January 16, 2024 • 46 mins
On episode six of the Between Bites podcast, Nina Compton and Larry Miller are joined by Jacqueline Blanchard, owner of the knife shop Coutelier and restaurant Sukeban in New Orleans.
Jacqueline talks about the influences that drew her to cooking and Japanese culture at an early age. She talks about her progression from traveling home with duffel bags full of knives from Japan to serving as one of the best sources of Japanese steel in the New Orleans area.
Hear about how Chef Blanchard learned Japanese, her travel do's and don'ts, and some of her favorites dishes along the way.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
All right, welcome everybody here between bites with Nina Compton
and me Larry Miller. Welcome to season two, episode six,
Today chef, who are we joined by?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
This is no miss Jacqueline Blanchard.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, hello, hello friends, Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
This is a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, it's always a pleasure chatting.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
With you, Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I could not be more thrilled to see you guys
at this table. Happy New Year, yea happy Carnival.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm done with you.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We're moving on to New Year.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, that's what everybody's been waiting for.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I know it was like after Christmas, but it's like
we have this many days till our froze, King Cake.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I know, just a full countdown again.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Where was your first one? Where'd you go?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I haven't had it yet? Wow, yeah, shocker.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I know.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
I'm really waiting on the Randaza's. That's that's that's that's
the one one for me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And I really want to go to dough Winners on
the West Main. That's like the one I really want
to get out there.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, they're they're like number one on my lists to go.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But I got to get you know, I got across
the bridge, so yeah, I gotta get over there.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I am Laria always gets mad because you'll have a
different kin cake each day. Yeah, and for me, I
like the classic Gallette Yeah, and it's like, oh, it's
so boring.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, I mean it's great, it's just there are other
things we have to cram in, especially on this abbreviated
Martis season.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I always want to use my little fevs I have
the I have like a little satchel full of beautiful
vintage fevs from France that I always want to plug
into the cake.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
But you can never bring myself.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
To do it. I don't want to follow right, no liabilities,
no no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now, Jackie, you're the owner of two businesses here in town. Yeam, Mittelier,
Nola and suker Bond. Yeah, tell us a little bit.
Let's start with Cotelier first.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, Katillier, we're hitting nine years this summer.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
We've been grab crazy. I know, it's wild. We've been
on Oak Street the whole time.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Right now, we're at eighty six hundred blocks, so we're
a little further towards the river, close by the bakery,
and then uh Sukibon is just down on the other end.
Of the street to the bookend, so got you know,
first block and last block basically.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Uh, but yeah, Katillier has been.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Such an amazing, amazing project for me because it's something
I had never expected to get into a retail. You know,
I've been in shot my whole life and kind of
coming out of a very burned out phase in my
life was when I decided to kind of open that
back in twenty fifteen, so to kind of see its
growth into you know, definitely a bigger space.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
We moved about two years ago into the.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Larger space just to be able to accommodate you know,
the kind of growth we've had and so we've had,
we've seen such a huge you know, support system from
not only this community, but like all around the US sure,
and and it's really been so fun to see that
and the feedback from like your chef friends and the
support you get from them. So you know, selfishly created
(03:28):
for like ourselves and our peers. But you know, the
home cook vibe here is so strong. You know, I
come from a vacation family. Everybody fancies himself as a
professional home so they want you know, definitely the same
tools and whatnot that you know, the chef's are us
and so I think that's really been a fun thing
to impart on the community. But yeah, just you know,
(03:49):
that's kind of taken you know, so many trips of
Japan to sort of like lock in these the families
that we work with. You know, we are representing like
a dying craft in a way. So I think for us,
it's really important for to get that point across to
certain people about supporting not just you know, buying knives,
(04:11):
but you know, this craftsmanship that has been so prevalent
for so many generations in hundreds of years, and to
have the privilege to work with these families.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So I'm you know, I think it's a huge part
of what we do.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What were your first the reaction of the community in Japan,
I think if you walk over there, just y'all.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Totally.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I mean, it's one thing certainly to be a woman
in that game, but you know a woman from the South
is you know that it's very unexpected. I think in
their part, I think that's kind of elusive about my
name when I would send me emails in the beginning,
because I would shorten Jaqueline to Jacques.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
So they kind of elusive, whether or I was male
or because they sure how it would go, but kind
of ones that showed up and they were like, oh wait,
you're a lady. Yeah, like this is dope, but it's
been great.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And I think that's kind of how the sukuban like
name came about, was because it came nickname. So sukub
means like delinquent girl or girl boss really, but the.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Giant didn't know the government.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
The government kind of like bestowed the delinquent girl attachment
to the description because they were just they were like
the young girls in Tokyo in the sixties and seventies
who like weren't allowed to be part of the yukuzo
or like the male gang, so they started their own,
which was generally like an after school thing, and so
you see, you know, everybody in Japan wears the same
uniform to schools, is like kind of like the sailor
(05:39):
esque vibe.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
So they would kind of put flair.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Depending on which gang you were on about about which time,
you know, which part of Tokyo, so you knew you were.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Part of that gang. But the leader of the.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Gang was the sukiban, so kind of just tangillate to like,
in the simplest terms, women boss a booncho is a
male boss.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Suke bot is Suke's women. I love that is so
that kind of happened. I love that. It's just like
we're gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean it's it's definitely like a very male
dominated just like my career.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I mean, you know more than you know.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Most Nina, that this is a very male dominant here,
and you know what we've done for our whole lives,
and you know, this is another transition of that for me,
which was kind of already comfortable with.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
But yeah, very few and far between women and that.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And so we're seeing more women knife makers now, which
is really cool because that's you know, you're starting to
see that in a lot of generational heritage type crafts,
whether it's sake brewering, you're seeing a lot of like
the daughters now taking over, which is the first time
this is really happening. So that's really cool to see.
Like I was in this sake brewery last winter up
in Akida, and the twenty eighth generation was taking over
(06:55):
and it was the first time it was a woman.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So like, you know, you're starting to see that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
You know that as well the knife making industry as well,
which is really cool to see the transition sort of happening.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Very very patriarchal society is still in Japan.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So when you go to look for the knives, is
there sit in town or is it just Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean we're kind of spread out all over. There's
definitely pockets, you know this. I was just telling you
this last October. I was just there for Knife Festival
in Sechi City, which is in the Gifu Prefecture, which
is like very historically relevant to like being part of
this kind of roadway for ancient samurai to get from
one place to another. But it's all based along this
(07:32):
river because the river provides the clay for the pottery,
it provides the reeds to make washy paper, it provides
the iron sand to forge knives out of. So it's
like all of these things where I revolved sort of
around this river, and that's just one part of Japan
that's sort of everywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
It's kind of like based on that.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
The same production is based on the river because of
the water, so the water is like kind of everything.
But yeah, I think there's a few pockets, but it's
sort of all spread out. It just kind of depends
on what I have going on. Like right now I'm getting,
you know, huge shipment from southern Japan from mari Taka,
like thirty generations they go back to like twelve hundreds.
(08:09):
Oh wow, making they actually made samurais words for the
shogunate to defend from. When I think the Dutch and
the Portuguese were coming up to part Christianity in southern Japan,
the Japanese were like, absolutely not. And there's wars over
and this movie's about it. I mean it's it's pretty insane.
So they were violently protecting the Buddhist sect. Wow, and
(08:31):
this family and Maritaka's were contracted to make katanas for them,
so like they actually not everybody has that story. Certainly,
some some families started as agricultural, uh you know, forges
for blades and size and stuff for the field, you know,
so things like that. So and it's fun to see
how it transitions in certain parts of Japan based on
that history.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So if when we were talking earlier about I've never
been to Japan. So if I had to say tomorrow
I'm gonna go, where should I go?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
What's eat?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah? I think what I find the most prevalent triangle
of tourism based on what I've seen and what you know,
people have told me they're going on these trips recently.
The last year I've seen I've had more people ask
me about, you know, recommendations of the last year than I've
ever experienced. And so it seems a lot of people
are doing the Tokyo Osaka Kyoto triangle. And there's been
(09:24):
a huge over tourism problem with Japan in the last
like nine months that they've jocked up the JR Train
pass price to kind of like subdue people.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
They've taken away so any incentives that they were using
to get people there. Sure, because that triangle is just
so overpopulated. So everyone's going to the same train stations,
are going to the same temples, They're doing the same
stuff everywhere. And so like Mount Fuji is about to
lose its UNESCO World Heritage designation because of the government
hasn't figured out how to limit the amount of people
(09:56):
or permit people from like climbing it. Tours are like
in sandals and like not acclimated enough to like even hike,
you know, well in those conditions, and then you see
these like views, these like you know, lines of people
in the trash it produces. So I would say stay
away from some of those, like really like the places
(10:17):
you hear about the most. I know that's not what
everybody wants to hear, but I would say get out
of there, Get in Tokyo acclimate for a little bit,
a couple of days, and then get on the train
and get out of there and go to Kanazawa or
Fukuoka or Hiroshima or Oka Yama, all these places that
are so accessible just as much. But everybody knows Kyoto.
I mean, Kyoto is amazing. I've been several times. It's ancient,
(10:38):
it was it was spared during World War two on
purpose and it was you know, it's this amazing ancient
heritage there that's definitely worth seeing. But if I could,
you know, say anything, I would tell you to get
out of that normal triangle of what you hear and
check out some other amazing places like Hokkaido, even Saparo,
(10:59):
like you might have to take a little hopper an
hour flight domestic, but you know that island is so amazing.
