On a Thursday morning, Raymond Cutrer's booth at the Red Stick Farmers Market has a line five customers deep. Cutrer's Meat Market has quite the selection: homemade salami, ground beef, soup bones, premium steaks and smoked sausage made with a 100-year-old family recipe.
Cecilia Ana Ramos-Dayer's first career was teaching English literature, but last week, she proved her mettle as a budding chef when she won the Louisiana Culinary Institute's annual Race to Cannes student competition. Ramos-Dayer's victory over fellow student Ben Triola allows her to travel to France next month and cook at the Cannes Film Festival's American Pavilion.
Although Manda Fine Meats has expanded the recall of its deli meat products and its production facility in Baker—which is one of two in the Capital Region—remains idle, a spokesman for the company says none of the approximately 70 employees at the Baker plant are being temporarily laid off. "The Baker facility will not be reopened until we're absolutely convinced that all the issues are totally resolved," says Renny DeVille, vice president of Harris DeVille and Associates, which Manda has hired to handle public relations in regards to the recall. "But there are no layoffs." DeVille says the other Manda facility in Baton Rouge, which only produces sausage products that are not included in the recall, remains operational as normal. Along with hiring DeVille's firm, Manda also created a new website over the weekend to provide up-to-date information on the recall, which was expanded over the weekend to include more products as a precautionary measure. Complete details can be...
It's good to be a cow—especially if your caretakers are the folks at Kleinpeter Farms Dairy. Just like members of the family, each animal in the herd at the company's 1,500-acre farm in Montpelier is known by a personal name, not just a number on an ear tag.
Ham, lamb and crawfish are front and center this week as we head toward Easter, but I also like to make something yummy and different for breakfast over the break. I like savory over sweet dishes—things like eggs, hash browns, lox and bagels and crisp bacon—but I make a big exception for coffee cake. The right coffee cake is exactly what its name suggest, a perfect foil for coffee, and I especially love versions that deliver a sturdy, but buttery texture, a swirl of intense cinnamon throughout and a crumbly, brown sugar surface. I like it bundt-shaped, and I prefer it without nuts. If you feel similarly, here's a great recipe created by the mother of some old friends. I made it for our St. Patrick's Day parade party, and it was a huge hit.
Slow Food Baton Rouge will host the third annual Dinner in the Field and Farm Tour on Sunday at Oakland Plantation in Gurley. The event will begin with farm tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring four local farms. The tour will be followed by a social event from 3 to 5 p.m., complete with hors d'oeuvres, refreshments, live music from Ben Bell and the Stardust Boys, a mini farmers market, and an art installation by Elevator Projects. A five-course dinner will start at 5 p.m.; vegan options are available. Tickets for the full event are $125, and proceeds benefit Slow Food Baton Rouge programming. For more information, click here; and get more local culinary news from the new 225 Dine e-newsletter here.
This weekend, venture north to Oakland Plantation for a feast that features farm-to-table cooking at its best. The third annual Dinner in the Field and Farm Tour, presented by Slow Food Baton Rouge, is scheduled for Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. The public is invited to tour various farms and producers in nearby Gurley. From 3 until 5 p.m., a ticketed hors d'oeuvres and cocktail reception will take place at Oakland. Live music and a mini-market of fresh foods will accompany the event. The day ends with a 5 p.m. five-course meal prepared by local culinary talents. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Slow Food Baton Rouge, the local chapter of the educational food nonprofit Slow Food USA, will host its March Local Social tonight at Magpie Café on Perkins Road. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and will feature food enthusiasts, local food and light refreshments. For more information, visit slowfoodbr.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/slowfoodbr.
When elites of the film world gather in Park City, Utah, next week for the Sundance Film Festival, among the events they'll want to put on their schedule is a Louisiana feast prepared by local chef Chris Wadsworth of Restaurant IPO, which is on Third Street downtown, and local food blogger Jay Ducote. The event—which will be held at Cicero's restaurant next to the Egyptian Theater, where many of the Sundance films are screened—is designed to help promote the inaugural Louisiana International Film Festival, which will take place in Baton Rouge and New Orleans in April. Ducote is culinary ambassador for the Louisiana festival and is helping organizers create a buzz about the event—hence the party at Sundance. "We thought it would be a good way to get the Hollywood crowd excited about our festival," says Ducote, who volunteered to cook at Sundance and enlisted the help of his friend, Wadsworth. At a Jan. 21 party, Wadsworth and Ducote will be showcasing homegrown foods...
