On March 20 – 21, 2013 ICCA members were exposed to legendary chefs Paul Prudhomme, John Folse and Susan Spicer plus star chefs John Besh, Donald Link and John Harris for tableside discussions during an event we called the ICCA regional Conference New Orleans; the future name for these events will be “A Culinary Immersion New Orleans.” This event, the third in a series of regional events hosted by ICCA to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, will become a part of our annual calendar. The two-day event in the “Big Easy” was anything but that. We visited 10 restaurants, and yes we ate at every one of them. As you know, only when you visit that many restaurants in such a short period of time can you appreciate the differences and similarities in the cuisine. Surprisingly there were many more differences than similarities making it an incredible learning experience. We videotaped each chef and on our newly redesigned Web site you can see very short 90 minute action packed videos of these chefs and their amazing stories. Many describe their dishes and the logic in their menu development and business plans. Perhaps John Besh, who grew from one establishment to a mini empire of eight restaurants, shared the best secret to his success – the chef partners running his new places were all trained by him at his flagship Restaurant August. He found their passion for a cuisine and made them chef-owners. He and chef-partner Brian Landry grew up fishing on Lake Borgne, the epicenter of coastal cuisine in Louisiana. Their shared passion for Louisiana seafood brought them together to create Borgne, a celebration of coastal Louisiana with a touch of Isleño influence. Isleño is a Spanish word for Islander. Go to our Video Link to see all of the videos:
