Jamaica will, later this year, be the featured destination in a popular food and lifestyle magazine owned by world famous celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver.

The editor of Jamie Magazine, Andy Harris, world renowned photographer, David Loftus, and writer, Kevin Gould, spent just over a week in Jamaica on a “foodie” road trip across the island.

Jamaica Tourist Board District Sales Manager for the United Kingdom , Torrance Lewis, told JIS news that the Jamie Magazine team were very impressed by the range and diversity of the island’s cuisine, coupled with the warmth, knowledge and genuine hospitality of the people.

The team visited and sampled a wide variety of Jamaican foods and markets. Lewis said the group was particularly amazed by the colour and vibrancy of Coronation market in downtown Kingston.

The road trip took the team on a tour of famous Jamaican food stops from Montego Bay to Portland, including Boston for traditional jerk meats, Devon House in Kingston for ice cream, and for saltfish and roast yam along the South coast.

The group also sampled peanut porridge, visited Little Ochie in Manchester, feasted on peppered shrimp in Middle Quarters, St Elizabeth, the ‘manish water’ at Howies, and bought old fashioned metal liquid measures ( gill and half gill), and ‘rope’ tobacco in the Black River Market.

The Jamie team also met with the executive chef at the Round Hill Resort just outside Montego Bay and visited the Institute of Jamaica back in Kingston to view historic documents of recipes and menus dating back to the plantation days. There were also visits to an organic farm in St Elizabeth and a rastafarian indigenous village in Westgate Hills, Montego Bay, that featured a total vegan lifestyle and a traditional herb garden.

Lewis described the road trip as one of the most comprehensive food tours of Jamaica that not only focused on popular Jamaican foods, but also looked at many regional specialities.

Jamie Magazine was launched in 2008 and has a circulation of more than 150,000. It was ranked number one in readership for a debuting magazine.

–JIS