National dish

What is the national dish of Bermuda?

The national dish of Bermuda is Bermuda fish chowder: a thin, dark soup of fish stock, white fish, tomato and vegetables, made without milk or cream and seasoned at the table with black rum and sherry peppers sauce. No law makes it official, but it is the dish consistently described as Bermuda's national dish, served in homes as well as restaurants.

Updated 2026-10-123 min read

What is Bermuda fish chowder?

Forget the creamy chowders of New England. Bermuda fish chowder is a broth: fish stock, fish fillets and tomato, with onion, celery, carrot and potato, reduced until it turns deep red-brown. Its consistency is much lighter than chowders thickened with milk or cream, and it is sometimes compared with bouillabaisse.

It is a staple in Bermudian homes as well as in restaurants and hotels, and every family seems to have its own version. The Bermudian magazine still reprints a classic recipe by Yeaton Outerbridge first published in April 1991.

A bowl is served piping hot, often as a starter, and the chowder is known to taste better the next day, once the flavours have settled.

How Bermuda fish chowder is made

Our fish chowder recipe follows the traditional order:

Stock first. About 800 g of fish heads and bones simmer 45 minutes in 2.5 litres of water with thyme, then the stock is strained. This stock replaces the cream.
The base. Onion, celery and carrot sweat 8 minutes in butter, then chopped tomatoes cook down 10 minutes until the base turns deep red.
Body. The stock, diced potatoes and 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce go in for 30 minutes.
The fish. White fillets poach 8 minutes, then are broken into flakes in the broth.
Reduction. Another 20 minutes at a bare simmer: the chowder should stay thin and very dark.
Off the heat. Black rum and sherry peppers sauce are stirred in, and both bottles go on the table.

Which fish and which variations?

The fish varies. Recipes name cod, grouper, tilefish, snapper, rockfish and sea bass. Some versions add diced pork hock, others bay leaf and allspice, and the American chef Jasper White considered beef stock essential to the Bermudian style.

What does not change is the absence of dairy and the long reduction. If your chowder is pale and thick, it is not the Bermudian kind.

Black rum and sherry peppers: the two bottles on the table

The chowder is seasoned twice: once in the pot, and again by each person at the table. The two condiments are part of the dish:

Both condiments have a story. Sherry peppers are traditionally made with ripe, very hot bird peppers left to marinate in sherry. Bermudian black rum takes its dark colour from molasses and ageing in barrels.

Sherry peppers sauce: hot peppers steeped in sherry with herbs and spices. Locally made Outerbridge's Original Sherry Peppers Sauce is one of Bermuda's few exports, and a 1990 newspaper report quoted an island saying that the chowder must include it.
Black rum: a dark rum. Black Seal, made by the Bermudian firm Gosling Brothers, is considered the traditional rum for the soup.

Where Bermuda fish chowder comes from

The recipe is believed to date from the 17th century and the English colonists who settled Bermuda. Sherry peppers sauce goes back to the same period: called "peppers wine", it was used by sailors to make spoiled food more palatable.

Bermudian cooking in general blends British and Portuguese traditions with local seafood, especially wahoo and rockfish, and most ingredients are imported.

Local seafood shapes the rest of the menu: mahi mahi, snapper, tuna, wahoo and spiny lobster, which is in season from September to March. Onions arrived from England around 1616 and became famous abroad as Bermuda onions.

Other dishes to know from Bermuda

The Bermuda fish sandwich is the island's other fish classic: wahoo fried in a double flour coat, stacked with tartar sauce, cheddar, tomato and slaw on toasted raisin bread. The sweet bread against the fried fish is the point. Hoppin' John, black-eyed peas and rice built on bacon fat and darkened tomato paste, is the standard side.

Salt codfish with boiled potatoes is a traditional Sunday dish, served with tomato sauce and olive oil, and codfish cakes with hot cross buns are Good Friday fare. Cassava pie, with chicken or pork, eggs and sweet pastry, is a Christmas dinner specialty.

Appetisers include shark hash, minced shark meat sautéed with spices and served on toast, and mussel pie, made with shelled mussels, potatoes and onions and seasoned with thyme, parsley and curry.

You will find all three Copper dishes, with ingredients and methods, on our page about the food of Bermuda. For the wider family, see our guide to North American food, and for another island in the western Atlantic, the national dish of the Bahamas.

The recipes

Questions people ask

Is there cream in Bermuda fish chowder?

No. Bermuda fish chowder is a thin, dark broth made from fish stock and tomato, with no milk or cream, which sets it apart from New England chowder.

What is sherry peppers sauce?

It is a Bermudian condiment of hot peppers steeped in sherry with herbs and spices. It is added to the chowder at the table, together with black rum.

What fish is used in Bermuda fish chowder?

Any firm white fish: recipes name cod, grouper, snapper, tilefish, rockfish or sea bass, with fish heads and bones for the stock.

Is fish chowder the official national dish of Bermuda?

There is no law making it official, but Bermuda fish chowder is consistently described as the island's national dish.

What do Bermudians eat on Sunday morning?

The traditional Sunday dish is boiled salt codfish with potatoes, served with tomato sauce and olive oil, sometimes with banana, hard-boiled egg or avocado.

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