Taste of The Caribbean with Chef Timon Balloo

The Caribbean is not one place — it is a thousand crosscurrents of culture, history, and flavor, carried across islands and generations. This September, Chef José Garces welcomes Fort Lauderdale chef Timon Balloo to Shokutsu North for an evening that honors the depth and range of that tradition.

Drawing on his Chinese, Indian-Trinidadian roots and a culinary career built across cultures, Chef Balloo brings to this dinner the same philosophy that defines his celebrated restaurant, The Katherine: seasonal ingredients, deep heritage, and cooking that has something to say. Together, Garces and Balloo will alternate courses through the evening — six chapters in a shared story of islands, spice, and the sea.

 

About Chef Timon Balloo · The Katherine, Fort Lauderdale

Chef Timon Balloo's cooking draws from a broad and deeply personal range of influences — his Chinese, Indian-Trinidadian heritage, his classical European training, and a career built across kitchens that refused to stay in one lane.

He can currently be found at The Katherine, the intimate Downtown Fort Lauderdale restaurant he runs with his wife, Marissa Katherine. The menu is rooted in their global travels and combined heritages, changing with the seasons and driven by a commitment to sustainability and cultural celebration.

Balloo has been recognized by The New York Times as one of the 16 Most Influential Black Chefs in America, earned back-to-back James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef: South (2020 and 2023), received an honorary Doctorate of Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University, and had his Thai Red Curry Yellowtail named by the Times as one of the 23 Best American Dishes of 2023.