Cooking in the Field, Stories in the Soil: Top Bahamian Chefs Gather for Grand Bahama’s First Pen to Plate

Cover photo credit: Ola Collective. Additional photos courtesy of Chef Simeon Hall.

Pen to Plate will bring several of the Bahamas' top culinary minds to Grand Bahama on January 10, 2026. Set at Berkshire Bahamas Farms, the event gives guests an immersive look at how farming and cooking work hand in hand. Chef Simeon Hall Jr, who created the Pen to Plate platform, serves as chef host and guides the experience with host farmer Terrance Roberts III and resident chef Harold Pinder.

The menu focuses on Berkshire pork and produce grown on the farm. A talented group of Bahamian chefs will prepare these ingredients in their own styles. The team includes Chef Jasmine Roxbury, Chef Kadarjio Swain, Chef George Roberts Jr, Chef Stanford AJ Munroe, and Chef Jaimee Gaskins Smith. Together they show how modern Bahamian cuisine continues to grow when chefs start with seasonal ingredients and thoughtful technique.

Guests will see the crops, meet the people who tend them, and then taste how the chefs use those same ingredients. The setting makes the link between land and plate easy to understand. It also supports the wider push to build agritourism and strengthen ties across the country’s food system.

Pen to Plate follows Pier to Plate, which was hosted at Fort Montagu in New Providence this past August. That event showed that many diners are eager to experience food grounded in real places and rooted in culture. With Pen to Plate now coming to Grand Bahama, the island joins a growing effort to connect agriculture, culture, and cuisine in a simple and meaningful way.

Pen to Plate is one of many unique culinary events on the island. Grand Bahama is also home to the annual Grand Bahama Island Restaurant Fest, which will return for its fifth year in August 2026. Previous editions have featured prix fixe menus from participating restaurants alongside cultural events, giving visitors a broad taste of the island’s culinary and cultural offerings.

At its heart, Pen to Plate is built on the belief that good food begins with the land. By bringing guests into the field and letting them see the work behind each ingredient, the event offers a direct and honest view of Bahamian food and the people who shape it.

For more information about Pen to Plate visit the EVENT PAGE.