Chef Eddie at Sport Fish Panama Island lodge cooking a delicious seafood meal

While fishing travel is arguably Half Past First Cast’s primary focus, FOOD is a huge part of our journeys. As Pete always says, “you don’t ask the skinny kid to make the sandwiches.” I definitely concur – we love to try new cuisines and new ingredients and we’re always members of the “clean plate club.”

Many of the resorts we have fished have outstanding food with the signature touches of their chefs. Secluded on Isla Parida, Chef Eddie of Sport Fish Panama Island Lodge only has time to do two things: fish and cook.

He’s really good at both.

Most chefs are hidden in the kitchen and you don’t get to see them or ask them about their creations. At SFPIL, the kitchen is open and Chef Eddie puts on a show, creating his masterpieces right in front of you. He has quite a personality and quite a backstory before he started cooking for ravenous anglers.

Sushi may be of Japanese origin, but it's a popular way to eat fresh yellowfin tuna on a fishing trip to Panama

HPFC: Please introduce yourself to our readers.

Chef Eddie: Eduardo Antonio Arrue Anguizola – I have four names.

HPFC: Where are you from and how did you get into cooking?

Chef Eddie: Well, I'm from the town of David and I have been cooking my whole life, since I was a kid because I like food. I like good food. I realized like sometimes when you want something good you have to do it yourself.

HPFC: What are the other jobs that you've had?

Chef Eddie: Well actually as a chef, this has been my job for four years. My career before that was as a computer engineer. I used to work as a Google AdWords specialist and was also a programmer before that. Being a chef is very different and much better.

HPFC: What are some pros and cons of working on a remote island?

Chef Eddie: The pros are I like nature. I like fishing, exploring, walking, swimming and snorkeling. You don't have to deal with all the stress of the city. The only problem is that I have a baby girl now, and I miss my baby girl while I am working. That's the only con for me. I may work for 20 days straight and not get to see her but I love what I do so that helps the days go by fast. You just can't talk to her very well on phone calls so that's the only hard part for me doing my job on the island.

HPFC: What are some ingredients that you have a lot of and what are some that you don't have much of that you'd want?

Chef Eddie: Well, actually anything I want to cook, I request the ingredients, they take me shopping and they sell it to me. So it's not like I can’t get everything I want even though we're out here. I never ask for things that don’t grow in our country and we have every kind of food here so I don’t have problems with ingredients.

HPFC: How many different ways have you prepared tuna?

Chef Eddie: I prepare tuna at least thirteen different ways, different dishes and different flavors.

HPFC: What is the biggest key to cooking tuna properly?

Chef Eddie: You need a very hot grill, so you can mark the tuna. You just cook the tuna 45 seconds one side, turn for square grill marks, then flip, another 45 seconds and lastly another 45. Three minutes total but don’t forget to put oils on the grill so it doesn’t get sticky. When the three minutes is up you have a tuna steak medium rare. It’s the crazy right way and the only right way to eat tuna steaks. I guess there is no right way to cook tuna but this is the way I cook tuna and no one complains.

Seared yellowfin tuna on a fishing trip to Panama in the Gulf of Chiriqui

HPFC: Do have a signature dish that you like to cook?

Chef Eddie: Well, I like to cook a lot of stuff like lasagna. I love lasagna. I love tuna pasta, it’s pretty good and one of my creations here at the lodge. I like Italian food as my background is Italian. My grandfather was Italian. I also like Japanese food as well. I do try to combine cuisines. That’s where the tuna pasta came from.

HPFC: What are some of the other fish besides tuna that you like to cook?

Chef Eddie: What I like to cook for myself is snapper. I love snapper. You know, I like filets but I love to go and catch fish like plate size snapper so I can fry it whole and it’s pretty good and tasty. And I like any kind of snapper, they all taste good.

Now if you catch a 50-pound Cubera, that is at least 45 years old and you don’t want to cook that, it’s too tough. A two-pound one would be much better and taste better.

