[title type="h5"]Tuesday, April 7, 2015.
Best Chefs Of Louisiana. Or, Perhaps, Mexico.[/title]
Chefs and other restaurant staff give a lot of time and wherewithal to charities around town. But they have a few causes of their own. Most of these are education programs relating to the hospitality industry. Restaurants, caterers and hotels are constrained by a shortage of skilled people. But many people who might fill that gap don't have the skills even to begin. If you've never been to a restaurant, how are you going to work in one?
A number of non-profit entities are equalizing the pressures by instructing potential cooks, servers and managers from the ground up. The local chefs' association took it upon itself to assist. Five years ago they launched an event that identifies young chefs who bring their restaurants and themselves to higher levels.
They could have given a little more thought to the name ("The Best Chefs In Louisiana"), but the quality of the event cannot be gainsaid. Here is a ballroom full of chefs, each one trying to cook something that will impress the others. They underprice the four-hour evening at $75, and pretty well fill the joint.
I am the semi-emcee since the original running of TBRIL. But they never really use me in that capacity. Really, the best service I can give would be to buy a ticket and just walk around and talk with all those people who step up to me and say they've always wanted to ask or tell me this or that, but who have never called me on the radio show. So, I'm part of the entertainment. As it is, that's all I do all night long.
The food tonight is once again at least the equal of any other charitable grazing event of this size. In fact, not one dish I encountered struck me as less than delightful. Nor did any of the dishes appear to have been chosen to save a dime for the giving restaurant. Almost all the food was highly creative and delicious to boot. (Those are two separate goals.)
To give one example, Lenny Minutello--the owner of the Happy Italian, a neighborhood restaurant in Harahan--was there with a dish consisting of big poached shrimp wrapped with dry-cured ham, placed atop some barely-steamed, nicely seasoned and buttered baby spinach. This was so good that I kept going back for more. No wonder both Lenny and his daughter were honored as among the Best Chefs In Louisiana--the first father-daughter such performance in the event's history.
When I walked over to the hotel from the radio studio, I approached from the rear, and found Tommy and James Wong--two of the three brother-owners of Trey Yuen. They have always been very active in the chef's association. So why were they outside on the sidewalk, instead of in the ballroom? "When we cook, we can't cook right without high heat and smoke. They won't let us do it in there." Later, this extra care would show its usefulness.
TBCIL is a great place to observe culinary trends. A trend that was very clear was toward food with an unmistakable Mexican character, with flavors and ingredients well beyond those you think about when you think Mexican. Lots of tacos filled with fascinating ingredients.
While the food was superb, I was forced to eat most of it in the satellite rooms around the main ballroom. (In the Mariott Hotel across the street from the Morial Convention Center.) The volume at which the music played was intolerable to my ears. I'm not just talking about having to yell to be heard by people standing inches in front of me, but about actual pain. I don't think the fine musicians--who have attended this event every year since the beginning--have any idea how loud is the sound they are firing forward. (Behind the lines, it's not so bad.) Other than classical and old-time jazz players, all musicians play too loud by a factor of ten. Not once have I heard an explanation as to why it needs to be this way. My ears rang all the way home.
Still, the chefs' goal was reached, and good for them.
