Chef John Folse Culinary Institute Archives

Dinner of the Century is Back at Chef John Folse Culinary Institute

For the first time in over two years, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University is inviting members of the community to be a part of their annual “Dinner of the Century” fundraiser, according to this news release from the school.

Director of the Culinary Institute, Chef John Kozar, commented on the return of the traditional fundraiser by saying, “this is the first Dinner of the Century since the pandemic began over two years ago. We are excited to be able to bring this unique culinary experience back to our community.” The theme for this year’s dinner is named “A Joyful Magnificence Celebrating Catherine de Medici.”

This year’s menu is inspired by the Queen of France from 1547-1559, Catherine de Medici, who has influenced much of the way we eat and even think about food today. Having been born in Italy, Catherine de Medici introduced many ingredients, recipes, and culinary culture that she had grown up with to the French, making the rest history. Chef John Kozar commented on the cuisine set to be served by saying, “this historic menu is a mix of modern and antique dishes that include some of Catherine de Medici’s favorite treats, as well as some iconic items from Pascal’s Manale, all of which is created by our student chefs and the Chef John Folse team.”

The last planned “Dinner of the Century” fundraiser event was to be held in April 2020, but it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; luckily, this 2022 event aims to pick up the torch and carry the tradition onward. In addition to the culinary celebration of various dishes, the evening will be used as an opportunity to induct the DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant into the Lafcadio Hearn Hall of honor, an honorary event that was originally slated for the since-canceled 2020 fundraising dinner.

The Lafcadio Hearn Award is one that is bestowed upon culinary professionals who have had a positive, long-term influence on the cuisine and greater culture of Louisiana and throughout the nation. The honor is named after Lafcadio Hearn, an influential figure who penned a series of books and articles introducing New Orleans to the world while helping to document Creole cuisine for future generations. Having passed away in 1904, Hearn’s legacy lives on in how the public interprets Creole cuisine today as well as in the inducting members into the Lafcadio Hearn Hall of Honor. The Defelice Family will join other influential chefs and restaurants in the Hall of honor. This includes Ella Brennan, Frank Brigtsen, Leah Chase, Drago Cvitanovich, Ruth Fertel, and T.J. Moran, among many others.

It’s appropriate that the DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant fame be inducted into the Hall of Honor, because not only has Pascal’s Manale Restaurant been an influential part of New Orleans cuisine, but since the very beginning, the restaurant has been a family affair. First opened by Frank Manale in 1913, the restaurant was taken over by Manale’s nephew Pascal Radosta in 1937, who took full ownership of the establishment and later added his name to create the infamous culinary institute that we now know today.

The restaurant eventually gained international attention after Pascal’s youngest brother, Jake, created one of the most iconic New Orleans dishes in the 1950s: barbecue shrimp. Later, Pascal’s youngest daughter, Virginia DeFelice, and her family purchased the restaurant in 1988. The family continued to operate the restaurant until November 2019.

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University’s “A Joyful Magnificence Celebrating Catherine De Medici” also honoring The DeFelice Family of Pascal’s Manale Restaurant will be held on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at Nicholl’s Cotillion Ballroom in the Bollinger Student Union. A cocktail reception will be held at six o’clock with dinner service starting at seven o’clock. Information to reserve seats and sponsorships can be found here, with all proceeds going toward the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

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Nicholls Culinary Grad Opens Restaurant in Former Cabaret Venue

A New Orleans venue that once hosted its fair share of local and traveling cabaret performances from 1999 to 2011 has now reopened as Le Chat Noir, a casual, upscale restaurant that showcases its unique take on New Orleans cuisine, according to this article from Nola.com. The debut of Le Chat Noir is indebted to its culinary vision set forth by Seth Temple, a Lake Charles native and Nicholls culinary grad. Temple earned a scholarship from Nicholls’s John Folse Culinary Institute to attend the elite Institut Paul Bocuse in France, and upon his return to New Orleans, he worked in local kitchens that included Kenton’s and Couvant before he traveled to London and cooked at the Michelin-starred restaurant Lyle’s.

Debuting in December 2021 at 715 St. Charles Avenue, Le Chat Noir opened its doors in a space that had previously been the Italian restaurant Marcello’s, which closed due to the pandemic. Although before the building housed Marcello’s, it was known over a 12-year span as the home of the cabaret venue Le Chat Noir. But now thanks to a commercial vision from James Reuter, the founder of Bearcat Café off Freret Street, the building has reopened under its old name and as a different genre.