Oysters and prunes may not have a lot in common, but in LSU AgCenter food engineer Subramaniam Sathivel's lab, chefs are working with both to develop new food products. Sathivel specializes in cryopreservation and shelf stabilization of foods. He's partnering with Motivatit Seafoods of Houma to help the company produce a new oyster-and-spinach ravioli product, with a view to making it available in grocery stores by February. Motivatit, which developed a high-pressure process for killing a bacteria that can be found in raw oysters, credits the freezing and packaging work at the food business incubator with ensuring their product is fresh and safe to consume. Sathivel is also working with California-based Sunsweet on flavor enhancement and shelf-life extension for some of that company's dried fruit products, including prunes. Specifically, Sathivel is helping Sunsweet develop a new process for reducing water activity in its products to slow bacterial growth. The AgCenter has more...
One unhealthy aspect of north Baton Rouge, particularly in the 70805 ZIP code area, is the dearth of grocery stores and fresh produce. In an effort to address the situation, this so-called food desert is getting planted with fruit trees and blueberry bushes on Arbor Day, the third Friday in January in Louisiana. Baton Rouge Green is using a major portion of a $28,000 grant from ExxonMobil to plant a variety of trees, including satsuma and peach, near the new homes of Urban Gardens, an affordable-housing project just north of Hollywood Street at the corner of Amarillo Street and Breckenridge Avenue. There are currently nine homes built in Urban Gardens—seven are sold or under contract—and five more will be built next year. The development plan calls for a total of 21 homes eventually. The community is being built on the old grounds of Hollywood Elementary School; the garden is being planted on a lot owned by King's Children Ministry. "And the church evidently had a little...
Most decisions about the details of a huge class-action settlement of damage claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill will come from stately offices and a federal courtroom in New Orleans. But, as The Houston Chronicle reports, the consequences will reach farther south, where Louisianans—many of them subsistence fishermen—count on swampy bayous and gray Gulf waves for their livelihood, and are struggling to support themselves on catches they say have dwindled to a fifth of their pre-spill numbers. "It just ain't there anymore," says Maurice Phillips, a 58-year-old fisherman and trapper from Grand Bayou who traces his ancestry to the region's first Native American residents. Phillips is one of hundreds of fishermen who must decide by Thursday whether his share of a proposed $2.3 billion settlement fund will make up for the losses he has experienced since BP's Macondo well spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the waters where he and his family have...
About 300 farmers, nonprofit organizations, policy-makers, school officials and others are expected at a daylong food access summit on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. LSU AgCenter nutritionist Annrose Guarino says organizers hope to improve communication among people who produce food and those who distribute it. She says the summit will include sessions on school and community gardens, food stamps and farmers markets, use of local foods in school lunch programs, developing local food policy councils, farm-to-school programs, and implementing a hunger-free Louisiana plan. Speakers will include state Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain; U.S. Department of Agriculture regional administrator Bill Ludwig; state Rep. Scott Simon, whose bill established a state Sustainable Local Food Policy Council; and LSU AgCenter Vice Chancellor Paul Coreil. The daylong summit will begin at 9:30 a.m. and wrap up at 4:30 p.m. Cost to attend is $26. You can check out a...
In an effort to strengthen the brand of Louisiana seafood, the state has started a new certification program. State officials say the Louisiana Certified Seafood Program is meant to make consumers think of Louisiana seafood in a "geographically based" way, similar to the way consumers now think of Maine's lobsters and Idaho's potatoes. The program seeks to certify that seafood is caught, landed and processed in Louisiana. State officials say licensed commercial fishermen automatically qualify under the program and that dock owners, processors, grocers, dealers, restaurants and others selling seafood can participate in the program and get a certified permit. "People are demanding transparency in the seafood industry, so we're giving it to them," says Randy Pausina, of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
The U.S. seafood catch reached a 17-year high last year, with all fishing regions of the country showing increases in both the volume and value of their harvests. Commercial fishermen last year caught 10.1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish valued at a record $5.3 billion, according to a report released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's a 23% increase in catch by weight and a 17% increase in value over 2010. Alaska led all states by far in catch volume, with 5.4 billion pounds, followed by Louisiana, California, Virginia and Washington, according to the report. Alaska was also tops in the value of its catch, at $1.9 billion, followed by Massachusetts, Maine, Louisiana and Washington. The increases are evidence that fish populations are rebuilding, says Sam Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "Overall nationally, the numbers are very good news," Rauch says. "But we don't want to miss the fact that there are parts of...
Lunchtime at Catholic High School comes with a particular challenge: how to feed an audience of about 1,000 teenage boys in less than an hour. Groups of students file in and choose from hot plate lunches, grab-and-go items and à la carte snacks and drinks. The setup resembles a university dining hall more than a school cafeteria, with students making their selections and checking out with pre-paid electronic ID cards.
