Ye Olde College Innterview

A statue of Saint stands guard over the garden which supplies Ye Olde College Inn. Crop yields are also helped by Archbishop Gregory Aymond's weekly meals. Two months ago Brad McGehee took over as Executive Chef of the historic kitchen. A native of the Bay Area (Francisco, not Louis), he originally came to New Orleans just for a quick internship. Several years later, he finds himself with a kitchen and a garden all his own. Let's put 20 ish questions on the clock.

I was always surrounded by good food through my family. I come from a family who really enjoys good wine and good food. Plus, I had a southern grandmother who always cooked classic southern food.

I've been in the restaurant industry since I was 14 years old, but before culinary school always in the front of the house. Graduated from the Culinary Academy of San Francisco in 2003 and came to New Orleans originally only for a 6 month internship at Commander's Palace under Tory McPhail. Been here ever since. Also, trained under Tom Wolfe at Wolfe's on the Lake, Peristyle, and Wolfe's in the Warehouse. Then went to work at the Ritz-Carlton under Matt Murphy.

It is fun to balance my style of food with the food that traditionally has been served at Ye Olde College Inn. I am a big advocate of using farm fresh food. The farm across the street certainly sparked my interest when they pitched the job to me. I am not going to take the veal chop off the menu, but I may serve it with some radishes or squash from across the street.

So far been pretty well-received by the regulars and they tell me to "keep it up." Really the specials are where I am able to show my creativity. And most importantly I am starting to get a pulse on what people want changed.

Getting new tools in the kitchen. Adding simple things like a blender or chinois in order to create better sauces. Or how to butterfly the shrimp in a certain way so they cook better. I am a big believer that it is doing the little things correctly which make a great meal.

Did a dish last night called Fig St. Farm Flatbread. Basic flatbread that I top with whatever is fresh from my walk through the garden that morning. For instance, recently has been flatbread topped with basil pesto, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and some spicy shrimp. Sold 120 in three days as an app.

Nothing tackier than dollies and clouding on buffets. But hotels are doing it again. Wish they'd stop. It is really cheesy.

Anything fresh, especially vegetables. I find myself centering a dish on the vegetable rather than the protein now.

My slotted spoon. I use it for everything. It is an oversized slotted spoon that I always have at my station. I use it to finish plates at the pass, be it adding crabmeat or some other garnish.

I really like cooking for people who challenge me. We have a regular guy who is a real foodie. He came in the other night with some folks from Georgia. I went out and chatted with them and mentioned I had some great peaches from Chilton County, Alabama and that I heard they were the best peaches. So the people walk by to the guy's house and bring back Georgia peaches. So I cooked two dishes, one with Chilton peaches, one with Georgia peaches. Georgia won.

All of the above. If the customer wants to drink wine, we can do a refined dish. If they want beer, we can cook to that. It is whatever the occasion calls for.

Taqueria D.F. on Claiborne. I really like getting the green plate special from the Farmer's Market, and Ziggy's pastries from Maple St. Patisserie. I enjoy eating simple, casual food.

New Orleans can be frustrating for a young chef because it is such a small town. Tough coming in as an outsider. Everyone always asks me where I went to school, but they really want to know is where I went to high school. (Editor's note: McGehee married a local girl. She went to Dominican)

Joy of Cooking, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The French Laundry Cookbook, On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee.

As a young kid, we used to always go out to eat for holidays. I remember distinctly one time going to a brunch at a big hotel in San Francisco and being struck by food as entertainment. There was a guy flipping omelets, all the carved fruits, people everywhere. That was my first wow moment with food.

Gumbo, then the flatbread pizza, then finish up the meal with the Crawfish Delacroix which is baked redfish topped with crawfish etoufee and served with rice.

I am very anal when it comes to cleanliness in the kitchen. Comes from working under chefs who drilled that into me. Kitchen has to be clean.

Spend time with my family. The Blanchers, who own this place, are big family people and understand that people need time off. I had off for Father's Day off last Sunday, my first as a dad. That was the first holiday I've had off in 6 years.