The Nicholls culinary grad told The Gambit that it was at Lyle’s that his perspective of ingredients, how he liked to eat, and the relationship between the two began to completely shift. Gambit writer Beth D’Addono said of the cuisine, “Temple’s artful food commands the spotlight, the star of the show that went curtains up in early December. Temple is an alchemist as much as he is a chef, coaxing big flavors out of farm-fresh ingredients. What he does with hakurei turnips is brilliantly simple — a sauté of the small, crunchy vegetable, greens attached, in a miso-fueled umami sauce studded with candied kumquats and fronds of bronze fennel. Twirl the turnips like linguine, being sure to get the hybrid citrus in every bite, and the depth of clean flavor is worth a standing ovation.”

Temple’s menu at the restaurant is approximately 70% locally-sourced, and at least 50% of the total meals are either vegan or vegetarian thanks to his connections with local vendors such as West Feliciana Parish’s Mushroom Maggie’s Farm, Kenner’s JV Foods, and Belle Chase’s Matt Ranatza Farms and Saxon Becnel & Sons citrus.

James Reuter, the founder of Bearcat Café and Bearcat CBD, just around the corner on Carondelet Street., brings with him a particular style that is indicative of other Bearcat restaurants, specifically in that they often defy simplistic categorization and feature a menu that’s representative of both a health-conscious California cafe and a permissive chef-forward tavern. While Le Chat Noir already appears to be sharing some of those characteristics like its wide array of vegetarian, paleo, vegan, and gluten-free dishes, the restaurant also seems like a more ambitious undertaking, given the history of the location.

The recent history of the Le Chat Noir cabaret is ever-present in the restaurant as the kitchen is exactly where the old theatrical stage once stood, the dining room is set in the old theatre space, and the restaurant’s lounge and impressive oyster bar are located beside the window-lined front bar, which used to feature performers mixing and mingling after post-show.

As of the time of writing, the restaurant is open for dinner with plans to serve lunch and happy hour on the horizon. The cuisine is vibrant and delicious without reinventing traditional New Orleans dishes, and with it being set in the spotlight of an old-New Orleans performance venue, the restaurant is able to satisfy the show-stopping spectacle of classic Crescent City flavor, life, and culture with every bite.

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Nicholls Culinary Institute Unveils new Art Installation

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute recently installed and unveiled a $70,000 cuisine-inspired sculpture on Nicholls’s campus, according to a press release from the school.

The “Herb Garden” sculpture stands proudly along Louisiana Highway 1 near Bowie Road, both welcoming students and faculty to the Culinary Institute and catching the eye of any La 1 drivers. The sculpture itself depicts Louisiana spices and herbs that are unquestionably essential to any home-cooked meal. Depicted in the sculpture are the culinary staples dill, okra, chili, sassafras, and parsley.

Arizona artist, Dr. Stephen Fairfield was inspired to create the art installation after seeing the increased use of a small, humble herb garden near the school’s Ledet Culinary Building. Nicholls’ Culinary students often tend to the garden, selecting fresh herbs to use in their recipes. Needless to say, this natural and genuine fusion of education, culinary intuition, and nature was certainly enough for the Arizona-based artist to be inspired by.

For a better part of the last decade, Dr. Fairfield has been focusing on creating steel public art sculptures, similar to the piece installed for the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, as well as new media projects. When speaking to Nicholls’ press about how he hopes the piece would be perceived, Dr. Fairfield said, “I hope the public experiences a sense of awe, wonder and appreciative pleasure when seeing the beautiful colors, forms and lighting effects as color waves move over the various parts of the sculpture. This sculpture represents an homage to Louisiana cuisine and to those who care so much about it that they have created a process to perpetuate this culinary cultural expression.”

The “Herb Garden” sculpture was paid for by Louisiana’s “Percent for Art” program. Enacted in 1999, the program sets out to provide Louisiana citizens with an improved public environment by stipulating that whenever more than $2 million in state funds are used by a state agency for the construction or renovation of a state building, 1 percent of the state money should be expended for the acquisition, conservation, restoration, or installation of public art displays on the grounds of that building.

The “Percent for Art” program has been long-standing in Louisiana, as it serves as a dedicated reminder to preserve both the cultural heritage and artistic expression of the state and its people through the installation of public art projects.

The Culinary Director for the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Chef John Kozar said of the installation, “We are excited to show off this centerpiece for our Bistro Ruth patrons, and for anyone who makes their way down La. 1. This artistic representation fits in with our farm-to-table emphasis for our students. These herbs are frequently used in classical Louisiana cuisine, and their placement within this piece of art is incredible.”

It was always in the initial conception of the project for the piece to be attention-grabbing, seeing that the work was on such prominent display along Louisiana Highway 1 and positioned in the front of campus. Fairfield had collaborated on the project with his colleagues from his New Media Public Art Collective, an internationally-accomplished group of artists that specializes in the merging of art and technology to create memorable displays of public art. The collective’s goal was to create a piece that not only grabs the attention of their audience but abstractly reminds them of the integral components of Louisiana cuisine.