It's the Northern island and just so much cool history,
and it's the seafood culture, like that's why I go
this year. The seafood is the best, right. The saki
production's full blown in the wintertime, so you know, and
it's hard to not want to go, and the cherry
(11:20):
blossom season like you were asking about that, and I
think that, you know, there's just so the Japanese book
everything a year out.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So if you're not prepared, you will lose out on
all the bookings.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So you know, it's it's keeping that kind of stuff
in mind when you are like planning a trip out there,
and it's definitely worth it. I think the flights, like
I was just saying, are less than Europe, and people
just think of it as just like far off, unattainable
kind of place that I think, it's just so far away,
and I think the language kind of barrier deters people sometimes,
(11:53):
but it's something that is not an issue. And if
they make it so easy for you to travel there,
the nicest people on the planet.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
They are more hospitable and most Southerners I've.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Met, how as a traveler, would you need a if
you were completely greened to the country, would you need
a translator?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I think with the technology we have on our phones alone,
I've seen just in the last couple of years for
me at least, like reading a menu, you can google
lens it and it translates the menu like that.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They like to start to finish all in kanji or
kata khana. So you can literally just pop it on
your phone now and it will translate anything and then
you can kind of.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Speak into it.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Most people speak some type of English. Certainly you want
there's like six Japanese phrases that you want to know
and they just want you to try, like would they
see you like I'd say adigato gozamasu, so like that.
That's definitely like, you know, thank.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
You very much.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You could just say them in English.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I mean like, yeah, there's an important one in there
for me too. Massen is like very important. It's like
excuse me. But you can use it in a million
different variations. Oh goshi mas you know certainly like it
means like please and thank you, like you follow that
when you're asking for you know, a beer or something
(13:06):
like that, I would say, which means like nice to
meet you. Where am I at five? I think I
think so what's one more?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Uh, let's see. Damn, now you got me on the
on the farm.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Where's the bathroom?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I means that's another word quotas I means please. So
dokodeska means like where where it is like dokodesca to
toy da means the toilets.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
How fluent are you?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I mean not not. I can say to get by.
I can have like small conversations.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I can understand it more than I just need somebody
to speak to you here. You know, it's like anything
you're not using it, you're not gonna it's not gonna
register the way you want it to. And it's like
I watch a lot of anime, not like a you know,
intensely well.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You know, give me a break.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
That's a really cool anime show I highly suggest you
watch called Agritsuko and it's like made for adults, and
it's like watching an episode of the Office, but in anime,
and they're all characters are like animals and it's the
funniest show.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
It's on Netflix, and it's hilarious. But it's how I
learned Japanese. It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But yeah, I think the most like when i've talked
to like foreigners.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Or guysin. Guysin just means.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Foreigner, so you hear that a lot when you're there,
like you're the guysin.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
But guy Jan's learn.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, certainly by anime, I think in in manga
and all that kind of stuff, like more so than
you would expect, right, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So when you get to Japan, what is the first
thing that you crave?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You say, I have to sushi. I mean, I can't
get enough. But also you know, there's like always things
on the list. You know, some things I still like
haven't quite hit up, like or I don't hit up
as much, like for some reason, Udan is not one
I like seek out. I love and when I have it,
but it's like one of those things like when it
comes across when I come across it, I'll find it.
(15:21):
But you know, certainly there's a place in Tokyo Fungi
and it's got this sukyman ramen and sukanen is the
dipping noodle ramen.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Which is my favorite.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
That's what I'm looking for, you don't I don't really
just go after like regular roles of ramen anymore. I'm
looking for suit Caman because it's so hard to find
here and it's just like thick, chewy noodles and they
they often come kind of cold or riom tempina bowl
and then the dipping sauce is like a super concentrated
you know, kind of like dashi bass with like bonito
(15:51):
and like all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
So that's what I'm looking for every time.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And this is one place in Shinjuku, Shibuya kind of
area that I always seek out. But sushi one hundred percent,
even if it's like go around sushi.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Or it's just better every time you have it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
I found myself like the last winter, I was in
Tokyo my last night alone, and I was really trying
to get into like a like a nice one macassee
and I just hadn't planned ahead enough and I had
the hotel call and like no one was taking like
uh like a solo guys in diner at the last minute.
So I ended up doing sushi go around in the
Tokyo train station.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It was amazing, oh wow, and it was.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Like forty bucks and it was like I had probably
twenty pieces.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So let me ask you, when you are there any
dishes that you thought that you ordered something and then
something else came and.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You're like, oof, yeah, that happened at a ramen. It
was like one of the first times ever went Apan.
It was like at a tiny little ramen shop in
this little maze of you know, alleyways, and there's like
the the little machine where you put through corn in
and you repress, like what ramen you think you're going
to get? And I like got some seafood ramen that
I was not prepared for and it was like so
(17:06):
thick and heavy. I like couldn't finish it. And I
felt so bad because I was like, I'm just gonna
eat It's fine, because you want to say face like
more than right. And when they you don't finish something,
they're like, oh my god, you didn't like it, and
then they take it on themselves. It's like no, no, no, no,
Like I totally screwed this up. But I'm like too
full now to get the ramen won right. But there's
(17:30):
been times of that. That's happened a couple of times.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Okay, so let's we're still talking about travel. If you
is there anywhere top three places that's on your bucket
list anywhere in the.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
World, Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Horatious up there.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And then I want to do the Dolomites in Italy
Swiss Italian. I want to do that at some point.
And then three Argentina, Patagonia, done to uh, South America.
Yet of all of all the travel of talking.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
The world is so big, and I realize it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I feel like I keep on hitting the same region
sometimes and it's you know, I've never done Columbia, Ecuador, right,
jurists or you know, Vancouver it' there's just so many things,
just like New York, Toronto, London.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We get kind of wrapped up in the cycle of
that stutute. I feel you It's like same with Japan.
I keep going back, but there's every time I go
is a different place I'm going, so I feel like
I'm experiencing it again for the first time. But there's
like a comfort level in that because there's a million
other places that like to keep going. But I like,
you know, you can find yourself kind of in that rut.
Sometimes where's your top three.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Ten tens in a year?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Okay, Ecuador, Colombia and Montreal?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Nice?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I do want to go to Montreal, Montreal, hig I'm
a list, Yeah, we're just talking about that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It just seems like a food city that I.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Need to go to.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, and our buddy, you know, Scott Hawker, our good friend,
he's down in Colombia, and now I'm going to pay
him a visit while he's there.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
For surely, absolutely, it's a must about.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Don't worry about me. Nobody listens to this.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I was going to say Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
That's funny. I would say Paris, Paris and Paris, okay.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Whatever, say Aaron Small each time, probably, but.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That means it changes.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I thought.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I thought, well Rome is on there too. Anyway, that
doesn't none of that growing up.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
You grew up in napoleon Ville, Pankerville, Assumption Parish. I
gotta say both because both sides of my family get
pissed off.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Well, we don't want that to happen. How many folks
in your hometown have such a massive knowledge and appreciation
of and how did that happen? Did anything happen growing up?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I think it was the Ninja Turtles some when we've
done Honestly, I can't. People ask me that all the time,
and I've been always trying to like rant back and yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I think it was the late eighties.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
And like I got really into ninja turtles growing up,
as like you know, a lot of us did at
that time, but it kind of like put like the
continent of Asia in your mind as a child, and
I think, like the ninja stuff, and like, I don't know,
I just got like also very like big history nerds,
(20:37):
so like I started kind of like getting into like
Asian history. And then Japan always just kind of like
stuck for some reason. And for a long time I
traveled Southeast Age. I didn't go to h to Japan.
It was not really on my high my list, like
it was. I just loved Asian culture in general, so
like the whole continent and then Southeast Asia particularly got me.
I had been several times to Thailand and Laos and
(21:00):
in Vietnam and Singapore and Malaysia, had not had kind
of used a jumping you know part of me like
kind of jumped off from Singapore from a long layover
to Tokyo and that was like my first experience there.
So for me, I think there's not a lot of
(21:20):
people from where who are.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Who are really into this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Maybe there are if you're reaching out assumption parish, let
us know.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
But yeah, I mean it's such.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
A historically Cajun settlement. They used to call it the
Upper Lufuche Valley because it was, you know, higher ground
coming out of the Mississippian if you're like just south
of Donisonville, which was the first capital of the state.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
So it was, you know, pretty relevant to the.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Agricultural productions and you know, things like that, certainly. But
I think we've been down there since the seventeen hundreds,
which is wild.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
So I think, you know, that's kind of special.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Not you know, it's not a lot of people can
say that about America in general, right, So that's I
think pretty special stuff, you know. And we were thrown
out of Nova Scotia for being Catholic and made our
way down through the through the colonies, so uh, you know,
it's it's uh, it's a really special place. I don't
think that there's a ton of folks from that area
(22:19):
that are quite as into Japanese cultures.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I might be.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So, how so.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You grew up in Cadden Country, there's anybody you know,
we we know that Louisiana is just filled with home cooks.
Was there anybody in your family that you grew up
with that made you want to be, like, I want
to be a chef because of this person.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I mean my grandmother was always and I know people
always say that, but my mamm Marilyn was one of
the you know, just absolute greatest cooks. My mama Ruby,
my on my dad's side, was not a great cook,
but she always you know, had you know, everything revold
around the table, so she's you know, always cook but
you know, i'd definitely say she was. She was definitely
(23:01):
My mamm Marilyn on my mom's side was the one
who I was always talking at her apron and just
like I used to chop up celery and throw it
in the trash, just to chop something up, and she
gets so mad at me. And then I would like
take her raisin brand and I'd pick out all the
raisins and then like.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Throw them, throw them away.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And she was just like very like hyper oct even
as a child.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Raisins away. It's raisin was like these.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Are gross, also raisin brand. So like but yeah, she
you know, she would always say, if you want to learn,
you better watch me. And it was like, you know,
hard pressed to get her to write anything. Down, you know,
and there's certain things I wish I'd have paid more
attention to. Now haven't lost her, you know, but there's
(23:48):
certain things that like, you know, her rice dressing is
something that I've been trying to perfect my whole life,
and like for the first time, like a couple of
years ago, my family finally like gave me the thumbs up.
