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02/03/10
You won’t often read about personal chefs in this space, principally because their services are limited to a select number of patrons. But when I had the opportunity this week to interview the man who cooks for Reggie Bush, I ran for it. (Sorry.) I thought it was a fitting topic, given the upcoming game.
Chef Gason Nelson is from New Orleans originally but spent a number of years following his father around the world on various military assignments. When he was 18, his family was living in New Orleans, and he was working at a Burger King. His father was ordered to Alaska, and he had no intention of following; his father, not surprisingly, had no intention of leaving him to his own devices in New Orleans at the age of 18. Nelson knew he needed direction, and he chose...
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01/28/10
Mike’s East-West, the new venture by Mike Fennelly and Vicky Bayley, opened this past Monday at 628 St. Charles Ave., the former home of Mike’s on the Avenue. The space, in the Lafayette Hotel, has housed a few other restaurants in the interim, including a bizarre Russian-inspired vodka bar whose décor reminded me of a 1980s heavy metal hair band video. If you’re not familiar with that particular incarnation of the space, I’m not surprised.
It’s never really been the same since Fennelly and Bayley closed up shop in July 1999. In its prime, Mike’s on the Avenue was one of the most original restaurants in New Orleans, and although “Asian-fusion” is something of a punch line these days, when it’s done right, it can...
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01/21/10
The Bistro at Maison de Ville first opened its doors in 1986, though it feels as if the restaurant at 733 Toulouse St. has been around even longer. I certainly had the impression that the restaurant had been around a long time when I first dined there with my father in 1986 or 1987. The timeless vibe the restaurant possesses may be the result of its classic bistro décor. The dark-red walls are topped by cove ceilings, and a long leather banquette lines one wall of the narrow dining room. Each table is covered in pressed white cotton and adorned with a small vase of flowers. Mirrors behind the banquette give the small room a somewhat larger feel and reflect what little light enters from the street.
In...
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01/14/10
Coquette has proved that location does not always determine a restaurant’s fate. The address at 2800 Magazine St. has seen two restaurants that seemed likely to succeed come and go –– Takumi and Table One –– before Coquette reversed the trend.
Takumi was a member of the Little Tokyo family, an operation run by folks with multiple successful restaurants in the New Orleans area. It was, unfortunately, an ambitious failure. Table One was the brainchild of Gerard Maras, a talented, experienced chef who was ahead of the game where local sourcing of ingredients is concerned.
Neither restaurant succeeded to the extent that Michael Stoltzfus and Lillian Hubbard have with...
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01/07/10
I had the opportunity to get to know chef Aaron Burgau a few years ago when I was tasked with writing the “best new chef” profile for New Orleans Magazine’s 2008 dining issue. I found him to be a very nice guy, and it’s been a pleasure since to run into him at local farmers markets.
Perhaps it’s time for a brief digression here. I think it would be overstating things to call Burgau my friend, but we’re certainly friendly; I think he’s a good sort, and he seems to think the same of me. In any case, I like the guy, and knowing that, you might wonder whether you can trust my opinion about his food.
I haven’t...
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12/31/09
Catch opened some months ago at 3226 Magazine St. as something of a gastro-pub with a focus on seafood. Gastro-pubs are a category of restaurant that’s immensely popular in the UK but hasn’t really caught on in this country. The idea is a casual place that serves drinks and casual food but is also capable of turning out fine cuisine. And no, the cheese fries at Fat Harry’s or Cooter Brown’s, though delicious, do not count as fine cuisine.
Catch has a few handicaps where the gastro-pub concept is concerned –– and a few misses on the menu, as well –– but overall it’s a pleasant-enough place. The restaurant is owned by Hicham Khodr, a restaurateur who also owns the Middle Eastern restaurant Byblos just a few doors down on...
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12/17/09
On Jan. 15, Mélange, the restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Canal Street, will be relaunched as M Bistro, and the new name is more than a simple change of appellation. Chef Matt Murphy is being given more freedom to cook his own cuisine and more freedom to source his ingredients from local producers.
After Katrina, the menu at Mélange was largely a mix of signature dishes found at other local restaurants. It was an odd choice for a restaurant in a high-end hotel –– and even more so for a space that was once home to Frank Brunacci, one of the most ambitious chefs this city has ever seen. Happily, the “best of New Orleans” menu will soon be a thing of the past.
Murphy has been cooking his own food at Mélange for...
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12/10/09
One Restaurant, in the Riverbend at 8132 Hampson St., is one of the most overlooked restaurants in New Orleans. It’s popular among residents of the surrounding neighborhood, but it seldom comes up when I talk to people about dining out. That’s puzzling because chef Scott Snodgrass has a good thing going at One, and he deserves more attention than he’s getting.
One has received accolades; it was named Best New Restaurant by New Orleans Magazine in 2005, and reviews from that time period in the local media were universally positive. Perhaps it has simply dropped off the radar with so many new restaurants opening all over the city in the wake of Katrina.
Chef Snodgrass is from Atlanta, as is his...
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12/03/09
Chef John Besh’s American Sector has all the trappings you’d expect of a theme restaurant in the National World War II Museum. The servers look like they stepped from behind a soda fountain; the hostesses are in period dress; and the menu is full of such diner and drugstore-counter classics as meatloaf with mashed potatoes, chicken-fried steak and a corned beef sandwich with sauerkraut on rye.
The American Sector pulls it off without being kitschy, in part because the overall décor is modern, with the same high ceilings and quasi-industrial feel as the rest of the museum. The restaurant is located down a long hallway...
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11/25/09
We* here at the Haute Plates blog hope that you have a happy Thanksgiving. We* also hope that you are not, at this late hour, attempting to figure out what to cook. If you are, you might find the following recipes from local chefs helpful.
To start, how about Oyster and Cornbread Stuffing by chef Donald Link? The recipe is from his cookbook, Real Cajun, released earlier this year:
The recipe starts with turkey stock, of which you need 3 cups. To make the stock, Link calls for a turkey neck and a cup of gizzards or livers combined with 4 cups of water or chicken broth and five bay leaves. Cook on low heat for two hours, and then strain the liquid. Remove the meat from the neck, chop the gizzards or livers, and retain.
The...
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