Whenever you next find yourself entering the campus of Nicholls State University via La 1, be sure to keep a keen eye out for the impressively-sized, and emotionally-resonant “Herb Garden” sculpture that now makes a proud companion to the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute’s landscape.

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Nicholls State Commencement Announcement

Nicholls State University will hold its 104^thcommencement ceremony on Saturday, May 18^thin Stopher Gym. The ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences will be held at 9 a.m., followed by the ceremonies for the College of Business Administration and the College of Nursing at noon. The last ceremonies will be held at 3 p.m. for the College of Education and Behavioral Science and the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

The ceremony’s keynote speaker delivering the commencement address will be delivered by Dr. Craig Walker, an internationally-known cardiologist who is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and interventional cardiology. Dr. Walker is a former resident of Bourg and graduated from South Terrebonne High School and earned an undergraduate degree from Nicholls State University in only two years. In reference to being the keynote speaker for the approaching ceremony, Dr. Walker said, “A college degree represents a true accomplishment, but it is just the beginning of a lifetime of learning. I’m proud to serve as the commencement speaker at my alma mater.”

From his impressive success at Nicholls State University, Dr. Walker advanced to the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans to earn his doctorate and to Lafayette Charity Hospital to complete his residency. Subsequently, New Orleans’ Ochsner Foundation Hospital and Harvard Medical School both awarded him fellowships.

In 1983, Dr. Walker returned to Terrebonne Parish to open the Houma Heart Clinic. When he first opened the doors to the clinic, he was the sole employee. However, as the years progressed, opportunities to open more facilities arose. Currently, the Cardiovascular Institute of the South has 19 locations that collectively employ 60 physicians.

Along with his extensive expansion of the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, Dr. Walker founded New Cardiovascular Horizons– a well-respected international conference that facilitates discussion on innovations and developments in cardiovascular medicine. Each year, the foundation holds 16 U.S. conferences, 4 international conferences, and consists of more than 5,000 global participants. New Cardiovascular Horizons will hold its 20^thannual conference this year.

In 1997, Dr. Walker collaborated with Chef John Folse to construct a cookbook called Something Old & Something New: Louisiana Cooking with a Change of Heart. This cookbook features 200 traditional Cajun and Creole recipes alongside modified versions of the classics to make them healthier. The cookbook also features stories discussing the backgrounds of some of the classic recipes.

Dr. Walker maintains several ties in education. He currently works as Clinical Professor of Medicine at LSU and Tulane Medical Schools. He also holds the position of Clinical Editor of the news bulletin Vascular Disease Management, and holds other editorial positions on journals such as the Journal of Endovascular Therapy, Endovascular Today, and Global Vascular Digest. Additionally, Dr. Walker is a member of the Board of Directors of the Outpatient Endovascular and Interventional Society and has participated as an associate director at numerous medical conferences, both national and international. Nicholls State is honored to have him as this year’s keynote speaker.

Because of his numerous strides made in the medical field, Nicholls State University will award Dr. Walker with an honorary doctorate during the 104^thcommencement ceremony.

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Nicholls to Screen Documentary on Female Chefs

Nicholls State University recently announced that on March 26th it will screen a new award-winning documentary regarding Female Chefs by Joanna James, “A Fine Line: A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen.” Part of a national tour, and screening during National Women’s History Month, the acclaimed documentary highlights female chefs who make up only 7 percent of head chefs and restaurant owners. The film takes a deeper look at why this statistic exists, despite the high number of female culinary students. “The ironic part about this discussion is that most culinary programs, like the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, have predominantly women enrollees, yet professionally those numbers don’t match,” said the Nicholls Culinary Department head, chef John Kozar. “That’s what the film is all about. What can we do, all of us together, to create a level playing field?” Nicholls’ female to male ratio at the John Folse Culinary Institute is more than 65 percent female,” Kozar said.

Hosted by The John Folse Culinary Institute housed at Nicholls University and emceed by Marcelle Bienvenu, culinary instructor and longtime New Orleans journalist, the event will include the presentation of a lifetime achievement award to New Orleans Chef, Author and television host Leah Chase, the Queen of Creole Cuisine and owner of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant.

After the screening, there will be a discussion amongst a series of expert panelists, including some notable Nicholls alumnae and local chefs. Among the panelists are: Kristen Essig, chef and owner of Coquette in New Orleans; Katie O’Hara, pastry chef at Mopho and Maypop in New Orleans; Anne Milneck, owner of Red Stick Spice Co. in Baton Rouge; and Samantha Love, assistant executive property chef at Caesars Entertainment Corp. in Baltimore, Maryland.

