Food Network celebrity chef and personality, Bobby Flay (left), goes 'grill to grill' with Jamaica's own Nigel Spence, owner of Ripe Kitchen and Bar in Mount Vernon, New York. - Contributed

Jamaican chef and New York restaurateur Nigel Spence will appear in the award-winning in-flight programme Island Stylee on Air Jamaica. The episodes will begin airing in the middle of this month. Hosted by former Miss Jamaica and BET host Rachel Stuart, the feature focuses on accomplished Jamaican nationals in New York; their lives, accomplishments and how they stay connected to their Caribbean roots.

Jamaica's Director of Tourism Basil Smith said, "We are excited to see Spence represent Jamaica and showcase our interesting and delicious culinary traditions in the programme. He is an extremely talented and personable individual and will surely entertain the thousands of passengers who will be watching the programme."

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Nigel Spence, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, opened Ripe Kitchen and Bar in 2003. In less than a year, he has had multiple appearances on Food Network where he competed against celebrity chef Bobby Flay in a jerk rib-eye grill off which he (Spence) won. As one of the most popular chefs to appear on that series — Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Spence was brought back to the Food Network last month in a special titled Rematch on the Grill, where he again competed against Flay and was the only chef who managed to earn a second win.

From a field of over 1,100 entries from 23 countries, Island Stylee, a Frame by Frame production, won the top honour in its class — the Certificate of Excellence — for the seventh time at the United States International Film and Video Festival held in Los Angeles, California, last year. This episode of Island Stylee will run for three months and will be aired on all Air Jamaica flights to the United States and Toronto, Canada, to an expected audience of 375,000 passengers.