BRIDGETOWN, Barbados Tuesday October 6, 2026 Barbados is on the menu, and The Navigator’s Table is pulling up a chair. Best Dressed Plate (BDP) brings two experiences to The Crane, its hosting partner, during the Barbados Food and Rum Festival 2026, November 5 to 8, as the island celebrates 60 years of Independence. Friday is FLAME, an open-fire beach BBQ.
Saturday is an 8-course dinner where rum is the guest of honor, in every glass and every course.
The Crane has welcomed guests since 1887 and is widely recognized as the oldest continuously operating hotel in the Caribbean. From its clifftop above the pink sand of Crane Beach on the island’s southeast coast, it is a fitting home for a weekend about where Caribbean food comes from.
The Festival lineup coming back this year is already strong. The Navigator’s Table adds two more reasons to book the flight: chefs from across the diaspora cooking side by side with Barbados talent, and food rooted in the fire, smoke and rum that shaped this region.
FLAME | Open-Fire Beach BBQ
Friday, November 6 | The Crane, Barbados FLAME is not your ordinary BBQ. Long before anyone called it barbecue, the Taíno were roasting meat over fire on a raised frame of sticks they called barbacoa. They lived across the islands, from Borikén, now Puerto Rico, to Jamaica, and many trace Jamaica’s Maroon jerk tradition back to those same fires.
So it only made sense to bring Puerto Rican lechón to Barbados. Chef Manolo Lopez (Puerto Rico) carries the wholeroast tradition onto the sand with The Crane’s own Executive Chef Vanessa Dugarte. Pitmaster Rasheed Philips (Atlanta), runner-up on Netflix’s The American Barbecue Showdown, makes his Festival debut. And if you know the Caribbean, you know we love fried chicken, so Chef Quei Slobert is bringing the cast-iron skillet from Harlem’s Charles Pan-Fried Chicken.
Rasheed Philips
Smoke, sand, rum and flavor. Come hungry. Rum Cocktails Sponsored by Bajan1966 US$100, all-rum inclusive. Powered by Bajan 1966.
The Navigator’s Table: Barbados Food & Rum Edition
Saturday, November 7 | 6:00 PM | The Crane, Barbados
8 courses. 4 chefs. Rum in every course.
At this table, rum is not only what’s in your glass. Rum is the special invited guest. Four chefs will each build their courses around it, reading one of Barbados’ most celebrated exports through their own cooking. From the first bite to the final course, all 8 carry rum.
• Renee Blackman, a Barbados Food and Rum Festival veteran, returns for her third year.
• Nathaniel Mortley, known as Natty Can Cook, makes his Festival debut from London, where his Herne Hill restaurant 2210 by NattyCanCook has been racking up awards, including Condé Nast Traveller’s “One to Watch” and a spot among Time Out’s best new London restaurants of 2025.
• Lonie Murdock comes in from Canada as she celebrates one year of Isla, her restaurant in Washington, D.C., which has hosted former President Barack Obama and other dignitaries.
Lonie Murdock
She is bringing her interpretation of Caribbean food to Barbados.
• Omar Walters of Omar’s Kitchen & Rum Bar rounds out the table.
This is a tribute to the rum of Barbados, served on its home island, in the year Barbados turns 60. Rum Cocktails Sponsored by Bajan1966 US$175 per person.
Culinary Impact Award honorees at the table
The weekend carries the mission behind The Navigator’s Table: introducing the diaspora back to the region. So far the residency has brought 14 chefs to the region, making it one of the most visible Black and Caribbean diaspora-led chef residencies in the Caribbean. In this edition, chefs from Puerto Rico, New York, Atlanta, London and Canada cook beside Barbados talent.
It is also a stage for honorees of the Caribbean Culinary Impact Awards, which BDP launched in 2024 to celebrate the chefs, restaurants, entrepreneurs and creators carrying Caribbean food forward across the United States, Canada, the UK and the Caribbean. Three honorees cook this weekend:
• Renee Blackman, Trailblazing Chef, 2024
• Natty Can Cook, Rising Star Chef (UK), 2025
• Lonie Murdock, Best Restaurant and Trailblazing Chef (Canada), 2025
“Every time we bring the diaspora home, the food tells the story before anybody says a word,” said Nneka Nurse, Founder and Chief Flavor Officer of Best Dressed Plate. “FLAME takes us back to the fire, to what the Taíno knew long before anybody called it barbecue. On Saturday, rum gets the seat of honor in every course.
Nneka Nurse
And our Culinary Impact Award honorees get to show everybody exactly why they won. Barbados is turning 60. We came to give people something to crave.”
Save the date:
Holiday Tradishon, December 3 to 6
The Navigator’s Table closes out its year the first weekend in December with Holiday Tradishon, a celebration of the food and fanfare the Caribbean eats traditionally at the holidays. The idea is simple: the gift is on the plate, not the presents. Four chefs bring the holiday table of their islands to Barbados for the final chapter of 2026:
• Chef Raúl Correa (Puerto Rico), a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: South, co-owns BACOA Finca + Fogón, a farmstead restaurant in the mountains of Juncos known for open-fire cooking rooted in jíbaro heritage. He comes from an island famous for a holiday season that runs well into January.
• Chef Brigette Joseph (Trinidad & Tobago) has spent more than 20 years telling the story of Trinidad and Tobago’s many cultures through its food, cooking and consulting across the region. She knows the Trini Christmas of parang, pastelles and sorrel as well as anyone.
• Chef Alain Lemaire (Haiti), born in Port-au-Prince and trained at Johnson & Wales, was one of the Haitian chefs who cooked the first all-Haitian dinner at the James Beard House in 2018, and he has carried Haitian food onto Chopped and Fire Masters. For Haitians, the season closes with soup joumou on January 1, Independence Day.
• Chef Damian Reid (Barbados) rounds out the cast from right here at home. The chef and owner of Baobab Kitchen is known for hyper-local sourcing, bush teas and Indigenous produce, and he is a painter, poet and drummer too. He brings the Bajan Christmas, the season of great cake and jug-jug, to the table.
About Best Dressed Plate
Best Dressed Plate LLC (BDP) is a Caribbean culinary and culture strategy company founded in 2014 by Nneka Nurse. BDP produces events, represents chefs through BDP Talent Connect, and partners with tourism boards and brands to tell Caribbean food stories with the people who live them. Nneka serves as Academy Chair for the Caribbean Region for World’s 50 Best Restaurants North America and as IGCAT Global Expert for the Caribbean.
The Navigator’s Table is BDP’s chef residency series in Barbados.
