he Jamaica Jerk Championship is pleased to announce Chef Andre Fowles and Chef Nicola Blaque as the next two judges confirmed for this year’s panel. Their selection marks an important step in the formation of a panel that is already beginning to speak for itself. This announcement carries special meaning because both chefs are Jamaican-born and bring to the Championship not only professional distinction, but personal heritage. Jerk does not belong at a distance from Jamaica. It belongs in the hands, memory, judgment, and first-person understanding of those who know its cultural weight from within.
Chef Andre Fowles brings a voice that is unmistakably Jamaican and internationally seasoned. Based in Harlem and born and raised in Kingston, he has built a distinguished career in New York while remaining deeply connected to Jamaica's food, memory, and identity. Hi is a three-time Chopped Champion and finalist on Chopped: Grand Champions, a graduate of both the HEART Trust Academy and the Culinary Institute of America, and a chef whose work has consistently helped position Caribbean cuisine within a broader conversation. He represents not just culinary, but cultural fluency. He understands Jamaican food not as a concept or trend, but as an inheritance, a technique, and a lived experience. That kind of perspective is essential to a Championship intended to judge jerk with credibility.
Chef Nicola Blaque adds both Jamaican identity and direct jerk relevance. Through The Jerk Shack in San Antonio, she has helped carry Jamaican flavor into a broader American dining conversation, and her restaurant has been recognized with a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award. She has also earned recognition as a James Beard Semifinalist and participation in Beard Foundation programming, which reinforces her standing as a chef with both cultural and industry credibility. She gives the panel an important female voice and a chef whose work is closely aligned with the spirit and substance of the Championship itself.
Together, these appointments add further weight to a panel being assembled with great care. The Championship is national in soul, international in stature, and that standard asks a great deal of those invited to judge it. It asks for cultural fluency, professional seriousness, and the confidence to recognize craft without compromise. Chef Andre Fowles and Chef Nicola Blaque bring exactly that. As the panel continues to take shape, contestants and guests alike will come to understand the Championship more fully, and its weight will be increasingly felt and honored.
Respect the Jerk.
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