Shrimp tacos. Grill shrimp, place in corn tortilla with some cilantro, diced red onion and chipotle mixed with sour cream. Squirt of lime. That's it.

The Post-Katrina Top 20: #20 - #16

No one will argue that the game was forever changed on August 29, 2005. As we approach the five year anniversary of that fateful day, no small number of scribes will dare to put paper to pen and describe post-Katrina existence. Over the next month you will read hundreds (if not thousands) of articles on the recovery of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Most will be well-written pieces focusing on how far we have come, how much further we have to go, what is better, what is worse, and what ain't dere no more.

We could wax on poetically about the casualties of the storm, but we have never been known to cry in our beers. An equally emotional tale could be written about the restaurateurs who rebuilt and persisted through the recovery, but that's a whole other task to which we will leave for the professionals. Instead, we want to focus on the enormous growth of the New Orleans restaurant and beverage scene over the last 5 years. So each Monday over the next four weeks, we will be counting down our favorite additions and improvements to the New Orleans food and drink scene since Katrina. Better than before? You tell us.

#20: Cure - Our first brush with Cure posed some... ahem... challenges. It occurred about one month after the amber-hued apothecary opened. After waiting at the bar for fifteen minutes, Peter tried to order a vodka tonic and was told, "We don't serve that here." What he got instead was a sweet drink topped by a cute umbrella. But both Cure and our experiences there have changed for the better. The converted firehouse now dispenses one of the city's best cocktail experience. Neil Bodenheimer consistently pushes his staff, led by Kirk Estopinal, to develop new cocktails incorporating long forgotten elixirs. Plus, the bartenders at Cure have gotten over their original celebrity cache and now focus their energies on just getting you a drink. All this makes Cure one of the most delightful places in the city to grab a cocktail.

#19: Stanley - While the concept was born pre-Katrina, Chef Scott Boswell first opened his upscale diner only out of necessity when renovations to sister restaurant Stella! were derailed by the levee failures. After a year-long run in an adjacent space on Decatur, closing down for the reopening of Stella!, and moving to a prominent location on Jackson Square, Stanley is now one of the most popular breakfast spots in the French Quarter, where the Breaux Bridge Benedict has diners craving boudin first thing in the morning.

#18: Huevos and Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. - Disaster beget a second restaurant for Bart Bell and Jeff Baron as well, when the building which was originally supposed to house Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. collapsed during Hurricane Gustav. In serious need of cash flow, the duo began serving breakfast next door at Huevos while the new home of Crescent Pie was being constructed next door. Patrons still flock to Huevos for tamales and chorizo in the morning; but when the sun goes down, the shift focuses to the offbeat pizzas and flaky crusted handpies at the quirky restaurant on the corner.

#17: The Meteoric Rise of Tales of the Cocktail - Tales of the Cocktail began before Katrina, but perhaps no festival better showcases why people love coming to New Orleans. People travel to the Big Easy to have a good time, explore, and drink. Tales does all of this and more. Led by the charming Ann Tuennerman, her husband Paul, and a team of Angels, everyone from cocktail geeks to beach bums, industry vets to molecular mixologists can find a seminar, tasting or party to their liking. Just the sheer volume of people, brands, and PR gurus who show up to pitch the latest rum or new cordial make Tales an indispensable item on any cocktail aficionado's calendar. As one brand rep told us, "If your product isn't at Tales, you lose an entire year of revenue, recipes, and respect." Plus, any festival that can draw almost twenty thousand people to New Orleans in the middle of July deserves a hearty cheers from us.


#16 Food from South of the Border - Every cloud has a silver tequila lining. The Mexican and Central American food scene in New Orleans has never been greater, and it started with the humble taco truck. Originally these Mexican meals-on-wheels catered specifically to the growing number of laborers who flocked to the city for recovery work, but soon people of every creed and color could be seen standing in line for affordable lunches of barbacoa and carnitas. Several vendors have capitalized on their success by moving into permanent spaces, but others like Taqueria D.F. continue on as modern day chuck wagons. With newbies like Taceaux Loceaux catering to late night crowds around town, the taco truck looks to be a delicious fad which will be sticking around for the foreseeable future. The scene has further grown as places like Restaurante Telemar, Taqueria Guerrero, and Pupuseria La Macarena have set up shop all over town showing that the food of Central and South America is as varied and interesting as the countries themselves. We look forward to watching these cuisines establish a permanent foothold in the New Orleans scene.