Like I remember one time I did the you know,
you always try to like mess with something, especially as
a chef, and you're like, oh, I could have done it,
this makes more sense, and it's like, no, there's a
reason why she did it that way.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
And so what's what's her secrets?
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think, Like for her rice wrestling, like she always
always thought it made more sense to like, you know,
after you you know, cooked all the gizzards and the
livers down everything and all the ground meatia and then
you cooked your rice in that with broth.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
It makes the most sense to me.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So I tried that and everybody was like, what is this,
Like this is not I.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Would have done it, yes, right, I mean an instinct
tells you to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
She would make her rice completely separately, cool it and
then mix all that into it and let it soak,
which is like that was it.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
That was the game changer. That's what I like.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And the one time I put a bay leaf in there.
She never put a bay leaf in there, and my
Mom's like, with something else in here, this is something's right,
that's not right, And I was like.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
What is it? She was like, did you put a
bay leaf on? It really came out up and the
rice like really, But yeah, she was.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
She was the one, and she always her uncle, her
my uncle Robert, her brother, had a garden, a huge,
huge garden. He ran a farm, but had this beautiful
like kind of family garden that he always was just
like bringing over okra and like she was stewing down
batches of like you know, okra and tomatoes and then
freezing and she had deep freezer, you know, on her porch,
(25:27):
but she would freeze them in courts. You know.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It's just like stewed okra andans.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Like I remember having that just over like buttered rice
being like the most amazing thing. And she'd do the
same with like squash, like patty pan squash.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I remember her.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Whole kitchen just being full of it and she'd cook
it down in batches because she didn't have pots big enough.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
But just like that's the kind of stuff like resonates what.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Made you decide to go to culinary school.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I mean I had always been cooking, like you know,
I there was never a point where I don't remember
it being an act of like pursuit. I'd come home
from school. Even in kindergarten, I remember watching like Great
Chefs of the World. It was like a double header
who was like stay by the Bell and then a
double header of of Great Chefs and then Great Chefs
of the World, and then it was like, you know,
(26:10):
Food Network came on the scene, and I remember, like, honestly,
Emeralds shows were like some of the most important for
me growing up. I remember I have like notepads still,
like of notes down from those shows and it was like,
you know, how to boil water I think was like
one of the first shows I've seen and you know,
and that that endto stuff and uh, just the Food
(26:31):
netwhere my mom used to be like, you can't watch
like she punished me, you can't watch the Food Network,
Sorry about you, But it was that kind of stuff
where they get like, you know, aggravated with me because
it's not I'm not watching MTV. I'm watching show and
that's not cool.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I love the Great Chefs of the World. That was
like my weekend thing. It was me watching it and
my everybody's playing or doing something else.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Oh yeah, and here I am. Just yeah. I mean,
we're watching a show.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And I was at my aunt's house mostly after school,
and I'd wreck her kitchen after it because I'd see
what she had and then I'd try to replicate what
I had seen. So I remember one time I had
a she had a can of condensed milk, and I'd
flooded like a plate with it and then use her
She's syruh to dot the edges and then a toothpick
to like beauful swirl and blend it, and it like
blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
And it was one of the first like first things.
And she's like, why'd you waste all this? Like look
at this beautiful plates?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, stuff like that, and like even Julia Challenge with
Graham Curry, like those shows were always part of it too.
But I think that's how I knew to go to
culinary school was you know, I was always surrounded by it.
You know, it was like boucheries and there's always something
food related to like gather around just as we do.
I mean, so for me, it was like very incarnate,
you know. I knew, like all through high school I
(27:55):
wanted to go to culinary school. I didn't have a doubt.
And so I think that's very lucky.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
What was your first kitchen job.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Oh, I was at.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
My aunt's restaurant, Cafe Evangeline in Denver, Colorado. I used
to go spend like summers with her for a couple
of weeks and she had a little Cajun restaurant she
had opened called Cafe Evangeline. It was really sweet, very
you know, just there was really no Cajun food in Denver.
So I would go and help her. I would make
my mama's banana pie. So she had say, Mama, Marilyn
(28:24):
made this amazing banana pie. It's like just straight up
she used overrighte bananas, butter and cinnamon sugar and she
would just layer it in a regular pie a crust
and just bake it straight up and no one like
there's no cream, there's no nothing, right straight up banana pie.
And it was it's still like make it to this day,
like when there's like a little occasion, which just like
(28:45):
bluebell of vanilla Bean, it's just so good. So I
would make her banana pies and that was my first
kitchen job ever.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
And it was like thirteen, maybe twelve was thirteen, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Then we fast tracked that he went to French laundry,
you know, because what year was that, That's.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Two thousand and six. I graduated.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So I started culinary school in two at Nicols State,
and then.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
I got my four year bachelor which I think is
so like it's.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
One of the most insanely amazing programs in the country.
It's like the only state university I'm aware of you
can get a four year bachelors degree in culinary arts.
So a fast track that played a little soccer in
college too, and blew my acl out, says like, all right,
I got.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
A no scholarship and then I got the culinary scholarships.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
But but yeah, graduated in a six and then moved
directly to California after that because I just you know,
that's when the that's when the book came out, you know,
and so for us, like that was so prime time.
And during that time, I was working at a restaurant
August which was you know, very formidable years, especially in
this city.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
This was like things were popping.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Right, So like that exposure, the cookbook came out and
then I like wrote some letters and just packed it
up and moved to Yonville.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Like right at like May of six.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Were you like culture shock or was it like this
is familiar to me?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
It was familiar, but it was also like I had
never seen a ja I'd not not not seen a
Japanese knife, but I had never been exposed to like
people using such a prolific, you know, nature of them,
like in a kitchen and being like, oh god, that's
a game changer.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
I didn't know about that.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Or spoons spoons, like we're going to the thrift store
to find spoons.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Like that was all the biggest excitements for me right
right right in the beginning. But yeah, it was a
level of certainly professionalism.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I had not quite experienced it, which is a hell
of a place, yet had a way to start.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So I think that I.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Think that that was you know, the most impressionable part
for me was that it was so early on in
that stage, so it kind of continued because I didn't
really know any better. But also like I didn't. That
was a that was an intense time, you know, for
especially women in the kitchen. Like I was always the
only woman, and everybody just assumes you're in pastry because
you're in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
You know, it's just like you're fighting this like stereot
type of it. You know, it's just aggravating.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
They heard about it, made it all the way to Philadelifornia.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Thomas Keller probably ate a piece and you didn't even know.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
I do remember when we had our we had our
like friends giving that year, like our Thanksgiving for everybody.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
It's like all staff.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I made cornbread dressing and people were like it was
with like Jiffy cornbread. It was like I had them
like like send boxes a Jiffy corn bread up to
me because I was like, I'm not making this with
I'm not trying to make corn bread scratch for this, and.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
People were like floored, and like still people ask me
for the rest. I like the cornbread dressing really made
its way. Yeah it hit something.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It did, yeah for sure, but yeah, I think, uh,
you know, I still have so many friends and so
many like professional you know, liaisons from the experience that
only you know, grew from there in it. You know,
even still like twenty years later.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's it's impressive. I mean I had I still have
that book and I give it to a lot of
my young cooks that are still trying to learn, and
it's still relevant. I still look at every single picture
and it's twenty five years old and it looks like
it could be exactly in the menu.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Today, and it's like low key, you just wanted to
kind of go back to that sometimes and like you know,
you look at these pages and these recipes you've looked
at a million times, and they still like old. It
never gets old, Like I guess, such an impressive like thing.
It like kind of lives in a time capsule, you know,
in your mind, which is you know. So it was
such an important book for so many of us, Like honestly.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
It made me realize like what path.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I wanted to take within what we're doing, Like I
wanted to go into find dining like and then like
you think about now, like I think about what I
wanted then in a restaurant versus like what I have
now totally different, Like I wanted to have like my
own like you know, uh, destination farm to table tasting
menu restaurant where like you know, you're in the middle,
(33:12):
like like like the French Laundry or or the Yes
my next stop, Well that wasn't my next stop but
blue Hill Stone Barnes. I did want like a scale
down version of that. The Rockefellers wouldn't give me a loan.
But yeah, So after after the Laundry, I moved to
uh Frasca in Boulder, which was some French Laundry alumni,
(33:36):
so Bobby Stucky in lachlandby Bobby's just the man, and
like you know, that restaurant was based around one particular
wine region and so the food kind of complimented at
that and I didn't I'd not been exposed to a
restaurant that revolved itself more about the wine that it
did the food, and the food was complimentary to the
wine and not quite the other way around.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And the service was what I made wanted. What this
service is what made me want to work.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
At Frosco more than anything, because I had been there.
You know, I had family in Colorado, I travel there
a lot, So I had dinner there one night by myself,
like in my mid twenties. I think it was, and
they took such great care of me, and like you know,
always get treated like that when you're like a solo
or like mid twenties diner, they don't expect much of you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I think.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
They they just impressed me so much with that level
of service that Bobby's certainly imparted on the culture there.