In the culinary world, a common adage describes food as equal to art. In Baton Rouge, Grace Emden lives that motto every day. Part artist, part chef and part entrepreneur, Emden provides a refreshing take on what is becoming the new definition of Baton Rouge culture. Her brushstroke on a canvas and her carefully crafted pastries stimulate both the eyes and palate. "As an artist, I naturally fell in love with food," Emden says. Emden began her life in the culinary world as a hostess at the now-closed Blue Fish Grill. The job opened her eyes to the restaurant world, and she fell in love with the atmosphere, in particular the presentation of food on a plate. She spent the next few years serving, bartending and working in kitchens while also exploring her other passions in sculpting and painting. In 2008, while watching the television show Ace of Cakes, Emden found inspiration in the combination of food, sculpture and art. Seeing an opportunity to combine her different passions, Emden...
Combining the efforts of Together Baton Rouge and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, a new "mobile pantry" concept has caught on in a big way in Scotlandville. The pantry has served nearly 1,000 people, doling out 41,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables over its first two events. It seeks to solve the problems of food access in north Baton Rouge, which suffers from a lack of full-service grocery stores with fresh produce. The mobile pantry provides residents with free Louisiana fruits and vegetables at St. Michael's Episcopal Church once every two weeks, with the hope of soon increasing the frequency and regularity of the visits. The next events are scheduled to take place this Saturday, Aug. 11 and Aug. 25. To find out how you can contribute or volunteer, e-mail organizer Edgar Cage.
This spring, Beausoleil Executive Chef Nathan Gresham served as a judge at the Louisiana Culinary Institute's annual Race to Cannes competition, an internal faceoff among students vying for a chance to cook during the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival. The students were aware of Gresham's reputation as a talented farm-to-table chef in Baton Rouge with a devoted following of regular customers. They listened to him intently.
Two weeks before the start of the London 2012 Olympics, Chef John Folse and his staff were making hundreds of his signature crab cakes in his Donaldsonville facility to be shipped overseas and served at the games.
Independent grocer Calvin Lindsly darts through the tight, neat aisles of his Bocage Village supermarket, pointing out dozens of specialty goods he's ordered over the years in response to requests from customers.
Using a flavor-enhancing compound developed by LSU, a Covington single father has developed a new sports drink that uses less sugar than other sports drinks, reports The Times-Picayune. Brian Brothers says Gatorade and Powerade are missing magnesium and calcium, both key components needed to restore the chemicals the body loses in sweat. While those minerals taste bad, LSU's bitter-blocking compound has allowed Brothers to develop EX5. Brothers began working on the drink with the university in 2010; LSU is poised to receive royalties from drink sales. Currently, two flavors—lemon lime and strawberry lemonade—are selling in stores across the state, with a blue raspberry variety to be released in July and a grape variety in September. To read more about the co-creation of the sports drink, click here.
When Schwan's, the national home-delivery food company, pulled out of Louisiana late last year, it left behind three vacant warehouses, including one in Baton Rouge and one in Mandeville. But less than six months later, the Mandeville warehouse is sold, and the local warehouse, located on Choctaw, is under contract. "The fact that these moved so quickly is a very positive sign for the local economy and shows the commercial industrial market is really rebounding," says Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate, who listed the properties. A Northshore construction company purchased the 8,800-square foot warehouse in Mandeville this afternoon for $725,000, while the 58,000-square-foot Choctaw warehouse is listed at $320,000. Hebert declines to identify any interested buyers. —Stephanie Riegel
From 225: Making Groceries
On a Thursday morning, Raymond Cutrer's booth at the Red Stick Farmers Market has a line five customers deep. Cutrer's Meat Market has quite the selection: homemade salami, ground beef, soup bones, premium steaks and smoked sausage made with a 100-year-old family recipe.
Chicken and waffles helps culinary student win 'Race to Cannes'
Cecilia Ana Ramos-Dayer's first career was teaching English literature, but last week, she proved her mettle as a budding chef when she won the Louisiana Culinary Institute's annual Race to Cannes student competition. Ramos-Dayer's victory over fellow student Ben Triola allows her to travel to France next month and cook at the Cannes Film Festival's American Pavilion.
Manda says idle Baker plant not causing layoffs
Although Manda Fine Meats has expanded the recall of its deli meat products and its production facility in Baker—which is one of two in the Capital Region—remains idle, a spokesman for the company says none of the approximately 70 employees at the Baker plant are being temporarily laid off. "The Baker facility will not be reopened until we're absolutely convinced that all the issues are totally resolved," says Renny DeVille, vice president of Harris DeVille and Associates, which Manda has hired to handle public relations in regards to the recall. "But there are no layoffs." DeVille says the other Manda facility in Baton Rouge, which only produces sausage products that are not included in the recall, remains operational as normal. Along with hiring DeVille's firm, Manda also created a new website over the weekend to provide up-to-date information on the recall, which was expanded over the weekend to include more products as a precautionary measure. Complete details can be...
