Stellar Students

NOCHI is an acronym for the New Orleans Culinary Hospitality Institute, an initiative started to train people who want careers in our culinary and hospitality professions. Our city probably has a greater need for this than most, since tourism is the industry, fueled by our world-renowned food. The course is 100 days, and at the end of study, groups of students form committees to decide on a theme for a pop-up restaurant that is open to the public. A vote is taken from three choices, and then the entire group coalesces behind the winning idea. A menu is created and printed and students will rotate jobs during the pop-up, taking turns back and front of the house. I have been so impressed with a few of these people I am confident they could open their own place.

As an American food traditionalist, I have gone to these pop-ups wary of what I might eat because they are so exotic. Every corner of the globe has been visited, with exotic menu items featured. I have to admit I have loved every one of these meals I have had here. The place is so stylish, the servers so friendly and the food so impeccably executed I have nothing negative to say.

But I still loved the idea that these very capable people might turn their sights to the more familiar tastes of American food, and specifically New Orleans food. I have often said that the meals I have had at NOCHI are in no way inferior to A-list experiences. I woud love to see what they do with the food of this region.

Finally, the new pop-up, called Embers, delivers on my fantasy. Mostly. The name “Embers’ seems to reference campfire cooking, though all American food is not cooked on a campfire. No matter, I was glad we were in the neighborhood. The appetizers on the menu appealed more than the entrees (a common problem for me and many others,) but I chose a grilled Romaine salad and a flatbread with andouille and bacon jam, and then the Drum for an entree.

I kept the menu for further perusal and changed the Romaine salad to Golden Beet Carpaccio. My eyes noticed carpaccio but not beets at first, and it was only after closer inspection that I realized it wasn’t paper-thin beef. I love beets but never order them. This was a beautiful dish of carpaccio. Very thin beets were arrayed beautifully on a plate and dotted with balsamic pearls, drizzled with whipped feta, and torn arugula leaves were carefully placed on top. I loved this dish. The beets were perfectly cooked and together these elements blended beautifully. The creaminess and tang of the feta was a nice foil for the chewy bitterness of the arugula, and the pearls were just a textural pop.

The flatbread was not as exciting. To me, a flatbread needs to be very thin, and sometimes it is flaky, like a Flammekueche. The dough here maybe needed more cooking to crisp it up. That’s not to say I didn’t like this, but it was the least of the things that were on the table.

And really, I almost ordered the same dish, so many of the elements overlapped. There were sporadic little quarters of mediocre andouille dropped here and there, more beets, (this time pickled), and apple-whiskey bacon jam atop more whipped feta. This time the feta was used as sort of a condiment here, spread the length of the crust rather than drizzled on top. Arugula leaves were carefully placed in spots to finish. None of this was bad, just the least of what I had.

The drum dish took a while to come, and while I watched all the activity in the room, a guy close to my table at the bar received two things, and I had mild envy for both. The grit cakes as an appetizer and the burger with fries as entree. I considered both of these and passed on them for different reasons. 

The beautiful grits cakes were deep fried but somewhere incorporated smoked oyster mushrooms. I dislike this particular mushroom because of its chewy texture and it overcame my interest in grit cakes, which I do like. He certainly seemed to enjoy them, and when the chef stopped by the table to say hi she told me this was her favorite dish.

The burger was a venison blend, which nixed it for me. That wasn’t the sole reason. The main one was that I eat burgers all the time. But I did see some gorgeous housecut fries on the plate next to that burger and asked my server if I could just have a side of fries. They obliged and the fries came out with the Drum. They were as good as they looked. Hot, crispy, golden brown and soft inside. Perfect French fries.

Maybe the reason the Drum took so long was that they were struggling with the Velouté, which came out more like a paste than a sauce. I know Velouté is a thickish Mother sauce made with a roux, but this was not moving at all. The Herbsaint used to flavor this sauce was very mild. This dish also had one of my least favorite things to eat, but in a milder form. Baby kale is infinitely more palatable in every way than grown-up kale, and I didn’t mind it at all.

The Drum under the sauce and over the kale was blackened and mildly so, but I liked it anyway. This may be my new favorite accessible fish. It is thin, flaky and white, which are three things I always seek in fish. The menu said that somewhere in all this were cornbread crumbles, but I didn’t notice them. Sounds good, though.

I usually don’t eat dessert and I had no plans to this day but I asked to see the dessert menu. There were three items on it but the first one was Pots de Crème, a chocolate pudding on steroids that I find irresistible. This one, in keeping with the Embers theme  I guess, was more like S’mores. It had pieces of housemade Graham crackers, and dollops of marshmallow, and two artful dark chocolate leaves stenciled realistically. It was a work of art. The essential item, Pots de Crème (usually served in jars or cups with a dollop of whipped cream) was not as dark chocolate as I like but it definitely worked.

A lot of local chefs are heavily involved with this project. It’s no wonder. It is a fantastic training ground for careers in our local industry, and a great recruitment tool. 

And for diners who like excellence, which is increasingly hard to come by, it’s a boon too.