HPFC: What are some fish that are overrated?

Chef Eddie: Curia Sea Bass, for me, it’s overrated. Sea bass is good for ceviche or frying but I prefer snapper.

HPFC: What cuisines are most challenging?

Chef Eddie: Japanese, because it takes time to select the pieces of tuna you want to cut so everything looks good. Japanese people do stuff like that because it not only has to taste good but it has to look good and it’s quite a process. And desserts like apple pie -- it takes too long to make an apple pie. If I make a “Grandma” apple pie and make it the right way, that takes a couple hours.

HPFC: So do you cook apple pie?

Chef Eddie: Yeah, I do, but for me it’s like a pain in the ass. To take two hours to prepare it to put in the oven, and then it’s gone in minutes, it’s not for me but I’ll do it if I must.

HPFC: Where would you like to go and eat?

Chef Eddie: Well, I'm pretty picky with food, that's why I cook. Restaurants that I like…I like Papa John's.

HPFC: Papa John’s??????

Chef Eddie: Yeah! [laughs]. There's a Japanese restaurant called Oh-Toro Chiriquí, in David, Chiriquí, Panama. I don't know if there are others also but the one here is really pretty good because the chef is really Japanese.

HPFC: What are your hobbies other than cooking?

Chef Eddie: Fishing and I read a lot of the Japanese Manga. That’s the Japanese version of cartoons and/or comics and I play a lot of PlayStation. I do a lot of fishing, but I already mentioned that but I just love fishing. Earlier when Captain Shane was about to get here, I went fishing for 20 minutes and caught two snappers and then I hooked up a big roosterfish. It took almost all my line out of that fishing rod, but I put all the drag on it and he stopped and I started fighting with him and he broke the line. He was a big ass roosterfish. There was a smaller fish that was grabbing at my bait and the roosterfish came up and grabbed it and took off running. I love fishing.

HPFC: What is the strangest request from a client?

Plain seared tuna with grill marks in Panama. The best way to eat fresh yellowfin tuna.

Chef Eddie: Pffffft, there were these Australian guys and I asked what dessert that they like and I thought they were telling me a joke, they said black plate. What do you mean black plate, he asked? They said, black clay with some white lines on it. They weren’t joking and I said no sir we are a serious business here. We don’t do that kind of stuff. That was definitely the strangest request.

HPFC: How do you accommodate picky clients?

Chef Eddie: I of course do my best to do what they request. If they have any kind of allergy or have eating issues they just need to tell me and accommodate them the best way possible.

HPFC: What would your dream kitchen look like?

Chef Eddie: I like my kitchen I would just like a little bigger building structure, it gets really hot in the small area, especially when baking.

HPFC: Is it hard to watch all of us come back after a day of fishing and you didn’t get to go and you just get to cook it for us?

Chef Eddie: No not really because I can really go fishing any time I want. I don’t always catch something but many times I do.

HPFC: What would be your death row meal?

Chef Eddie: Steak with mushroom gravy on top, lasagna and snapper. For dessert chocolate cake, no carrot cake.

HPFC: I knew I liked you. Carrot cake is my favorite too.

Chef Eddie: Well, I make a really good one and I call it my “to die for carrot cake.”

HPFC: How appropriate.

Pete and I caught several hundred pounds of yellowfin tuna in the four days we were on the water in the Gulf of Chiriquí and brought home a bunch in our Yeti cooler. I followed Chef Eddie’s three minute, hot grill instructions and he’s right, it’s the only way to eat tuna. Of course, it does taste better when Chef Eddie plates it.

As the stash in our freezer is dwindling, we decided we must go back. Please join us this November and you will get a chance to meet Chef Eddie as well.

Just make sure you belt has extra holes. His tuna is good but his appetizers and desserts are amazing and no matter how many calories you burn fighting big tuna you’ll go home stuffed.