Veg out in

There’s a mini food revolution happening in one corner of Jamaica — and, as Angelina Villa-Clarke discovers, vegetarian food is at its heart.

You eat under an ackee fruit tree as the sun dips down. The night is balmy and Ella Fitzgerald — along with a few hundred crickets — is singing the blues. The historic watermill still turns, giving a soupçon of charm that is far removed from the site’s actual history as part of the 17thcentury Rose Hall Sugar Plantation.

Soaring palm trees and the odd hopping frog darting among the leaves, add to the exotic feel. This is The Sugar Mill, Jamaica’s leading restaurant — and the lushest open-air dining room you will probably ever experience.

“The beauty here will delight you but the menu should surprise you,” says head chef Christopher Golding, with a glint in his eye, adding: “It goes way beyond jerk chicken.”

The restaurant, part of the five-star Half Moon resort in Montego Bay, has already won Best Restaurant in Jamaica for the past three years but Golding is on a mission to put Jamaican fine dining firmly on the world’s culinary stage.

“Most people think Jamaican food is simply spicy chicken and rice and peas,” he says. “That’s all here, of course but what diners experience at The Sugar Mill is what I call the ‘reincarnation’ of Jamaican cuisine. I want to expose the soul of our island through the bounty of natural ingredients that we have, but presented in a sophisticated, innovative fashion.

“We have so many fruits and vegetables — so many flavours — yet Caribbean food is not recognised in the same way European or American food is. I want to change that.”

And the menu is inspired. While its roots lie in traditional recipes and techniques, Golding is also inspired by Italian and Asian flavours, with fresh pasta and oriental salads part of the menu. There is also a focus on a farm-to-table experience, with fresh, seasonal ingredients sourced from local farmers and fishermen, and herbs picked daily from the kitchen garden.

There’s coconut-dusted grouper fillet with steamed cassava bammy’ (akin to a deep-fried potato-cake yet much lighter) but also a real focus on