But he, you know, was such a huge part of
you know, my career, I think as well, not even
being a chef, but I think.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
With Bobby, he just he gets people, oh yeah, and
he knows how to make people feel comfortable, and he
just he just has an energy and an aura that
when he walks into a room, it's like.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
It's a commanded presence.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I was like, and you don't it's so intangible,
you know, I absolutely agree with that. One time he
I sliced my side of my finger open on the
burkele like meat slicer.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
It was like six stitches worth. But he brought me
to urgent carrety like took care of me and made sure.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It was like it was like that kind of guy,
like drove me to the hospital and he's like, we
gotta be back for service.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Why he didn't run any story I I'm still waiting wants.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Service and started off, well, so here you have this
uh budding culinary career, that is, you're working at really
really great places. What brought you back home or to Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I think there's just like a siren song here that
I cannot put my finger on. I never thought i'd
come back, honestly, Like I was like, I'm gonna die
in Californa or yeah, you know, or wherever I was.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I just like thought this was not it for me.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
And then I like realized how much you know, culture
we have or especially like how you know, my family's
got this like presence here.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
They've been here for so long and.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
I I can't put my finger I wish we could
bottle it and sell it, but it's like one of
those things. And I didn't think it'd be forever because
I did leave again, but like I I just wanted to.
I think I had an opportunity to come back to
Rustaurant August and that was another thing, and I became
execs suve there, So that was an opportunity for me
that I was thinking. So I went back at that
(36:37):
time and was there for several years with Mikelotta, and
you know, we had a I think those were some
of the best times like in that restaurant's like tenure,
and for sure, like many people still talk about meals
they had, you know, when we were there, and I
think it was such a really special time. So I
think that for me was like a big opportunity for
me to be a leader. But also like I didn't
know how to manage people. So I came guns blazing
(36:59):
from like California, New York, and I had only known
what was shown to.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Me or yelled at me or whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So I never really learned how to be a great
manager until I was working with Mike. He really instilled that,
I think, and calmed me down a lot and was like, hey, listen,
you can't like talk to people like this, right, you
can't like this.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
You got to make people want to work for.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You, and that's not going to happen if you you know,
don't you know if you speak this way or you
say the way you say things and things like that.
So it's definitely like changed my managerial style. I think
that was a huge part of my career, was that
move for that and and then I you know, several
years later, I got an opportunity to go to Benu
(37:40):
back to San Francisco to be a sous chef for Corley,
who was the shofuse at the French manter Well was
there and and then we got three much un stars
and I burned out my.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Candle burned out. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I mean that was a really cool thing to be
a part of and like the chase for that, And
there were more women in that kitchen during that time
than I've ever worked with my life, and it was
like a common and ease to it that was I
had never really experienced. I'd never worked with more women
in a hot kitchen than I had during that during
that time, and I think.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
It was just such a special thing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
So yeah, and then I kind of got you know,
that was like my early thirties. I got super burned
out by that point because I'd just been plugging away
in the moving and like you know, just wanting to
like absorb all of it, and my body like I
just wasn't in great shape, like mentally physically, so I
was like, what can I do that's still relevant but
(38:39):
still keep my thumb on the pulse and still like
take care of myself and I think that is where
Catillia kind of was born out of. And I'd seen,
you know, in California, these cute little NiFe shops and
I'd lived across the street from down Color and Calen
Garrett's and huge shout.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Out because he was such a.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Huge inspiration for me, because he was a cook who
left and was like, hey, I want to try something different,
And I was like, man, this is like brilliant, Like
why doesn't New Orleans have anything like this? I certainly
like I wanted to do something a little bit different here,
but still in part the same, like access to great
tools for cooks who deserved it, you know, And I'd
(39:20):
never had more, i think exposure to those kind of
tools than I had when I was living in California.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
I think that's what like sparked it for me. And
then same with New York.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You had corn in New York, you had, you know,
these cool places, and you wanted something tangible you can
go and hold a tool and feel it and like,
you know, and then just find other cool stuff like
I want to had. I wanted to have the best
of everything, like the one peeler we always use, like
the one you know, like all these like one thing
the one offs and right, because I know the one
and you know you know the one. So it's like
(39:50):
you wanted to make that available in a one stop
shop kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
And that's kind of think how that became relevant for
all of us.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Do you have a favorite Japanese it's like that you
have it, like this is my default?
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah, I think certainly to Keda show sweet to Keta.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
He's a knife maker that we're waiting on his order
to show up for the next week. We haven't gotten
over a year. Yeah, he's I got a direct line
line to Okayama.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Now he's He's one of my favorites. Definitely.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
His knife is my default. He's kind of one of
the more famous. I think that's the knife that actually
like got me really into thinking more diligently about my
tools and like how different these knives can be made,
and like the relevancy to each profile and the task
at hand, like all these things matter, and Japanese are
(40:46):
very task centric and the profiles, so like he was
the first like knife maker that made me think about
that kind of stuff that deeply. But like his knives
are incredible. They're lightweight, so it's like less confounding their
razor sharp every time time.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
They're just harder to come by.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Now because he's he had he had some battles with
cancer the last couple of years, auring COVID, and he's
kind of just coming out of that, and his production
slowed down a lot. I mean, there's your handmaids, so
like they take time. You know, We've had people beating
down the doors asking when their Ticketa's showing up, and well,
I mean in the next like week or two. But honestly,
we used to get I used to be able to
email him and say, hey, what do you have available,
(41:23):
and he would just send what he had. And now
it's like I'm getting it once a year, right, you know,
so it is much fewer and far between.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
So listeners next week where to know.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
The Mori Takas have just landed and the Ta catos
are landing behind it. But these are really sought after
and they're harder. They're once a year batch that we get.
And that's the kind of thing I think is so
cool and it's limiting, and you know, and you know
American society, everybody wants everything right now or if you're
out of it. They want you to call Japan right
and say can I get this overnighted? Right?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
In the restaurant, you will We're used to serving the
same dishes until the men you change it, and every
now and then you look the dish and you say, man,
I haven't had that in a while. I want to
eat that retail, I think the opposite is you get
in something so cool, how can you sell it?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Yeah, I mean that's the hardest part. You want to
keep it. I mean that does happen, so it's like
you can't really.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I mean, if I kept everything I wanted, I wouldn't
have a Yeah, And I certainly get like I get
sampled a lot of knives. I get, you know, like
when I'm coming back from a Japan trip, I'm usually
it's a lot of things people have given me. It's
not a lot of knives that have bought there based
on because I used to like fill up a.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Duffel bag and back in the early days, like you know.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Show you a drink.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Secure actually never encountered anything I have, Like you know,
I don't know if it's global interru whatever it is,
but they just sealed me, right, through each time, and
I've had like juffle bags, knives and no issue.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
But not to say that it's going to happen for everybody,
but you know, don't.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Quote me on that, but uh yeah, I think my
I I generally like to favor certain profiles now, but
you know, I certainly don't need any more nights I
have my collection, but it's it's hard sometimes you there's
so many you want to just take home, and especially
(43:25):
this Bachelors Cicada, you know, I've been like, well, I
don't know how many we're more we're gonna get from him.
So now I'm like thinking about that and trying to
you know, what are the pieces I don't have that
I like must have where I can do without kind
of thing. But it's that's that's the hardest part, is
not want to take them all home.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Another fun thing we have coming up tonight, actually.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Yes tonight, Uh it's Primal night at Bach and all
we're doing, you know, like every season, Uh, we always
get aske Joaquin is just amazing and always puts on
such a cool like group of chefs to do a
weekly sort of a little pop up, so it's always
like kind of fire base so we're gonna be doing
a little sesami misa chicken. Ochazukeh Isque is like one
(44:08):
of my favorite, like winter Japanese dishes where it's just
like rice. So we're gonna make a mushroom rice and
then you pour like a hot dashy broth over it.
Sometimes it's with tea. I've seen it done with tea.
They poured like hot tea over the rice. And then
sometimes it's like sashimi's in it. We're just doing our
little grilled chicken version of that. But it's gonna be delicious.
You know, cold weather certainly, but we definitely love doing
(44:31):
Primal night and it's all in benefit to charity, so
you know, come on out, sit outside, you know, bundle up,
grab some wine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Well, plus blacking out did one of the coolest things
that I had ever seen a couple of years ago.
They hard piped all the gas to their patio heaters.
You don't have to worry about that. It's great, yeah heat,
you know, stealing somebody's heater or not. It ends up
being very nice.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, And I think winter is one of my favorite
times to do that there. I do like the fall,
but you know, the winter is like one of my favorites.
It's just like I love being bundled up out there
and you know, having something kind of comforting like hot brothy,
something a little bit different too, something we don't really
see all the time, and something I run as a
special at Sukibon a lot too, So you know, just
(45:15):
to be able to have that out there and get
people out and you know, winter times, everybody wants to,
you know, kind of stay hold up inside. So I
mean it's because an opportunity to get out there and
you know, grab some grab a glass of wine and
come see us a little life, right, fantastic, Well, Jackie,
thank you very much for spending time with us.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
We appreciate it. Best of luck with everything.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
We'll see you tonight at Backing.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
On Absolute Pleasure. Guys.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Of course we love so for Nina Compton, me Larry Miller.
Between bites brought to you by Caesar Sports Book. We'll
see you next time, Big, big.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Great Drake, wait through the reed or very you know,
play for the Red or body flay for the Red.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Knock up everybody like we was going wrong?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
You say outwar
All right, welcome everybody here between bites with Nina Compton
and me Larry Miller. Welcome to season two, episode six,
Today chef, who are we joined by?
