A Largo chef known as "The Dreaded Fisherman" took his rustic cooking skills to a remote Caribbean island.
What for? A reality TV show.
Dwight Hudgins was a competitor on the Food Network's newest spinoff, "Chopped Castaways." According to the network, the premise was 12 chefs stranded on a remote island where "survival skills are just as critical as culinary talent."
The show still fit the theme "Chopped" is known for in terms of having mysterious baskets of items the chefs have to include in their meals. This includes weird combinations like scorpions and papaya. The chefs had to outlast their rivals to win the coveted $100,000 grand prize.
"I'm a woods-to-table chef. I'm not a Michelin-star chef."Dwight Hudgins
Now, Hudgins felt right at home on the island because of what he does for a living. He and his wife Sharon Young operate Barbara's Kitchen in Largo. They do private chef and catering. They also have three different lines of products. For instance, they make salsas, chutneys and jam. They have a line of Brie and Tiffany teas. Plus, organic, all-natural balsamic, seasonings and honey products under his nickname "The Dreaded Fisherman."
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Hudgins explained he got that title because the fish "dread him" when he comes out. Oh, and his dreads.
He says he's more of a "naturalist" in terms of cooking style. The couple does wild game nights where they smoke alligators, have wild boar, iguana and even kangaroo.
"My logo is if it flies, swims, hops, crawls or slithers, I'm going to try it," Hudgins said about the food.
So, it tracks that he'd be comfortable cooking obscure food and having to make his own kitchen on the island. But his skill using a beef tenderizer as a hammer to nail sticks into palm trees might also have to do with having a background in architecture. He said it brought him back to happy memories building Scandinavian timber frame log homes with "shrink to fit saddle notching."
"I enjoy the jungle. I enjoy the woods and camping, cooking on the beach and stuff like that. So it was a perfect fit for me," he said about the show. "Every day that I could get in that woods or in that jungle or catch something and cook it, I'm a happy person."
He said his favorite part of the show was meeting interesting, like-minded people. He does feel like he had a slightly different background than most, though.
"I'm a woods-to-table chef. I'm not a Michelin-star chef," Hudgins said. "They do all this gourmet stuff like that, and I'm very rustic in all my cooking. So I picked up a little bit of their little bougie cooking going on in there. But just give me a big knife, a machete or something, I could chop it up and cook it, and I'm more at home than trying to do a Michelin star type scenario."
You'll have to watch the show on the Food Network or HBO Max to see how far Hudgins made it, as the season is out (no spoilers here). But he said the publicity from it has been a strange feeling. He's had strangers coming up to him out of the blue asking for autographs.
Outside of your television screen, you can catch him and his wife around Tampa Bay. They do a lot of different markets from Midtown, Hyde Park to events in Dunedin. They also have tea parties at their store. They're even working to open a new eating station where they'll offer different smoked foods at a gazebo outside their kitchen.
"We're always going to integrate some exotic meats in there as well. And again, you don't know if it's going to be camel, it's going to be lionfish, it's going to be iguana," he told host Sky Lebron. "My biggest thing is that I'm trying to get is Ball Python right now and do an invasive species day."
To see the different markets they do, you can check out their Instagram accounts: @thedreadedfisherma, @barbaraskitchen1 or @brientiffanytea.
This story was compiled from an interview conducted by Sky Lebron for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the entire program here.
