. You can often find her on social media sharing stories about traditional Guyanese food and culture, and how she remixes dishes to fit her dietary needs. Born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana, Althea now lives in Aurora, Colorado, with her husband and three children.
Chef Angel Barreto
Chef Barreto is a three-time James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist and finalist, StarChefs Game Changer (2022), and a Food & Wine “Best New Chef” (2021). His highly-awarded culinary career spans more than a decade, with exceptional experience in both French and Korean cuisines. He’s best known for his contemporary Korean cuisine at Anju in Washington, DC. Barreto is of Puerto Rican heritage and will be honoring Boricua cuisine at ABRW.
Chef Shorne Benjamin
St. Lucian born and New York-based, Chef Benjamin is known for his ability to infuse Caribbean food with a modern flair. Classically trained in French cuisine, he gained international acclaim as a guest chef at Mimo’s in London. Career highlights include an annual presentation at the James Beard House, competing on the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay,” becoming a finalist on Chopped and winning the 2017 Jamaican Jerk Festival Celebrity Chef Throw Down. Most recently, he opened Fat Fowl in Brooklyn, where he crafts new age inspired dishes to showcase the richness and depth of Caribbean flavors through a healthy and imaginative lens.
Chef Digby Stridiron
A native of St. Croix, Chef Digby is inspired by ingredients indigenous to the Caribbean and the history of regional recipes. He is best known for his work as chef of award-winning restaurants Balter and Braata in St. Croix, where he earned recognition as one of USA Today’s 10 Best restaurants in the Caribbean and Food & Wine named his food “the new heart of Caribbean cooking”. A community leader, Stridiron served as a culinary ambassador for the U.S. Virgin Islands, having showcased West Indian cuisine at the James Beard House, and also received the 2014 Chef of the Year award from the Caribbean Tourism Association. Currently based in Phoenix, Az., Chef Digby is also the founder of the West Indian Chefs Alliance.
Sommelier Nadine Brown
Born and raised in Jamaica and Puerto Rico, Brown fell in love with the hospitality industry after moving to the United States and started her career as a restaurant host in Washington, DC. Twenty years later, she’s an acclaimed industry veteran and award-winning Sommelier. Nadine worked as Wine Director at Charlie Palmer Steak for more than a decade. Owner of At Your Service, a wine consultancy, she is a wine writer, judge and educator. Nadine sits on the board of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington and the Verasion Project, a non-profit that works to help more people of color enter the wine industry. Nadine curates a popular dinner series called, “Re-“Imaging Wines’, where she collaborates with chefs, exploring wine pairings with cuisines from the Caribbean to the Philippines.
“We are seeing more and more travelers around the world choose Antigua and Barbuda as a vacation destination,” said The Honourable Charles Fernandez, Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Transportation and Investment. “Building on the success of 2023, Antigua & Barbuda Restaurant Week will continue to raise the visibility of our culinary excellence in the region and around the world, and we are certain our guests will delight in immersing themselves into our food and our culture.”
The schedule of events for Restaurant Week will include Prix Fixe menus and discounted dining packages ($25USD – $75USD) inclusive of lunch, dinner, wine, and cocktails from more than 20 restaurants. Dishes to suit all tastes and dietary requirements will be available, and guests will also enjoy live music, entertainment, and children’s’ activities throughout the festivities.
ABRW will coincide with the run of The Pepperpot Rum Shop, a 100-day pop-up destination created by The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority, Treehouse Beach Club, and British chef, television and radio broadcaster Andi Oliver, who has ancestral roots in Antigua. Pepperpot is the national dish of Antigua & Barbuda, and the concept was born after the successful 2023 release of Oliver’s recipe book, The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table. For 100 days from the end of April, the pop-up will host curated cultural content and events spanning food and drink, music, art, and film in its stay-all-day sustainable and eco-conscious setting.
A final schedule and lineup will be available soon. For the latest information on Restaurant Week menus and packages, visit www.antiguabarbudarestaurantweek.com.