Speaker 2 (00:27):
This is no miss Jacqueline Blanchard.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, hello, hello friends, Hello, thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
This is a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, it's always a pleasure chatting.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
With you, Sam.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I could not be more thrilled to see you guys
at this table. Happy New Year, yea happy Carnival.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm done with you.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
We're moving on to New Year.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well, that's what everybody's been waiting for.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I know it was like after Christmas, but it's like
we have this many days till our froze, King Cake.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I know, just a full countdown again.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Where was your first one? Where'd you go?
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I haven't had it yet? Wow, yeah, shocker.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I know.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
I'm really waiting on the Randaza's. That's that's that's that's
the one one for me.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And I really want to go to dough Winners on
the West Main. That's like the one I really want
to get out there.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, they're they're like number one on my lists to go.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
But I got to get you know, I got across
the bridge, so yeah, I gotta get over there.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Now.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
I am Laria always gets mad because you'll have a
different kin cake each day. Yeah, and for me, I
like the classic Gallette Yeah, and it's like, oh, it's
so boring.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, I mean it's great, it's just there are other
things we have to cram in, especially on this abbreviated
Martis season.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
I always want to use my little fevs I have
the I have like a little satchel full of beautiful
vintage fevs from France that I always want to plug
into the cake.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
But you can never bring myself.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
To do it. I don't want to follow right, no liabilities,
no no, no, no no.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Now, Jackie, you're the owner of two businesses here in town. Yeam, Mittelier,
Nola and suker Bond. Yeah, tell us a little bit.
Let's start with Cotelier first.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, Katillier, we're hitting nine years this summer.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
We've been grab crazy. I know, it's wild. We've been
on Oak Street the whole time.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Right now, we're at eighty six hundred blocks, so we're
a little further towards the river, close by the bakery,
and then uh Sukibon is just down on the other end.
Of the street to the bookend, so got you know,
first block and last block basically.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Uh, but yeah, Katillier has been.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Such an amazing, amazing project for me because it's something
I had never expected to get into a retail. You know,
I've been in shot my whole life and kind of
coming out of a very burned out phase in my
life was when I decided to kind of open that
back in twenty fifteen, so to kind of see its
growth into you know, definitely a bigger space.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
We moved about two years ago into the.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Larger space just to be able to accommodate you know,
the kind of growth we've had and so we've had,
we've seen such a huge you know, support system from
not only this community, but like all around the US sure,
and and it's really been so fun to see that
and the feedback from like your chef friends and the
support you get from them. So you know, selfishly created
(03:28):
for like ourselves and our peers. But you know, the
home cook vibe here is so strong. You know, I
come from a vacation family. Everybody fancies himself as a
professional home so they want you know, definitely the same
tools and whatnot that you know, the chef's are us
and so I think that's really been a fun thing
to impart on the community. But yeah, just you know,
(03:49):
that's kind of taken you know, so many trips of
Japan to sort of like lock in these the families
that we work with. You know, we are representing like
a dying craft in a way. So I think for us,
it's really important for to get that point across to
certain people about supporting not just you know, buying knives,
(04:11):
but you know, this craftsmanship that has been so prevalent
for so many generations in hundreds of years, and to
have the privilege to work with these families.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
So I'm you know, I think it's a huge part
of what we do.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What were your first the reaction of the community in Japan,
I think if you walk over there, just y'all.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Totally.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I mean, it's one thing certainly to be a woman
in that game, but you know a woman from the South
is you know that it's very unexpected. I think in
their part, I think that's kind of elusive about my
name when I would send me emails in the beginning,
because I would shorten Jaqueline to Jacques.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
So they kind of elusive, whether or I was male
or because they sure how it would go, but kind
of ones that showed up and they were like, oh wait,
you're a lady. Yeah, like this is dope, but it's
been great.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
And I think that's kind of how the sukuban like
name came about, was because it came nickname. So sukub
means like delinquent girl or girl boss really, but the.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Giant didn't know the government.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
The government kind of like bestowed the delinquent girl attachment
to the description because they were just they were like
the young girls in Tokyo in the sixties and seventies
who like weren't allowed to be part of the yukuzo
or like the male gang, so they started their own,
which was generally like an after school thing, and so
you see, you know, everybody in Japan wears the same
uniform to schools, is like kind of like the sailor
(05:39):
esque vibe.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
So they would kind of put flair.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Depending on which gang you were on about about which time,
you know, which part of Tokyo, so you knew you were.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Part of that gang. But the leader of the.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Gang was the sukiban, so kind of just tangillate to like,
in the simplest terms, women boss a booncho is a
male boss.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Suke bot is Suke's women. I love that is so
that kind of happened. I love that. It's just like
we're gonna do it.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean it's it's definitely like a very male
dominated just like my career.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I mean, you know more than you know.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Most Nina, that this is a very male dominant here,
and you know what we've done for our whole lives,
and you know, this is another transition of that for me,
which was kind of already comfortable with.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
But yeah, very few and far between women and that.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And so we're seeing more women knife makers now, which
is really cool because that's you know, you're starting to
see that in a lot of generational heritage type crafts,
whether it's sake brewering, you're seeing a lot of like
the daughters now taking over, which is the first time
this is really happening. So that's really cool to see.
Like I was in this sake brewery last winter up
in Akida, and the twenty eighth generation was taking over
(06:55):
and it was the first time it was a woman.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
So like, you know, you're starting to see that.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
You know that as well the knife making industry as well,
which is really cool to see the transition sort of happening.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Very very patriarchal society is still in Japan.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So when you go to look for the knives, is
there sit in town or is it just Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean we're kind of spread out all over. There's
definitely pockets, you know this. I was just telling you
this last October. I was just there for Knife Festival
in Sechi City, which is in the Gifu Prefecture, which
is like very historically relevant to like being part of
this kind of roadway for ancient samurai to get from
one place to another. But it's all based along this
(07:32):
river because the river provides the clay for the pottery,
it provides the reeds to make washy paper, it provides
the iron sand to forge knives out of. So it's
like all of these things where I revolved sort of
around this river, and that's just one part of Japan
that's sort of everywhere.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
It's kind of like based on that.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
The same production is based on the river because of
the water, so the water is like kind of everything.
But yeah, I think there's a few pockets, but it's
sort of all spread out. It just kind of depends
on what I have going on. Like right now I'm getting,
you know, huge shipment from southern Japan from mari Taka,
like thirty generations they go back to like twelve hundreds.
(08:09):
Oh wow, making they actually made samurais words for the
shogunate to defend from. When I think the Dutch and
the Portuguese were coming up to part Christianity in southern Japan,
the Japanese were like, absolutely not. And there's wars over
and this movie's about it. I mean it's it's pretty insane.
So they were violently protecting the Buddhist sect. Wow, and
(08:31):
this family and Maritaka's were contracted to make katanas for them,
so like they actually not everybody has that story. Certainly,
some some families started as agricultural, uh you know, forges
for blades and size and stuff for the field, you know,
so things like that. So and it's fun to see
how it transitions in certain parts of Japan based on
that history.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So if when we were talking earlier about I've never
been to Japan. So if I had to say tomorrow
I'm gonna go, where should I go?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
What's eat?
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah? I think what I find the most prevalent triangle
of tourism based on what I've seen and what you know,
people have told me they're going on these trips recently.
The last year I've seen I've had more people ask
me about, you know, recommendations of the last year than I've
ever experienced. And so it seems a lot of people
are doing the Tokyo Osaka Kyoto triangle. And there's been
(09:24):
a huge over tourism problem with Japan in the last
like nine months that they've jocked up the JR Train
pass price to kind of like subdue people.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
A little bit.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
They've taken away so any incentives that they were using
to get people there. Sure, because that triangle is just
so overpopulated. So everyone's going to the same train stations,
are going to the same temples, They're doing the same
stuff everywhere. And so like Mount Fuji is about to
lose its UNESCO World Heritage designation because of the government
hasn't figured out how to limit the amount of people
(09:56):
or permit people from like climbing it. Tours are like
in sandals and like not acclimated enough to like even hike,
you know, well in those conditions, and then you see
these like views, these like you know, lines of people
in the trash it produces. So I would say stay
away from some of those, like really like the places
(10:17):
you hear about the most. I know that's not what
everybody wants to hear, but I would say get out
of there, Get in Tokyo acclimate for a little bit,
a couple of days, and then get on the train
and get out of there and go to Kanazawa or
Fukuoka or Hiroshima or Oka Yama, all these places that
are so accessible just as much. But everybody knows Kyoto.
I mean, Kyoto is amazing. I've been several times. It's ancient,
(10:38):
it was it was spared during World War two on
purpose and it was you know, it's this amazing ancient
heritage there that's definitely worth seeing. But if I could,
you know, say anything, I would tell you to get
out of that normal triangle of what you hear and
check out some other amazing places like Hokkaido, even Saparo,
(10:59):
like you might have to take a little hopper an
hour flight domestic, but you know that island is so amazing.
It's the Northern island and just so much cool history,
and it's the seafood culture, like that's why I go
this year. The seafood is the best, right. The saki
production's full blown in the wintertime, so you know, and
it's hard to not want to go, and the cherry
(11:20):
blossom season like you were asking about that, and I
think that, you know, there's just so the Japanese book
everything a year out.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So if you're not prepared, you will lose out on
all the bookings.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
So you know, it's it's keeping that kind of stuff
in mind when you are like planning a trip out there,
and it's definitely worth it. I think the flights, like
I was just saying, are less than Europe, and people
just think of it as just like far off, unattainable
kind of place that I think, it's just so far away,
and I think the language kind of barrier deters people sometimes,
(11:53):
but it's something that is not an issue. And if
they make it so easy for you to travel there,
the nicest people on the planet.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
They are more hospitable and most Southerners I've.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Met, how as a traveler, would you need a if
you were completely greened to the country, would you need
a translator?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
I think with the technology we have on our phones alone,
I've seen just in the last couple of years for
me at least, like reading a menu, you can google
lens it and it translates the menu like that.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
They like to start to finish all in kanji or
kata khana. So you can literally just pop it on
your phone now and it will translate anything and then
you can kind of.
