Islands in the mainstream.

For its 59th anniversary, NYC’s legendary West Indian American Day Parade will dance down Eastern Parkway this Labor Day to celebrate all things Caribbean culture — and its biggest champions have a whole new reason to party this year.

With packed restaurants, culinary accolades, star chefs and book deals galore, Caribbean food’s hottest names are basking in the glow of dishing out what’s become NYC’s trendiest cuisine.

“Caribbean cuisines have always been a cornerstone of the New York City restaurant world,” Robert Sietsema, food critic and author of Robert Sietsema’s New York on Substack, told The Post.

“But it is in the last decade that Caribbean chefs have risen to the fore and received the accolades they deserved.”

Leading the charge is superstar chef and James Beard Award winner Kwame Onwuachi, one of the nation’s most prominent cooks.

The New York Times lauded his acclaimed Lincoln Center eatery Tatiana, named after his sister, NYC’s No. 1 restaurant for both 2025 and 2026 and last year, Onwuachi was named one of TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People.

“I think people are finally starting to recognize how deeply Caribbean culture is woven into New York,” Onwuachi, who also curated the menu for the 2025 Met Gala, told The Post. 

“It’s in the neighborhoods, bodegas, music, and the food. Caribbean flavors have always been an essential part of the city’s culinary landscape, and there are so many stories to be told.”

He’s not wrong. 20% of the Big Apple has Caribbean heritage, while a 2023 report found that Jamaicans specifically are the third-most represented foreign born immigrants in NYC, as the tiny island nation ranks ahead of Mexico, the Philippines and India, according to recent stats from the NYC City Council

Onwuachi, who is prepping the release of his new cookbook “All Hours: Crazy Good Food for Whenever, Wherever” later this month, chalks up his success to simply cooking what he’s accustomed to.

“It’s a remarkably exciting moment to be sharing these dishes with an even larger audience,” he said.

“For me, it [his new cookbook] was more about sharing my story and my food and the version of New York that I know and love.”

‘The platform it deserves’

Onwuachi, along with India Doris of the Chelsea Caribbean hotspot Markette, which earned Michelin’s Young Chef Award for 2025, are two of a tight circle of Caribbean-style chefs exploding into the mainstream.

“Caribbean chefs are digging deep and trying to reimagine our cuisine,” Doris told The Post. 

“They are seeing it through a different lens and taking what people consider ‘street food’ and presenting it in a new way, in an environment that pairs with beautiful cocktails and sommeliers.”

“I love what Paul Carmichael is doing at Kabawa and what Gregory Gourdet is doing at Maison Passerelle,” Onwuachi said of his two oft-celebrated peers. 

“They’re both chefs I know personally and have a tremendous amount of respect for. Seeing the really provocative ways they approach their food is a reminder that there are so many ways to bring Caribbean flavors into fine dining.”

Hailing from sunny Barbados, Carmichael has been credited with reinventing the scrumptious Momofuku empire as the brand’s executive chef.

He’s also behind the acclaimed Kabawa and Bar Kabawa, the former of which appeared on Bon Appetit’s rundown of America’s Best New Restaurants for 2026 when it was unveiled last week.

“The internet and social media has removed a lot of the barriers there were in accessing different foods, flavors, and styles of service,” Carmichael told the Post of why he thinks yummy fare from the warm tropics is having a moment. 

Bar Kabawa’s standouts include its famed patties, as well as a bevy of rum-soaked libations including their creamy El Dorado, which is also made with cava and nutty brown butter. 

“There’s a real excitement for something that is delicious, and unfamiliar, but instantly comforting, and that’s what Caribbean food is.”

Meanwhile, the Queens-born “Top Chef” staple Gourdet is turning heads at Maison Passerelle at Printemps, which inventively combines French food through the lens of Caribbean, African and Southeast Asian cooking.

“The immigrant communities I grew up around are a huge part of why I became a chef and how I understand food,” Gourdet, whose parents are Haitian immigrants, told the Post. 

The three-time James Beard award winner called opening his in-demand Maison Passerelle surreal, considering the restaurant’s menu doubles as a love letter to his culture, albeit with a cheeky twist.

“We make diri ak sos pwa, Haitian rice and beans, a dish eaten by every socio-economic group in the Haitian diaspora worldwide,” he said.

The catch is, he serves it with vintage Christofle, the silverware of French royalty.

“Let that sink in,” he said with a wink. “We give this food the platform it deserves.”

“The common thread of the chefs I love is that these are people I respect because they have a point of view,” Gourdet says.

“They’re not just cooking technically good food—they’re trying to tell you something about themselves, their culture, or leaving an iconic legacy.”

He, too, shouts out Carmichael as a leading force.

“He makes the best patties in NYC,” Gourdet says of Carmichael’s high-end take on the classic street snack. Made with a from-scratch dough, Kabawa’s patties are stuffed with delicacies like in-house ground goat meat and curried crab with squash.

“I love the way he understands Caribbean food without feeling the need to explain or justify it,” Gourdet gushes of his peer. “There’s a real depth of knowledge.”

Williams also gives Kabawa’s patties high marks.

“They have created the most beautifully laminated patties I have ever had in my life,” she said. “I’m really just astounded by them.”

Meanwhile, when Carmichael himself is craving authentic Island flavors in NYC, he points to the Brooklyn Trinidadian restaurant De Hot Pot as another favorite. 

“They’re my spot when I’m craving Doubles,” Carmichael noted, of the fried and stuffed flatbreads.

But he concedes his top spot in NYC is the West Indian Crown Heights restaurant Cas. 

“I’ve been going there for 13 years and it has the best oxtail hands down,” he says of the tender stew made with butter beans and allspice. 

“I just love oxtail.”

Oxtail is also a staple back at Doris’s Markette. She makes hers with a crispy cheddar polenta.

“Each dish at Markette represents a different part of how I think about Caribbean flavors, presented through my own lens,” Doris told the Post. 

“I love that they can feel nostalgic while still being something unexpected,” she says.

Her own favorite spot in NYC for Caribbean eats is Trinciti Roti Shop & Restaurant in South Ozone Park, noting her mouth waters over their own Doubles, which come in curry duck, chicken, goat and beef varieties.

The next evolution

While Gourdet himself excels in elevated fare, he’s quick to point out: “I don’t want the story of Caribbean food in New York to become only about the new, fine-dining restaurants.”

Among his favorite places to feast is Djon Djon. 

Located on Brooklyn’s Nostrand Avenue and named after a mushroom found in Haitian cuisine, it specializes in dishes of the island like the crunchy Milo Sandwich (made with crispy Creole fried chicken) and its succulent Djon Djon burger (topped with the eponymous mushrooms). 

“BunNan is another fun, more casual expression of Haitian cuisine,” Gourdet says, of the Flatbush staple which serves everything from conch to jerk chicken.

In general, Gourdet says “more and more chefs are telling stories in their own voices.”

“Seeing Caribbean restaurants and chefs occupying some of the most important dining rooms in New York feels like the next evolution.”

Brittney “Stikxz” Williams, culinary director of the popular East Village Jamaican spot Miss Lily’s, which just received its first feature in the Michelin Guide, agrees, pointing out that “we [Caribbean culture] are definitely having a renaissance moment right now.”

“We’ve been telling our stories and narrating our food in such a beautiful way over the past many years, so it’s amazing to finally get that attention and for people to be so receptive to our flavors and ingredients,” Williams said.