It was a pleasant Saturday back in November when Donald Link recalls sitting outside of Herbsaint for an ostensible media interview. He heard the unmistakable sounds of a second line. As it approached, he did a double-take, noticing the parade was comprised of colleagues and staff. “Is that my manager?” he squinted, “What is he doing in that embarrassing second line?” And with this uniquely New Orleans bait-and-switch, Link learned he was the recipient of this year’s Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (NOWFE).
This is a recognition that goes beyond simple success, said NOWFE’s Executive Director Aimee Brown. “Chef Link was honored not just for his long-standing stewardship of our culinary culture and heritage,” she explained. “It also honors his guiding inspiration of future generations of chefs.” And this distinction is a quality that helps elevate Link, much as it helped to define Miss Ella: A shrewd eye for talent and a knack for developing it, coupled with a pragmatic approach to the daily realities of the business. In winning it, Link joins a parade of other notables including Emeril Lagasse, Leah Chase, Paul Prudhomme and Susan Spicer.
Line jobs shaped the foundation of Link’s professional life. If his family background sounds custom-writ for PR – hailing from a famously sprawling Louisiana Cajun/Southern family that grew up hunting and fishing in a fast-disappearing way of life – at the root of it all he identifies as a cook. “I worked basic kitchen jobs in high school and college – I never initially thought of this as a career,” Link said. But then he took a job in San Francisco at a diner called Spaghetti Western. “It was a hangout for junkies and rock stars, or wanna-be rock stars who were junkies,” he recalled. The owner liked that he was from Louisiana and, looking to build out dinner service, asked him if he wanted to do his own thing. He jumped at the chance “It bit me then. It was fun and I fit right in. I was like, ‘I can do this for a living?’ It just felt natural.” After a pause, “I wasn’t really college material, anyway.”
After culinary school in San Francisco, Link spent his internship with Susan Spicer at Bayona. A few years later they partnered to open Herbsaint, which is where he met his future business partner Stephen Stryjewski. As the two became friends, Link noticed a certain question kept arising. “People kept asking me where to get Cajun food in New Orleans? And I was shocked that you really couldn’t find it.” He asked Stephen to be his partner in a new venture that aimed to address this culinary blind spot. Stryjewski’s response? “Absolutely. I’ll be your hatchet man.” Cochon was born.
It was at Cochon that all the pieces for what would eventually become the Link Restaurant Group began to coalesce. Link recognized early on that in order to retain talent, he’d have to be able to offer opportunity, so a stand-alone shop wasn’t going to cut it. “I remember standing in the kitchen at Herbsaint, working insanely long days for not much money, asking myself is this it?” Link said. He asked himself why a talented guy like Stephen would want to remain. “If I’m not going anywhere, why the hell would anyone else want to stay? I’m going to be stuck here forever – unless I do more stuff.”
And so he built outward from there. Butcher, the casual counter-service deli and market, sprung out of Cochon. The purchase of the real estate yielded the event space Calcasieu. The seafood-forward Peche, essentially a giant wood-burning oven with a restaurant built around it, netted a bounty of national awards and acclaim. Gianna, nestled in the Warehouse District, serves rustic Italian cuisine rooted in Louisiana tradition. And in what might be his least-appreciated trick, he bought out beloved neighborhood bakery La Boulangerie and successfully managed its transition without alienating a prickly army of neighborhood regulars. Link is the first to say that none of this would have been possible without the talent surrounding him, who were in turn motivated by the possibilities within an emerging restaurant group.
There were some misfires – experiments in Lafayette and Nashville didn’t pan out. But today the Link Restaurant Group is among the most highly regarded in the city, with 500 employees across seven locations, plus Chemin a la Mer in the Four Seasons hotel. What has he learned about growth? “The things we open for money don’t work. I look at what happened in Lafayette and Nashville. Peche had purpose though and it showed. People ask me what are you doing next? Next? Look at what we’ve built. If I’m doing something ‘next’ all I’ll say is that it has got to be really special to me on a professional level.”
As the industry’s trade-winds shift, Link’s goal now is about securing his companies and improving his internal systems in such a way as to retain talent and provide opportunity for his crew. “My motivation early on was simply to not lose talent – that’s what encouraged growth. Now it is about developing it. It’s an ongoing thing. You are never ‘there.’ You never really get to where you are going, right? Just keep moving forward.” Like Miss Ella, he understands that the restaurant business is not about food – it is about people. And for him, it is particularly about the talent that has helped make his success possible. And in doing so, it helps to ensure the future success of New Orleans’ hospitality industry.
For tickets and more information please visit www.nowfe.com.