Speaker 4 (12:27):
Speak into it.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Most people speak some type of English. Certainly you want
there's like six Japanese phrases that you want to know
and they just want you to try, like would they
see you like I'd say adigato gozamasu, so like that.
That's definitely like, you know, thank.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
You very much.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You could just say them in English.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
I mean like, yeah, there's an important one in there
for me too. Massen is like very important. It's like
excuse me. But you can use it in a million
different variations. Oh goshi mas you know certainly like it
means like please and thank you, like you follow that
when you're asking for you know, a beer or something
(13:06):
like that, I would say, which means like nice to
meet you. Where am I at five? I think I
think so what's one more?
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Uh, let's see. Damn, now you got me on the
on the farm.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Where's the bathroom?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I means that's another word quotas I means please. So
dokodeska means like where where it is like dokodesca to
toy da means the toilets.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
How fluent are you?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I mean not not. I can say to get by.
I can have like small conversations.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
I can understand it more than I just need somebody
to speak to you here. You know, it's like anything
you're not using it, you're not gonna it's not gonna
register the way you want it to. And it's like
I watch a lot of anime, not like a you know,
intensely well.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
You know, give me a break.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
That's a really cool anime show I highly suggest you
watch called Agritsuko and it's like made for adults, and
it's like watching an episode of the Office, but in anime,
and they're all characters are like animals and it's the
funniest show.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
It's on Netflix, and it's hilarious. But it's how I
learned Japanese. It's really cool.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But yeah, I think the most like when i've talked
to like foreigners.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Or guysin. Guysin just means.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Foreigner, so you hear that a lot when you're there,
like you're the guysin.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
But guy Jan's learn.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
You know, certainly by anime, I think in in manga
and all that kind of stuff, like more so than
you would expect, right, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
So when you get to Japan, what is the first
thing that you crave?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
You say, I have to sushi. I mean, I can't
get enough. But also you know, there's like always things
on the list. You know, some things I still like
haven't quite hit up, like or I don't hit up
as much, like for some reason, Udan is not one
I like seek out. I love and when I have it,
but it's like one of those things like when it
comes across when I come across it, I'll find it.
(15:21):
But you know, certainly there's a place in Tokyo Fungi
and it's got this sukyman ramen and sukanen is the
dipping noodle ramen.
Speaker 4 (15:29):
Which is my favorite.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
That's what I'm looking for, you don't I don't really
just go after like regular roles of ramen anymore. I'm
looking for suit Caman because it's so hard to find
here and it's just like thick, chewy noodles and they
they often come kind of cold or riom tempina bowl
and then the dipping sauce is like a super concentrated
you know, kind of like dashi bass with like bonito
(15:51):
and like all kinds of stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
So that's what I'm looking for every time.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
And this is one place in Shinjuku, Shibuya kind of
area that I always seek out. But sushi one hundred percent,
even if it's like go around sushi.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Or it's just better every time you have it.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
I found myself like the last winter, I was in
Tokyo my last night alone, and I was really trying
to get into like a like a nice one macassee
and I just hadn't planned ahead enough and I had
the hotel call and like no one was taking like
uh like a solo guys in diner at the last minute.
So I ended up doing sushi go around in the
Tokyo train station.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It was amazing, oh wow, and it was.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Like forty bucks and it was like I had probably
twenty pieces.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So let me ask you, when you are there any
dishes that you thought that you ordered something and then
something else came and.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
You're like, oof, yeah, that happened at a ramen. It
was like one of the first times ever went Apan.
It was like at a tiny little ramen shop in
this little maze of you know, alleyways, and there's like
the the little machine where you put through corn in
and you repress, like what ramen you think you're going
to get? And I like got some seafood ramen that
I was not prepared for and it was like so
(17:06):
thick and heavy. I like couldn't finish it. And I
felt so bad because I was like, I'm just gonna
eat It's fine, because you want to say face like
more than right. And when they you don't finish something,
they're like, oh my god, you didn't like it, and
then they take it on themselves. It's like no, no, no, no,
Like I totally screwed this up. But I'm like too
full now to get the ramen won right. But there's
(17:30):
been times of that. That's happened a couple of times.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Okay, so let's we're still talking about travel. If you
is there anywhere top three places that's on your bucket
list anywhere in the.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
World, Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Horatious up there.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And then I want to do the Dolomites in Italy
Swiss Italian. I want to do that at some point.
And then three Argentina, Patagonia, done to uh, South America.
Yet of all of all the travel of talking.
Speaker 4 (18:09):
The world is so big, and I realize it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
I feel like I keep on hitting the same region
sometimes and it's you know, I've never done Columbia, Ecuador, right,
jurists or you know, Vancouver it' there's just so many things,
just like New York, Toronto, London.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
We get kind of wrapped up in the cycle of
that stutute. I feel you It's like same with Japan.
I keep going back, but there's every time I go
is a different place I'm going, so I feel like
I'm experiencing it again for the first time. But there's
like a comfort level in that because there's a million
other places that like to keep going. But I like,
you know, you can find yourself kind of in that rut.
Sometimes where's your top three.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Ten tens in a year?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Okay, Ecuador, Colombia and Montreal?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Nice?
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I do want to go to Montreal, Montreal, hig I'm
a list, Yeah, we're just talking about that.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
It just seems like a food city that I.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Need to go to.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Yeah, and our buddy, you know, Scott Hawker, our good friend,
he's down in Colombia, and now I'm going to pay
him a visit while he's there.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
For surely, absolutely, it's a must about.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Don't worry about me. Nobody listens to this.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
I was going to say Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
That's funny. I would say Paris, Paris and Paris, okay.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Whatever, say Aaron Small each time, probably, but.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That means it changes.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
I thought.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I thought, well Rome is on there too. Anyway, that
doesn't none of that growing up.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
You grew up in napoleon Ville, Pankerville, Assumption Parish. I
gotta say both because both sides of my family get
pissed off.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Well, we don't want that to happen. How many folks
in your hometown have such a massive knowledge and appreciation
of and how did that happen? Did anything happen growing up?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
I think it was the Ninja Turtles some when we've
done Honestly, I can't. People ask me that all the time,
and I've been always trying to like rant back and yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
I think it was the late eighties.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
And like I got really into ninja turtles growing up,
as like you know, a lot of us did at
that time, but it kind of like put like the
continent of Asia in your mind as a child, and
I think, like the ninja stuff, and like, I don't know,
I just got like also very like big history nerds,
(20:37):
so like I started kind of like getting into like
Asian history. And then Japan always just kind of like
stuck for some reason. And for a long time I
traveled Southeast Age. I didn't go to h to Japan.
It was not really on my high my list, like
it was. I just loved Asian culture in general, so
like the whole continent and then Southeast Asia particularly got me.
I had been several times to Thailand and Laos and
(21:00):
in Vietnam and Singapore and Malaysia, had not had kind
of used a jumping you know part of me like
kind of jumped off from Singapore from a long layover
to Tokyo and that was like my first experience there.
So for me, I think there's not a lot of
(21:20):
people from where who are.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
Who are really into this kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Maybe there are if you're reaching out assumption parish, let
us know.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
But yeah, I mean it's such.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
A historically Cajun settlement. They used to call it the
Upper Lufuche Valley because it was, you know, higher ground
coming out of the Mississippian if you're like just south
of Donisonville, which was the first capital of the state.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
So it was, you know, pretty relevant to the.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Agricultural productions and you know, things like that, certainly. But
I think we've been down there since the seventeen hundreds,
which is wild.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
So I think, you know, that's kind of special.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Not you know, it's not a lot of people can
say that about America in general, right, So that's I
think pretty special stuff, you know. And we were thrown
out of Nova Scotia for being Catholic and made our
way down through the through the colonies, so uh, you know,
it's it's uh, it's a really special place. I don't
think that there's a ton of folks from that area
(22:19):
that are quite as into Japanese cultures.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
I might be.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So, how so.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You grew up in Cadden Country, there's anybody you know,
we we know that Louisiana is just filled with home cooks.
Was there anybody in your family that you grew up
with that made you want to be, like, I want
to be a chef because of this person.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
I mean my grandmother was always and I know people
always say that, but my mamm Marilyn was one of
the you know, just absolute greatest cooks. My mama Ruby,
my on my dad's side, was not a great cook,
but she always you know, had you know, everything revold
around the table, so she's you know, always cook but
you know, i'd definitely say she was. She was definitely
(23:01):
My mamm Marilyn on my mom's side was the one
who I was always talking at her apron and just
like I used to chop up celery and throw it
in the trash, just to chop something up, and she
gets so mad at me. And then I would like
take her raisin brand and I'd pick out all the
raisins and then like.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
Throw them, throw them away.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
And she was just like very like hyper oct even
as a child.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Raisins away. It's raisin was like these.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Are gross, also raisin brand. So like but yeah, she
you know, she would always say, if you want to learn,
you better watch me. And it was like, you know,
hard pressed to get her to write anything. Down, you know,
and there's certain things I wish I'd have paid more
attention to. Now haven't lost her, you know, but there's
(23:48):
certain things that like, you know, her rice dressing is
something that I've been trying to perfect my whole life,
and like for the first time, like a couple of
years ago, my family finally like gave me the thumbs up.
