Mar-Apr2016_Final-FlipBook

the Seafood issue

to be a chef and how you can make a difference in the world through your craft. Those lessons are really priceless. As remarkable as my story with Paul is, it’s only one of thousands. He helped so many people grow and find themselves. If you were willing to work and do what it takes, you got a shot. BRAD: Many people say they could never work with their spouse, but you and Marna, who’s clearly the boss, have been able to do just that and sustain a beautiful marriage for over 30 years. FRANK: Again, I owe it to Paul and K. Marna’s sister Sandy was a close friend of K’s. Sandy and their other sister, Rhonda, were waitresses at K-Paul’s, and I was the first night chef, so that’s how we all met. Marna came down to visit one Christmas, Sandy introduced us, and we fell in love immediately.When we opened Brigtsen’s — Paul and K lent us the money — they allowed Sandy and Rhonda to come with us to our new place, and Marna, who had absolutely no restaurant experience until the day we opened, ran the door, as she does to this day. So I’ve always had this incredible group of women with me to shoulder much of the responsibility of running Brigtsen’s. BRAD: Tell me about the setup in your kitchen. You don’t follow a traditional brigade of cuisine with stations for prep, salad, sauces ... that’s very different than, say, the formal kitchen of Commander’s Palace, where you started.

Frank Talk from Chef Frank Brigtsen by Brad Gottsegen + photos by Erika Goldring

FRANK: This works for me. One thing I learned from Paul, kind of by osmosis, is there’s different ways to lead people. One is by discipline and order, and the other is by example. You do your craft the way it’s supposed to be done every day, and people follow you. It can take a while for new staff to adapt to our less rigid format since we don’t have set stations and don’t use trays — it’s all about getting good food on the table. BRAD: You have a unique approach to the roux for your gumbo, which is rabbit and andouille. FRANK: The way we make roux, and gumbo, is a little different. All the ingredients in my gumbo are what you would expect, but it is the sequence of steps that are unique. For our filé gumbo with rabbit and andouille sausage, we make the roux over very high heat so that it goes quickly, then set the roux aside. It is the last thing that goes into the gumbo pot.There are two advantages to this: we can brown the vegetables on their own instead of steaming them in the roux, and by the time we add the roux, some of the excess

C hef Frank Brigtsen is a culinary legend, James Beard Award- winner and true ambassador of Creole cooking. I’ve known Frank for many years and seized on the opportunity to sit down and talk for a while. We discussed everything from food to family to fish. BRAD: You worked with Chef Paul Prudhomme at your first cooking job, at Commander’s Palace, then K-Paul’s. How did Chef Paul influence your style, from both cooking and management perspectives? FRANK: I owe everything to Paul and K, his wife. Paul gave me a chance. He hired me, with limited food service experience, at Commander’s Palace, which became my culinary school, like it

was for so many other people. I guess he saw in me a willingness to work and learn. He asked me to come with him to K-Paul’s when they opened it. He really taught me how to cook. The older I get, however, the more I realize he also taught me so much more: about life, about being a man, what it means

oil has risen to the top and we can discard it before adding the roux to the gumbo. BRAD: The gumbo is just one of three rabbit dishes on your menu. How did you get started with rabbit? FRANK: That goes back to

“Very few of the little neighborhood seafood shops still exist, and Rouses is really good at filling that void. You go to Rouses, because you know it’s fresh and you know it’s local. ” —Chef Frank Brigtsen

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY MARCH | APRIL 2016

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