i. Biography
Smoke, Scotch bonnet heat, house-ground spice, and Pacific Northwest product define the cooking Trey Lamont serves at Jerk Shack in Seattle. The craft starts in Caribbean cuisine: chile-marinated chicken worked through smoke, smoked meats built around fire, frying kept crisp and generous, and scratch-made sauces used for depth, lift, and balance. The work also carries a local register. Jamaican inheritance, hotel-kitchen exposure to banquet scale, and Seattle hospitality all sit inside the same operating language: spice meeting flame, food built for a crowd, and seasoning that does not retreat.
The Trajectory
Classical training at Le Cordon Bleu gave Trey Lamont a technical base before his cooking moved into a more personal island vocabulary. The structure mattered: discipline, repetition, and kitchen procedure became the frame for food designed to travel, hold, and reach people directly. As founder / operator at Papa Bois food truck, he put that language into public service, carrying Jamaican flavors through the city with immediacy and control. From Papa Bois in 2011 to Jerk Shack today, the through-line is not a résumé arc but a tightening of method. Trey Lamont’s work has stayed close to smoke, spice, frying, scratch sauces, and cultural ownership. Today, as owner and executive chef of the restaurant and lead of Food with Melanin, he works from a position where island food, professional rigor, and representation are part of the same mise en place.
Now
Jamaican heritage sets the seasoning logic in Seattle, where Trey Lamont is owner and executive chef. The menu brings island flavors into the Pacific Northwest through smoked meats, scratch-made dishes, and spice blends ground in house. The cooking depends on contrast: smoke and char, vinegar and chile, sweetness, salt, and the aromatic persistence of allspice, herbs, and Scotch bonnet. Smoked chicken anchors the restaurant’s identity because it puts the central craft in plain view: seasoning, smoke, heat, and restraint in the finish. The chile-smoked ribeye steak sandwich served at the kitchen uses the same layered approach. House-baked bread holds pre-smoked ribeye seasoned with kosher salt and signature spice, then grilled, sliced on the flat top, and layered with greens, escovitch, house-made sauces, tamarind sauce, more spice, with seasoned fries on the side. Each component has a job: texture, heat, tang, smoke, or salt. Limited and seasonal items extend the same grammar rather than changing the subject. Lamb Chops have appeared for a limited time at the kitchen, flame-grilled and finished with signature herb salt and Scotch Bonnet Hot Honey. Christmas Oxtail, offered as a holiday pre-order item, moves the restaurant’s cooking into planned gatherings and family-table service. Representation is treated as operating practice there, including a Black-owned wine program meant to promote change. In that frame, the plate and the glass do related work: Caribbean food, Black ownership, and Pacific Northwest hospitality are presented as part of one service model.
Signature
Signature dishes include Jerk Shack Christmas Oxtail and Caribbean fried Alaskan Pollock.
Awards and Standing
Field to Table at Lumen Field in Seattle has included Trey Lamont as a participating chef. In that setting, Caribbean fried Alaskan Pollock has been noted as an example of his Caribbean-inflected cooking, pairing a local fish with the seasoning logic of his kitchen. The recognition attaches to a clear craft position: Jamaican heritage, Caribbean cuisine, Seattle, and a style built from smoke, spice, frying, and scratch work. The through-line is practical rather than abstract: translating Caribbean flavor for Seattle without diluting it.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Trey
What is Trey Lamont's current position?
Trey Lamont is owner and executive chef of Jerk Shack.
Where did Trey Lamont train or study?
Trey Lamont trained at Le Cordon Bleu.
What is Trey Lamont known for?
Caribbean cuisine.