Like I remember one time I did the you know,
you always try to like mess with something, especially as
a chef, and you're like, oh, I could have done it,
this makes more sense, and it's like, no, there's a
reason why she did it that way.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
And so what's what's her secrets?
Speaker 3 (24:12):
I think, Like for her rice wrestling, like she always
always thought it made more sense to like, you know,
after you you know, cooked all the gizzards and the
livers down everything and all the ground meatia and then
you cooked your rice in that with broth.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
It makes the most sense to me.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So I tried that and everybody was like, what is this,
Like this is not I.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Would have done it, yes, right, I mean an instinct
tells you to do that.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
She would make her rice completely separately, cool it and
then mix all that into it and let it soak,
which is like that was it.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
That was the game changer. That's what I like.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
And the one time I put a bay leaf in there.
She never put a bay leaf in there, and my
Mom's like, with something else in here, this is something's right,
that's not right, And I was like.
Speaker 4 (24:51):
What is it? She was like, did you put a
bay leaf on? It really came out up and the
rice like really, But yeah, she was.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
She was the one, and she always her uncle, her
my uncle Robert, her brother, had a garden, a huge,
huge garden. He ran a farm, but had this beautiful
like kind of family garden that he always was just
like bringing over okra and like she was stewing down
batches of like you know, okra and tomatoes and then
freezing and she had deep freezer, you know, on her porch,
(25:27):
but she would freeze them in courts. You know.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It's just like stewed okra andans.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Like I remember having that just over like buttered rice
being like the most amazing thing. And she'd do the
same with like squash, like patty pan squash.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
I remember her.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
Whole kitchen just being full of it and she'd cook
it down in batches because she didn't have pots big enough.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
But just like that's the kind of stuff like resonates what.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Made you decide to go to culinary school.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
I mean I had always been cooking, like you know,
I there was never a point where I don't remember
it being an act of like pursuit. I'd come home
from school. Even in kindergarten, I remember watching like Great
Chefs of the World. It was like a double header
who was like stay by the Bell and then a
double header of of Great Chefs and then Great Chefs
of the World, and then it was like, you know,
(26:10):
Food Network came on the scene, and I remember, like, honestly,
Emeralds shows were like some of the most important for
me growing up. I remember I have like notepads still,
like of notes down from those shows and it was like,
you know, how to boil water I think was like
one of the first shows I've seen and you know,
and that that endto stuff and uh, just the Food
(26:31):
netwhere my mom used to be like, you can't watch
like she punished me, you can't watch the Food Network,
Sorry about you, But it was that kind of stuff
where they get like, you know, aggravated with me because
it's not I'm not watching MTV. I'm watching show and
that's not cool.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
I love the Great Chefs of the World. That was
like my weekend thing. It was me watching it and
my everybody's playing or doing something else.
Speaker 4 (26:56):
Oh yeah, and here I am. Just yeah. I mean,
we're watching a show.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
And I was at my aunt's house mostly after school,
and I'd wreck her kitchen after it because I'd see
what she had and then I'd try to replicate what
I had seen. So I remember one time I had
a she had a can of condensed milk, and I'd
flooded like a plate with it and then use her
She's syruh to dot the edges and then a toothpick
to like beauful swirl and blend it, and it like
blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
And it was one of the first like first things.
And she's like, why'd you waste all this? Like look
at this beautiful plates?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yeah, stuff like that, and like even Julia Challenge with
Graham Curry, like those shows were always part of it too.
But I think that's how I knew to go to
culinary school was you know, I was always surrounded by it.
You know, it was like boucheries and there's always something
food related to like gather around just as we do.
I mean, so for me, it was like very incarnate,
you know. I knew, like all through high school I
(27:55):
wanted to go to culinary school. I didn't have a doubt.
And so I think that's very lucky.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
What was your first kitchen job.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
Oh, I was at.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
My aunt's restaurant, Cafe Evangeline in Denver, Colorado. I used
to go spend like summers with her for a couple
of weeks and she had a little Cajun restaurant she
had opened called Cafe Evangeline. It was really sweet, very
you know, just there was really no Cajun food in Denver.
So I would go and help her. I would make
my mama's banana pie. So she had say, Mama, Marilyn
(28:24):
made this amazing banana pie. It's like just straight up
she used overrighte bananas, butter and cinnamon sugar and she
would just layer it in a regular pie a crust
and just bake it straight up and no one like
there's no cream, there's no nothing, right straight up banana pie.
And it was it's still like make it to this day,
like when there's like a little occasion, which just like
(28:45):
bluebell of vanilla Bean, it's just so good. So I
would make her banana pies and that was my first
kitchen job ever.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
And it was like thirteen, maybe twelve was thirteen, Yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Then we fast tracked that he went to French laundry,
you know, because what year was that, That's.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
Two thousand and six. I graduated.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
So I started culinary school in two at Nicols State,
and then.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
I got my four year bachelor which I think is
so like it's.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
One of the most insanely amazing programs in the country.
It's like the only state university I'm aware of you
can get a four year bachelors degree in culinary arts.
So a fast track that played a little soccer in
college too, and blew my acl out, says like, all right,
I got.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
A no scholarship and then I got the culinary scholarships.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
But but yeah, graduated in a six and then moved
directly to California after that because I just you know,
that's when the that's when the book came out, you know,
and so for us, like that was so prime time.
And during that time, I was working at a restaurant
August which was you know, very formidable years, especially in
this city.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
This was like things were popping.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Right, So like that exposure, the cookbook came out and
then I like wrote some letters and just packed it
up and moved to Yonville.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
Like right at like May of six.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Were you like culture shock or was it like this
is familiar to me?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
It was familiar, but it was also like I had
never seen a ja I'd not not not seen a
Japanese knife, but I had never been exposed to like
people using such a prolific, you know, nature of them,
like in a kitchen and being like, oh god, that's
a game changer.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
I didn't know about that.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Or spoons spoons, like we're going to the thrift store
to find spoons.
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Like that was all the biggest excitements for me right
right right in the beginning. But yeah, it was a
level of certainly professionalism.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
I had not quite experienced it, which is a hell
of a place, yet had a way to start.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
So I think that I.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Think that that was you know, the most impressionable part
for me was that it was so early on in
that stage, so it kind of continued because I didn't
really know any better. But also like I didn't. That
was a that was an intense time, you know, for
especially women in the kitchen. Like I was always the
only woman, and everybody just assumes you're in pastry because
you're in the kitchen.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
You know, it's just like you're fighting this like stereot
type of it. You know, it's just aggravating.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
They heard about it, made it all the way to Philadelifornia.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Thomas Keller probably ate a piece and you didn't even know.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
I didn't even know.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
I do remember when we had our we had our
like friends giving that year, like our Thanksgiving for everybody.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
It's like all staff.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
I made cornbread dressing and people were like it was
with like Jiffy cornbread. It was like I had them
like like send boxes a Jiffy corn bread up to
me because I was like, I'm not making this with
I'm not trying to make corn bread scratch for this, and.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
People were like floored, and like still people ask me
for the rest. I like the cornbread dressing really made
its way. Yeah it hit something.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
It did, yeah for sure, but yeah, I think, uh,
you know, I still have so many friends and so
many like professional you know, liaisons from the experience that
only you know, grew from there in it. You know,
even still like twenty years later.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
It's it's impressive. I mean I had I still have
that book and I give it to a lot of
my young cooks that are still trying to learn, and
it's still relevant. I still look at every single picture
and it's twenty five years old and it looks like
it could be exactly in the menu.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Today, and it's like low key, you just wanted to
kind of go back to that sometimes and like you know,
you look at these pages and these recipes you've looked
at a million times, and they still like old. It
never gets old, Like I guess, such an impressive like thing.
It like kind of lives in a time capsule, you know,
in your mind, which is you know. So it was
such an important book for so many of us, Like honestly.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
It made me realize like what path.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
I wanted to take within what we're doing, Like I
wanted to go into find dining like and then like
you think about now, like I think about what I
wanted then in a restaurant versus like what I have
now totally different, Like I wanted to have like my
own like you know, uh, destination farm to table tasting
menu restaurant where like you know, you're in the middle,
(33:12):
like like like the French Laundry or or the Yes
my next stop, Well that wasn't my next stop but
blue Hill Stone Barnes. I did want like a scale
down version of that. The Rockefellers wouldn't give me a loan.
But yeah, So after after the Laundry, I moved to
uh Frasca in Boulder, which was some French Laundry alumni,
(33:36):
so Bobby Stucky in lachlandby Bobby's just the man, and
like you know, that restaurant was based around one particular
wine region and so the food kind of complimented at
that and I didn't I'd not been exposed to a
restaurant that revolved itself more about the wine that it
did the food, and the food was complimentary to the
wine and not quite the other way around.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
And the service was what I made wanted. What this
service is what made me want to work.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
At Frosco more than anything, because I had been there.
You know, I had family in Colorado, I travel there
a lot, So I had dinner there one night by myself,
like in my mid twenties. I think it was, and
they took such great care of me, and like you know,
always get treated like that when you're like a solo
or like mid twenties diner, they don't expect much of you.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
I think.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
They they just impressed me so much with that level
of service that Bobby's certainly imparted on the culture there.