Taqueria D.F.

If you're headed to the Super Bowl with a Spanish vocabulary solely consisting of "Bienvenido a Miami," you're in trouble. But instead of spending all of that money on Rosetta Stone, might we make a suggestion?

For lunch today, take an off-campus field trip down South Claiborne to Taqueria D.F., where a complimentary language lesson is always served with lunch. In this month's issue of OffBeat Magazine, we review this taco truck which serves some of the best lengua, barbacoa, and tripa this side of Mexico City. Yes, we understand that Cuban food is more prominent in the home of Super Bowl XLIV, but you need to start at the bottom and work your way up. Have you seen Scarface?

Just a 12 minute drive from the CBD, the D.F. dishes out tacos at a $1.50 per pop, cheap enough to allow you to sample the entire smorgasbord of delicious meats available. Now that's a working lunch that's both easy on the wallet and filling for your stomach. The $5 footlong crew at the office will be begging you to take them along next time.

As for how to say "Who Dat?" en Espanol, you're on your own for that one.

Taqueria D.F. - Birdie

State of the Eating: Mexican in New Orleans, Part I

Recently this blog solicited your comments. We wanted to know where you could get authentic Mexican in this city. You obliged, and we have eaten. So here now is a review of Mexican eateries around the 504. This list is by no means exhaustive, just a few spots I have been able to sample so far.

This taco outpost holds the richness of the earth in a converted truck. I love this place. There are few frills, no 21 year old wanna-be-celebutante wearing a big sombrero and sucking down sugary margaritas as she talks to some guy in an Ed Hardy shirt while updating her facebook status on her iPhone. There is no sign stating that McSuperiors put the Fun in queso FUNdido. You cant order fried ice cream. It is just tacos and tortas done perfectly, some Mexican sodas, and a view of one of New Orleans best streets. The only embellishment is two sauces. A green one and a red one. Try them both, srat star.

The tripe tacos are just amazing. I could try to describe them to you but sometimes only Shakespeare's words will suffice: "Tripe tacos you complete me!"

You can choose from steak, a succulent stewed beef, chicken, carnitas, grilled pork, and I am sure many more. The food's quality is not matched by its prices. A plate of 3 tacos will set you back about $5. Take that Taco Bell. The tortas are not bad either. Grilled fluffy bread are stuffed with your choice of meat, dressed, and slathered with some melted cheese. Its enough to make your roast beef po-boy jealous.

Less good was El Rinconcito and Fiesta Latina. The former is really a cantina which it seems is Mexican for bar food. The salsa was good and the pollo frito delivered a bird more closely aligned with confit than with fried food. The loud Central American Pop Tunes didn't make things much better and everyone drinks Bud Light, not that there is anything wrong with that. Fiesta Latina seemed to be the Sysco of the Mexican food scene. Boring food with bright yellow government cheese covering or stuffed in most dishes.

Now Taco San Miguel in Fat City, that place is solid. Delicious tongue tacos, a multi-hued salsa bar, and some very honest cooking. I also loved the chicharonnes with their snappy texture and creamy interior these pork skins were a welcome addition to any of the offerings.

Another place we have enjoyed so far is Le Guadelepeno on Broad near Criminal Court. The only hiccup was the cold chicken enchiladas. But then again it was 10:30 in the morning on a Sunday. I am sure the cooks were still thinking breakfast.

The tacos were well made. The tortillas at Le Guadelepeno were exceptionally tender, but still retained a solid structure. But the papusas were phenomenal. Little pockets of soft corn dough stuffed with pork and cheese, griddled and sent out with a fiery sauce and some pickled cabbage. We got them as our apps, I wish it would have been my main.

The search still continues, but so far the State of Mexican Food in New Orleans is strong. Where else do I need to go?