November 21, 2009
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Nov 5, 2009
12:00 AM
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Changes at Cuvee

By Robert Peyton
Nov 5, 2009 - 12:00 AM
Changes at Cuvee

The red grouper amandine at Cuvee was served with capers and fresh thyme, a twist to the classic preparation.

Photo courtesy of Robert Peyton

Sept. 25 was chef Bob Iacovone's last day in the kitchen at Restaurant Cuvee, where he’d been executive chef for the past seven years. Bob’s wife, Julianna, recently gave birth to the couple’s first child –– a son named Witt –– and he decided to forgo the long and difficult hours required of a chef to spend more time with his family. He’s also focusing more on Rambla, the tapas restaurant in the International House Hotel that he co-owns with Kenny LaCour and Kim Kringlie.

Cuvee has long been one of the most elegant restaurants in New Orleans, and that hasn’t changed. There’s also continuity in the front of the house, where maitre d’ Reno DeRanieri remains as affable and ready with wine advice as ever. Do not, however, believe a word he says about me –– unless it is complimentary, in which case it is true.

Chef Kristen Olsen was hired as the sous-chef at Cuvee in August, and when chef Iacovone left, she was given the position of executive chef. From my recent experiences at Cuvee, she is up to the challenge.

Olsen has experience with upscale Southern food, having started her career with Frank Stitt at Birmingham’s Highland Bar & Grill. From there, she moved to Hot and Hot Fish Club, also in Birmingham. She then spent time with chef Todd Humphries at the Martini House, which is located in California’s Napa Valley.

Olsen was initially hired by the folks who run Cuvee as the sous- chef at Rambla. In her brief time at Cuvee, she’s not yet put a definitive stamp on the menu. That’s understandable; it took Bob a while to do that, too. Indeed, there’s still at least one holdover on the current menu from chef Bingo Starr’s tenure at Cuvee: the spiced shrimp napoleon with fried mirliton, rémoulade and cayenne butter. They will not remove that dish from the menu if they know what is good for them.

At a recent wine dinner Olsen had a chance to demonstrate her creativity. And as it turns out, she’s very creative: A seared diver scallop was served over a kaffir lime leaf butter with hazelnut gnocchi and grapefruit sections. Fennel pollen-crusted duck breast was accompanied by a fennel root and bacon gratin and an olive-duck jus. A slow-cooked beef short rib described as “osso bucco” came with a corn spoonbread, mole sauce and a salad with herbal and citrus flavors that approximated gremolata. It was an interesting take on the classic Italian veal-shank dish.

Cuvee remains open for lunch during the week and for dinner Monday through Saturday. From a recent lunch, I can confirm that the shrimp napoleon is as good as ever. I also enjoyed a dish of red grouper amandine that was executed very well, with a broken sauce and tiny, diced brabant potatoes. The addition of capers and fresh thyme was a twist to the classic preparation –– at least as we know it in New Orleans –– that was not at all unwelcome.

Cuvee is located at 322 Magazine St., and you can reach them at 587-9001.
 

Reader Comments:
Nov 17, 2009 01:57 pm
 Posted by  Anonymous

HATE TO SEE HIM GO, BUT GLAD HE CHOSE HIS FAMILY AND LIFE WITH THEM.
Don't know if someone has been hired, but must drop Jude Tauzin's name..He had to close Catahoula's in Grand Coteau because it started sinking as an our of town restaurant..He is a fabulous chef..

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About This Blog


Robert D. Peyton was born at Ochsner Hospital and, apart from four years in Tennessee for college and three years in Baton Rouge for law school, has lived here his entire life. He is a strong believer in the importance of food to our local culture and in the importance of our local food culture, generally. He is a partner at the law firm Christovich & Kearney LLP and began writing about food on his Web site, www.appetites.us, in 1997. That is approximately 72 Internet years, for anyone counting.

In 2006, New Orleans Magazine named Appetites the best food blog in New Orleans. The choice was made relatively easy due to the fact that Appetites was, at the time, the only food blog in New Orleans.

Robert has gills, but they are nonfunctional.

He began writing the Restaurant Insider column for New Orleans Magazine in 2007 and has been published in St. Charles Avenue magazine and on the Web site www.slashfood.com. He is the only person he knows who has been interviewed in GQ magazine, albeit for calling Alan Richman a penis. He is not proud of that, incidentally. (Yes, he is.)

Robert’s maternal grandmother is responsible for his love of good food, and he has never since had fried chicken or homemade biscuits as good as hers.

Robert once ate an entire goat, but it was very small, and he didn’t feel too good about it afterward. He did, however, feel better than the goat.

He developed his curiosity about restaurant cooking in part from the venerable PBS cooking show Great Chefs and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, many of which do not require coloring. 

Certain parts of the above are exaggerations, but one thing is true: Robert appreciates your comments and e-mails, so keep them coming.

If you find that you need a more constant source of Robert in your life, you can follow him on Twitter.


 

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