But he, you know, was such a huge part of
you know, my career, I think as well, not even
being a chef, but I think.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
With Bobby, he just he gets people, oh yeah, and
he knows how to make people feel comfortable, and he
just he just has an energy and an aura that
when he walks into a room, it's like.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
It's a commanded presence.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And I was like, and you don't it's so intangible,
you know, I absolutely agree with that. One time he
I sliced my side of my finger open on the
burkele like meat slicer.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
It was like six stitches worth. But he brought me
to urgent carrety like took care of me and made sure.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
It was like it was like that kind of guy,
like drove me to the hospital and he's like, we
gotta be back for service.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Why he didn't run any story I I'm still waiting wants.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Service and started off, well, so here you have this
uh budding culinary career, that is, you're working at really
really great places. What brought you back home or to Louisiana.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
I think there's just like a siren song here that
I cannot put my finger on. I never thought i'd
come back, honestly, Like I was like, I'm gonna die
in Californa or yeah, you know, or wherever I was.
Speaker 4 (36:02):
I just like thought this was not it for me.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
And then I like realized how much you know, culture
we have or especially like how you know, my family's
got this like presence here.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
They've been here for so long and.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
I I can't put my finger I wish we could
bottle it and sell it, but it's like one of
those things. And I didn't think it'd be forever because
I did leave again, but like I I just wanted to.
I think I had an opportunity to come back to
Rustaurant August and that was another thing, and I became
execs suve there, So that was an opportunity for me
that I was thinking. So I went back at that
(36:37):
time and was there for several years with Mikelotta, and
you know, we had a I think those were some
of the best times like in that restaurant's like tenure,
and for sure, like many people still talk about meals
they had, you know, when we were there, and I
think it was such a really special time. So I
think that for me was like a big opportunity for
me to be a leader. But also like I didn't
know how to manage people. So I came guns blazing
(36:59):
from like California, New York, and I had only known
what was shown to.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
Me or yelled at me or whatever.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
So I never really learned how to be a great
manager until I was working with Mike. He really instilled that,
I think, and calmed me down a lot and was like, hey, listen,
you can't like talk to people like this, right, you
can't like this.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
You got to make people want to work for.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
You, and that's not going to happen if you you know,
don't you know if you speak this way or you
say the way you say things and things like that.
So it's definitely like changed my managerial style. I think
that was a huge part of my career, was that
move for that and and then I you know, several
years later, I got an opportunity to go to Benu
(37:40):
back to San Francisco to be a sous chef for Corley,
who was the shofuse at the French manter Well was
there and and then we got three much un stars
and I burned out my.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Candle burned out. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
I mean that was a really cool thing to be
a part of and like the chase for that, And
there were more women in that kitchen during that time
than I've ever worked with my life, and it was
like a common and ease to it that was I
had never really experienced. I'd never worked with more women
in a hot kitchen than I had during that during
that time, and I think.
Speaker 4 (38:15):
It was just such a special thing.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
So yeah, and then I kind of got you know,
that was like my early thirties. I got super burned
out by that point because I'd just been plugging away
in the moving and like you know, just wanting to
like absorb all of it, and my body like I
just wasn't in great shape, like mentally physically, so I
was like, what can I do that's still relevant but
(38:39):
still keep my thumb on the pulse and still like
take care of myself and I think that is where
Catillia kind of was born out of. And I'd seen,
you know, in California, these cute little NiFe shops and
I'd lived across the street from down Color and Calen
Garrett's and huge shout.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Out because he was such a.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Huge inspiration for me, because he was a cook who
left and was like, hey, I want to try something different,
And I was like, man, this is like brilliant, Like
why doesn't New Orleans have anything like this? I certainly
like I wanted to do something a little bit different here,
but still in part the same, like access to great
tools for cooks who deserved it, you know, And I'd
(39:20):
never had more, i think exposure to those kind of
tools than I had when I was living in California.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
I think that's what like sparked it for me. And
then same with New York.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You had corn in New York, you had, you know,
these cool places, and you wanted something tangible you can
go and hold a tool and feel it and like,
you know, and then just find other cool stuff like
I want to had. I wanted to have the best
of everything, like the one peeler we always use, like
the one you know, like all these like one thing
the one offs and right, because I know the one
and you know you know the one. So it's like
(39:50):
you wanted to make that available in a one stop
shop kind of thing.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
And that's kind of think how that became relevant for
all of us.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
Do you have a favorite Japanese it's like that you
have it, like this is my default?
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah, I think certainly to Keda show sweet to Keta.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
He's a knife maker that we're waiting on his order
to show up for the next week. We haven't gotten
over a year. Yeah, he's I got a direct line
line to Okayama.
Speaker 4 (40:22):
Now he's He's one of my favorites. Definitely.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
His knife is my default. He's kind of one of
the more famous. I think that's the knife that actually
like got me really into thinking more diligently about my
tools and like how different these knives can be made,
and like the relevancy to each profile and the task
at hand, like all these things matter, and Japanese are
(40:46):
very task centric and the profiles, so like he was
the first like knife maker that made me think about
that kind of stuff that deeply. But like his knives
are incredible. They're lightweight, so it's like less confounding their
razor sharp every time time.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
They're just harder to come by.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Now because he's he had he had some battles with
cancer the last couple of years, auring COVID, and he's
kind of just coming out of that, and his production
slowed down a lot. I mean, there's your handmaids, so
like they take time. You know, We've had people beating
down the doors asking when their Ticketa's showing up, and well,
I mean in the next like week or two. But honestly,
we used to get I used to be able to
email him and say, hey, what do you have available,
(41:23):
and he would just send what he had. And now
it's like I'm getting it once a year, right, you know,
so it is much fewer and far between.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
So listeners next week where to know.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
The Mori Takas have just landed and the Ta catos
are landing behind it. But these are really sought after
and they're harder. They're once a year batch that we get.
And that's the kind of thing I think is so
cool and it's limiting, and you know, and you know
American society, everybody wants everything right now or if you're
out of it. They want you to call Japan right
and say can I get this overnighted? Right?
Speaker 4 (41:54):
It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
In the restaurant, you will We're used to serving the
same dishes until the men you change it, and every
now and then you look the dish and you say, man,
I haven't had that in a while. I want to
eat that retail, I think the opposite is you get
in something so cool, how can you sell it?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Yeah, I mean that's the hardest part. You want to
keep it. I mean that does happen, so it's like
you can't really.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
I mean, if I kept everything I wanted, I wouldn't
have a Yeah, And I certainly get like I get
sampled a lot of knives. I get, you know, like
when I'm coming back from a Japan trip, I'm usually
it's a lot of things people have given me. It's
not a lot of knives that have bought there based
on because I used to like fill up a.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Duffel bag and back in the early days, like you know.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Show you a drink.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
Secure actually never encountered anything I have, Like you know,
I don't know if it's global interru whatever it is,
but they just sealed me, right, through each time, and
I've had like juffle bags, knives and no issue.
Speaker 4 (43:01):
But not to say that it's going to happen for everybody,
but you know, don't.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
Quote me on that, but uh yeah, I think my
I I generally like to favor certain profiles now, but
you know, I certainly don't need any more nights I
have my collection, but it's it's hard sometimes you there's
so many you want to just take home, and especially
(43:25):
this Bachelors Cicada, you know, I've been like, well, I
don't know how many we're more we're gonna get from him.
So now I'm like thinking about that and trying to
you know, what are the pieces I don't have that
I like must have where I can do without kind
of thing. But it's that's that's the hardest part, is
not want to take them all home.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Another fun thing we have coming up tonight, actually.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
Yes tonight, Uh it's Primal night at Bach and all
we're doing, you know, like every season, Uh, we always
get aske Joaquin is just amazing and always puts on
such a cool like group of chefs to do a
weekly sort of a little pop up, so it's always
like kind of fire base so we're gonna be doing
a little sesami misa chicken. Ochazukeh Isque is like one
(44:08):
of my favorite, like winter Japanese dishes where it's just
like rice. So we're gonna make a mushroom rice and
then you pour like a hot dashy broth over it.
Sometimes it's with tea. I've seen it done with tea.
They poured like hot tea over the rice. And then
sometimes it's like sashimi's in it. We're just doing our
little grilled chicken version of that. But it's gonna be delicious.
You know, cold weather certainly, but we definitely love doing
(44:31):
Primal night and it's all in benefit to charity, so
you know, come on out, sit outside, you know, bundle up,
grab some wine. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Well, plus blacking out did one of the coolest things
that I had ever seen a couple of years ago.
They hard piped all the gas to their patio heaters.
You don't have to worry about that. It's great, yeah heat,
you know, stealing somebody's heater or not. It ends up
being very nice.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Yeah, And I think winter is one of my favorite
times to do that there. I do like the fall,
but you know, the winter is like one of my favorites.
It's just like I love being bundled up out there
and you know, having something kind of comforting like hot brothy,
something a little bit different too, something we don't really
see all the time, and something I run as a
special at Sukibon a lot too, So you know, just
(45:15):
to be able to have that out there and get
people out and you know, winter times, everybody wants to,
you know, kind of stay hold up inside. So I
mean it's because an opportunity to get out there and
you know, grab some grab a glass of wine and
come see us a little life, right, fantastic, Well, Jackie,
thank you very much for spending time with us.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
We appreciate it. Best of luck with everything.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
We'll see you tonight at Backing.
Speaker 4 (45:38):
On Absolute Pleasure. Guys.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Of course we love so for Nina Compton, me Larry Miller.
Between bites brought to you by Caesar Sports Book. We'll
see you next time, Big, big.
Speaker 4 (45:58):
Great Drake, wait through the reed or very you know,
play for the Red or body flay for the Red.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Knock up everybody like we was going wrong?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
You say outwar
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