Kozar stated when interviewed, “We’re excited to be able to host this documentary. Our enrollment at the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute is more than 65 percent female, so we have made it a priority to showcase the success of our alumni and other women in the workforce. That’s why we started and continue the Empowered Women Chefs Series, which brings in successful female chefs to connect with our students.”

Founded in 1993 in response to the disparity outlined in Joanna James’s documentary, was the nonprofit organization The International Association of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR). WCR includes membership of thousands of women, from culinary students, line cooks, pastry chefs, and executive chefs to educators, food writers, farmers, media professionals, and more. Their mission is to advance women across the culinary industry through education and connection. They offer opportunities for professional development and mentorship. Their annual National Conference is held every spring, with the 2019 National Conference scheduled for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota on April 27-29.

The conference will cover all aspects of the food and hospitality by offering class, speakers, and camaraderie. It celebrates the strength and success of women in the profession and hopes that women leave feeling inspired and revitalized. If you’d like more information on WCR and/or the April conference, click here.

The Nicholls documentary screening will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Mary and Al Danos Theater. Tickets are $40 for the cocktail reception, the screening and the panel, or $20 for the screening and the panel. To purchase tickets, click here.

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute is named after famous Louisiana chef John Folse, acclaimed and award-winning Louisiana chef. It was recently announced that it would be offering a series of Saturday cooking classes to the local community called Cooking With the Colonels. Each class will include an orientation, cooking lessons, a family meal, and a tour of the Lanny D. Ledet Culinary Arts Building which is the facility that houses the Nicholl’s State on-campus Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

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Nicholls Partners with Rouses For Community Cooking Courses

Nicholls recently announced that it would be partnering with Rouse’s Supermarkets to offer a series of cooking classes to the local community called Cooking With the Colonels. Each class will be Saturdays throughout the year from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and include an orientation, cooking lessons, a family meal, and a tour of the Lanny D. Ledet Culinary Arts Building which is the facility that houses the Nicholl’s State on-campus Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.

The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute is named after famous Louisiana chef John Folse. Chef John Folse, born in St. James Parish in 1946, learned early that the secrets of Cajun cooking lay in the unique ingredients of Louisiana’s swamp floor pantry. Folse seasoned these raw ingredients with his passion for Louisiana culture and cuisine, and from his cast iron pots emerged Chef John Folse & Company.

When Folse opened Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant in 1978 in Donaldsonville, he set out to market his restaurant by taking “a taste of Louisiana” worldwide. He introduced Louisiana’s indigenous cuisine to Japan, Beijing, Hong Kong and Paris. In 1988, Folse made international headlines with the opening of “Lafitte’s Landing East” in Moscow and again when Folse became the first non-Italian chef to create the Vatican State Dinner in Rome. Later, the Louisiana Legislature gave him the title of “Louisiana’s Culinary Ambassador to the World.”

Folse’s Culinary Institute invites aspiring chefs with an adventurous palate and an insatiable desire to work in the food and service industries to pursue a Bachelor of Science or Associate of Science degree in culinary arts at Nicholls, currently the only post-secondary institution in Louisiana offering a four-year culinary degree. They pride themselves on teaching their students about cuisine from around the world. However, their students are a step above others because of their knowledge of cajun and creole cuisine.

Each class will be taught by award winning chefs and teachers from the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute and will concentrate on complex Louisiana fare. Currently, only the first three classes have been scheduled, the first for Saturday, Jan. 26. That class’s theme will be Louisiana’s natural resources and rich history. Students will learn prepare dishes incorporating rabbit, oyster, and andouille gumbo; duck and pistachio terrine; wild boar osso bucco with polenta and glazed root vegetables; and riz au lait. The next class, titled New Orleans Creole Table, will be held on Saturday, Feb. 23 and participants will cook T’Frere’s turtle soup; oysters Marie Laveau; spit roasted creole leg of lamb; and strawberry creole cream cheese ice cream over pecan pound cake. The third class is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, and students will veer towards Italian cuisine as they experiment with recipes from Tuscany and Florence like ribollita soup; bruschetta; pollo alla cacciatore; bistecca alla fiorentina; and biscotti.

Class size is limited to 16 students and you must be at least 16 years old to register. Requirements are long-sleeve shirts, long pants, and flat, non-slip, closed-toe shoes. Long hair should be pulled back and students should be prepared for a 2-3 hours of physical activity. Students will work on the recipes in groups of two to three. Tools will be provided but students are encouraged to bring their own.

Registration for one costs $125, for a couple $200, and for a Rouses’ employee $100. Payment is due two weeks before the class. For more information or to register, visit www.nicholls.edu/continuing-ed/cooking-with-the-colonels/ or call the Office of Continuing Education at 448-4444.

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