12/28/11

Year-End Pieces Tend to Suck, and This One Is Probably No Different

Before I start my typical blathering, I'd like to share a fundraiser with you to which I was alerted on Facebook:

Recently, Lorie and Will Gandy left for what was to be a one night trip to Houston.

The trip morphed into much more when their twin boys, Knox and Gabriel, were delivered on Dec. 6 in a Houston hospital three months earlier than term.

Knox and Gabe were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Woman's Hospital of Texas shortly after their birth and will remain under 24-hour watch until March 16, 2012, or longer.

Will and...

12/23/11

Vegetarians are People Too

I am not a vegetarian. I love meat. I love the smell of cochon de lait roasting on a spit. I love the way my kitchen smells when I make stock. I love a good steak, and tacos de lengua rate among my favorite meals. I will eat the hell out of sweetbreads, and if lamb weren't so expensive I'd eat it three times a week. I make no apologies for my love of meat, but I'm hardly a “meat and potatoes” guy. I went through a hippie phase in college, but it never extended to my diet.

I was a picky eater when I was a child. Vegetables were anathema to me for the most part, but there was a significant exception. My grandparents had a garden in the half-acre behind their house in Amite, and when we visited them, most of the vegetables my grandmother...

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1

12/15/11

Loaves and Fishes

Tenney Flynn is a native of Georgia and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He started cooking professionally in Atlanta before being hired by the Ruth's Chris Steakhouse chain as their director of culinary operations. He held that position for seven years before leaving with fellow Ruth's employee Gary Wollerman to open GW Fins in March, 2001.

GW Fins is something of an anomaly in New Orleans. It's a high-end seafood restaurant that emphasizes seafood taken from beyond local waters; in some cases, far beyond.

Flynn's philosophy is simple. He puts the best fish he can get...

Posted at 04:45 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1

12/08/11

Everything's Turning Up Dominique

Chef Dominique Macquet is all over the place these days. Next Friday he will be serving hors d'oeuvres at a grand opening party for the Hotel Modern, in which his new restaurant Tamarind (opening the next day, Saturday the 17th) will be housed. The chef left his eponymous Magazine Street restaurant last month, but plans to re-open under the same name in somewhat larger quarters only a few blocks away in the first half of 2012. If you're interested in learning more about Tamarind or making a reservation, you can call (504) 962-0909 or (504) 962-0910. It will be a great place to bring in the New Year.

The space that Macquet's restaurant formerly occupied at 4729 Magazine St. has re-opened as Apolline. Chef...

Posted at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

12/01/11

The Root of the Issue

I probably use the word “ambitious” too often when writing about chefs. Hopefully from the context of what I've written, you understand what I mean when I use that adjective; it's meant to convey that the chef pushes boundaries and that you should expect to be interested or even surprised when you experiencehis or  her food. I say that I may use it too often, because today I'm writing about Phillip Lopez, a chef whose cooking is more imaginative than just about any chef in New Orleans since Frank Brunacci held court at the Ritz-Carlton.

Ambition without the ability to back it up is not an admirable trait. You can be as ambitious as you want, but if you can't carry it off, you'll likely fail spectacularly.

The first time I...

Posted at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments: 2