Co-Pete, Not Compete: Inside Antigua & Barbuda's Culinary Month

Fresh off its 2025 win for Caribbean’s Best Emerging Culinary City Destination, Antigua & Barbuda is entering a new era defined by its food.

By EatOkra

Last updated 08 Apr, 2026

There's a version of Antigua and Barbuda you may already know. The one with 365 beaches, one for every day of the year. But there's another version of this twin-island nation that has been proudly taking shape. One where the story of the island is told not just through scenery, but through food.

The dining excellence has always been there. Culinary Month just gives it a stage to shine the way it deserves. Every May, chefs fly in from across the diaspora to join the lineup of events. Local vendors who've always been the heartbeat of how Antiguans actually eat get their shine, too.

From Restaurant Week To a Month-Long Movement

The origin story of Culinary Month began in a Starbucks in New York City, in 2016. Antigua & Barbuda’s Minister of Tourism floated an idea: what if Antigua extended its high season beyond Sailing Week — the nautical event that anchors the island's economy — with a Restaurant Week?

"I thought to myself, a restaurant week in Antigua? I don't know, but okay, let's try it," says Shermain Jeremy, Special Projects and Events Manager for Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority.

When they finally brought it to life in 2022, expectations were exceeded.

The first two years of Restaurant Week (2022 and 2023) proved the concept. Restaurants that would typically shutter after Sailing Week stayed open. Diners who'd never thought about the local food scene suddenly had a reason to explore it. The addition of a culinary passport, where people could get theirs stamped at each restaurant they dined at and unlock rewards at the end, unlocked a special kind of interactiveness.

By 2024, they were ready to go bigger. The entire month of May is now Antigua and Barbuda's Culinary Month — a layered experience that spans Restaurant Week, with over 50 restaurants offering prix-fixe menus, a Food, Art and Beverage Festival (FAB Fest), a hybrid industry conference called the Caribbean Food Forum (May 21), an ongoing "Eat Like A Local" initiative, and various chef collaborations.

FabFest itself grew organically from a kickoff party that started with 200 attendees and blew past capacity at 800 the following year. Now FabFest is the crown jewel of a full Memorial Day weekend experience, with true festival energy, chef collaborations, and a slew of local art experiences.

Caribbean Chefs, Caribbean Stories

A deliberate choice was made to anchor the chef programming around culinary talent of Caribbean heritage.

“I believe in our people,” says Jeremy. “I also believe in our talents and our skills, and I also believe that our food has the potential to not remain as just a local thing."

The chefs selected for the platform are honoring their native food, reimagining it, elevating it, and taking it international. Their work is already doing the storytelling. Culinary Month gives them a home base to do it from.

Returning favorites to this year’s lineup include Cambridge-based Antiguan Chef Kareem Roberts, British chef and TV personality of Antiguan heritage Andi Oliver, and first-generation Antiguan and Barbudan chef and Chopped Champion Claude Lewis. Joining them for the first time are James Beard Award winner and Food & Wine Best New Chef Nina Compton of Compère Lapin in New Orleans; Trinidadian chef Tristen Epps-Long, winner of Top Chef Season 22; Puerto Rican chef Angel Barreto of Anju; and Barbadian chef Paul Carmichael of Bar Kabawa and Kabawa, fresh off a three-star review from The New York Times. Rounding out the lineup are powerhouses near and far: Kerth Gumbs, Suzanne Barr, Devan Rajkumar, Brigette Joseph, Maurine Bowers, and sommelier Jason White.

There’s often a misconception of rivalry within the West Indies — that different islands compete rather than collaborate. Jeremy points to Bad Bunny's recent Super Bowl performance as an example of what’s actually a beautiful union.

"I never attached cane fields to this shared history and culture,” says Jeremy. “And then the snow cone vendor, that just brought me back to childhood, going to carnival. There were so many symbols in that performance that were directly relevant to me as a non-Spanish-speaking Caribbean woman. And I was reminded in that moment: we are not as different as we think."

That ethos is baked into every decision her team makes about the lineup. "We don't see highlighting chefs of other Caribbean heritage as something that will stifle what we're trying to do,” says Jeremy. It builds on it. It complements it. It's co-pete, not compete.”

The People Behind the Plates

What's been equally striking is the response from the ground up: the local restaurants and vendors, the people who make Antigua's food culture what it actually is day-to-day.

The first year, Jeremy could only convince a handful of restaurants in English Harbour — the island's sailing hub, where places typically close after peak season — to stay open. By the second year, she didn't have to ask.

Now, over 60 restaurants sign up each year. Every year, new ones come knocking. And it's not just brick-and-mortar establishments. Local vendors, the food shacks on the beach and side of the road, the heartbeat of how Antiguans actually eat, are part of the story too.

"They're just really excited about having the chance to be seen," adds Jeremy.

The Table Is Bigger Than the Meal

What began as a local conversation — policymakers and food thought leaders in one room for one day — has grown into a regional initiative, now partnered with the Caribbean Tourism Organization. The goal of the Caribbean Food Forum is to create a permanent space where culinary leaders across the diaspora can connect, exchange ideas, and tackle the deeper structural questions underneath all this celebration.

One of the most striking findings from the very first forum: a fundamental disconnect between farmers and the restaurants and hotels that needed their ingredients. The farmers had produce going to waste. The restaurants couldn't source locally. Nobody had built the bridge.

"Those are the kinds of takeaways we wanted to come out of this exchange,” says Jeremy. “To see how we could fill the gaps, notify the appropriate government departments, and just make sure that people are more connected.”

For a destination that recently took home Caribbean's Best Emerging Culinary City Destination 2025 from the World Culinary Awards, the work is clearly just getting started.

Antigua and Barbuda's Culinary Month runs throughout May. For more information, visit the website here.