Page 65 - Travel Leisure - USA (February 2020)

A Barbados
pepper and embellished with edible flowers. Luckily, fishermen and farmers are
I found a similar philosophy at Tapestry increasingly able to deliver ingredients Culinary
(elegant hotels.com; entrées $26–$41), the (octopus, sea urchin, purslane) to her Checklist
restaurant at Treasure Beach (doubles from door daily—and soon, more will start
$540), where 27-year-old Javon Cummins of arriving from ECO’s own recently
Christ Church heads up the kitchen. Cummins planted plot.
made his first dish, a pan of muffins, at just six Chef Nathan Crichlow needs only No visit to Barbados
years old. “I know now that they were horrible!” to step outside his kitchen to reap would be complete
he joked. “But my mother started buying me a Bajan bounty. His breakfast-and- without a meal at the
Cliff (thecliffbarbados.
cookbooks, and from there my love for cooking lunch restaurant, the Chrysalis Café
com; prix fixe from
just grew.” Cummins’s menu may include a (pegbarbados.com; entrées $14–$20), $133), where British
velvety soup made from curried breadfruit, the is at the 108-acre PEG Farm & Nature chef Paul Owens helms
starchy staple brought to the Caribbean in the Reserve, which grows organic produce the kitchen—it’s been
18th century to feed the enslaved population, and raises free-range cows, chickens, a star of the dining
scene since it opened
or an open-faced sandwich of flying fish on and pigs. Established in 2013 by Paul
in 1995. Also worth a
focaccia, which has its roots in the fish “cutter” Bourne, the farm’s mission—People, stop is La Cabane
(Bajan for sandwich) that’s considered an Environment, Growth—includes (lacabanebarbados.
unofficial national dish. restoring land depleted by centuries of com; entrées $20–
$45), a French-owned
I tasted another cutter at ECO Lifestyle & Lodge sugarcane production and supplying
beach bar with a great
(ecolifestyle odge.com; doubles from $160), this the community with nutrient-rich food. wine list and live
l
one piled with roasted eggplant. Opened in 2018, Crichlow enjoys first dibs on PEG’s music. Barbados’s
the 10-room lodge on the rugged Atlantic coast harvest. His menu at the Chrysalis offers most famous cutter
is centered around wellness and sustainability. twists on familiar flavors, like a roast has been served for
more than half a cen-
There, St. James–born chef Alisha Stoute serves chicken bowl with fried plantains and
tury at nearby Pebbles
mostly seafood and plant-based dishes. The 33- garlic-chive dressing or a vegan hash Beach, where Cuz, of
year-old, Cordon Bleu–trained Stoute admits that of breadfruit, okra, curried eggplant, Cuz’s Fish Shack (cuzs
consistency of ingredients is a challenge—produce and wilted sweet-potato leaves. fish shack.restaurant
COURTESY OF SUNTOURS BARBADOS lack of resources. Still, her goal is “always local.” me on my last day there. “Don’t come sandwiches—each
snapshot.com), turns
“I wish people would come and
grown on Barbados has historically been limited
out his $5 marlin
taste the real Barbados,” Crichlow told
not only by the island’s coral soil but also by a
fried up on a single hot
plate in his tiny wooden
here to eat Yorkshire pudding and
stall. And be sure to
Dover sole. You should be enjoying
head to Oistins, a fish-
mahi-mahi, flying fish, and barracuda.”
The Chrysalis Café, at PEG Farm &
ing town on the south-
As I savored my pan-seared
ern coast, for the
Nature Reserve, which emphasizes
amberjack, I had to agree.
legendary Friday night
organic ingredients grown on site.
Oistins Fish Fry—there
are more than 30 stalls
to choose from, includ-
ing standout Pat’s
Place, serving grilled
mahi-mahi and maca-
roni pie since 2003.
Visit Mount Gay Rum
(mount gay rum.com)—
Barbados claims to be
the birthplace of the
spirit—to taste the
work of Trudiann
Branker, the island’s
first female master
blender. Barbados is
also known for its fabu-
lous Food & Rum
Festival (food and rum.
com; October 2020),
the perfect event to
build a trip around.

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