“Unless we start eating lionfish, we won’t have any fish left in Jamaica,” stated Peter Fraser, general manager of Sandals Royal Plantation, at last week’s launch of Lionfish Fridays held at the hotel.

Fraser highlighted the dangers of the lionfish in our Caribbean waters, pointing out that one lionfish is likely to eat an entire reef in a week, before urging hoteliers, residents and consumers to include it in their dishes as it is both delicious and affordable. Last week, Fraser and his food and beverage team prepared several dishes for hotel guests, using the lionfish as the main ingredient. Guests were treated to tasty dishes like lionfish soup, lionfish cake and escoveitched lionfish. Come tomorrow, the hotel will kick off “Lionfish Fridays” where the lionfish will be used to prepare a wide variety of fish dishes. Fraser informed us that more dishes will be added to the event in coming weeks. Thursday Food shares scenes from last week’s tasting.