The cream rises
It's good to be a cow—especially if your caretakers are the folks at Kleinpeter Farms Dairy. Just like members of the family, each animal in the herd at the company's 1,500-acre farm in Montpelier is known by a personal name, not just a number on an ear tag.
Mmm…Buttery, Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Ham, lamb and crawfish are front and center this week as we head toward Easter, but I also like to make something yummy and different for breakfast over the break. I like savory over sweet dishes—things like eggs, hash browns, lox and bagels and crisp bacon—but I make a big exception for coffee cake. The right coffee cake is exactly what its name suggest, a perfect foil for coffee, and I especially love versions that deliver a sturdy, but buttery texture, a swirl of intense cinnamon throughout and a crumbly, brown sugar surface. I like it bundt-shaped, and I prefer it without nuts. If you feel similarly, here's a great recipe created by the mother of some old friends. I made it for our St. Patrick's Day parade party, and it was a huge hit.
'225 Dine': Dinner in the Field is Sunday
Slow Food Baton Rouge will host the third annual Dinner in the Field and Farm Tour on Sunday at Oakland Plantation in Gurley. The event will begin with farm tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring four local farms. The tour will be followed by a social event from 3 to 5 p.m., complete with hors d'oeuvres, refreshments, live music from Ben Bell and the Stardust Boys, a mini farmers market, and an art installation by Elevator Projects. A five-course dinner will start at 5 p.m.; vegan options are available. Tickets for the full event are $125, and proceeds benefit Slow Food Baton Rouge programming. For more information, click here; and get more local culinary news from the new 225 Dine e-newsletter here.
Feast on the farm
This weekend, venture north to Oakland Plantation for a feast that features farm-to-table cooking at its best. The third annual Dinner in the Field and Farm Tour, presented by Slow Food Baton Rouge, is scheduled for Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. The public is invited to tour various farms and producers in nearby Gurley. From 3 until 5 p.m., a ticketed hors d'oeuvres and cocktail reception will take place at Oakland. Live music and a mini-market of fresh foods will accompany the event. The day ends with a 5 p.m. five-course meal prepared by local culinary talents. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
Slow Food Baton Rouge hosts March Local Social
Slow Food Baton Rouge, the local chapter of the educational food nonprofit Slow Food USA, will host its March Local Social tonight at Magpie Café on Perkins Road. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and will feature food enthusiasts, local food and light refreshments. For more information, visit slowfoodbr.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/slowfoodbr.
Baton Rouge chefs to cook at Sundance
When elites of the film world gather in Park City, Utah, next week for the Sundance Film Festival, among the events they'll want to put on their schedule is a Louisiana feast prepared by local chef Chris Wadsworth of Restaurant IPO, which is on Third Street downtown, and local food blogger Jay Ducote. The event—which will be held at Cicero's restaurant next to the Egyptian Theater, where many of the Sundance films are screened—is designed to help promote the inaugural Louisiana International Film Festival, which will take place in Baton Rouge and New Orleans in April. Ducote is culinary ambassador for the Louisiana festival and is helping organizers create a buzz about the event—hence the party at Sundance. "We thought it would be a good way to get the Hollywood crowd excited about our festival," says Ducote, who volunteered to cook at Sundance and enlisted the help of his friend, Wadsworth. At a Jan. 21 party, Wadsworth and Ducote will be showcasing homegrown foods...
LSU AgCenter's new food business incubator attracting local, national companies
Oysters and prunes may not have a lot in common, but in LSU AgCenter food engineer Subramaniam Sathivel's lab, chefs are working with both to develop new food products. Sathivel specializes in cryopreservation and shelf stabilization of foods. He's partnering with Motivatit Seafoods of Houma to help the company produce a new oyster-and-spinach ravioli product, with a view to making it available in grocery stores by February. Motivatit, which developed a high-pressure process for killing a bacteria that can be found in raw oysters, credits the freezing and packaging work at the food business incubator with ensuring their product is fresh and safe to consume. Sathivel is also working with California-based Sunsweet on flavor enhancement and shelf-life extension for some of that company's dried fruit products, including prunes. Specifically, Sathivel is helping Sunsweet develop a new process for reducing water activity in its products to slow bacterial growth. The AgCenter has more...
Community garden planned for 'food desert' of north Baton Rouge
One unhealthy aspect of north Baton Rouge, particularly in the 70805 ZIP code area, is the dearth of grocery stores and fresh produce. In an effort to address the situation, this so-called food desert is getting planted with fruit trees and blueberry bushes on Arbor Day, the third Friday in January in Louisiana. Baton Rouge Green is using a major portion of a $28,000 grant from ExxonMobil to plant a variety of trees, including satsuma and peach, near the new homes of Urban Gardens, an affordable-housing project just north of Hollywood Street at the corner of Amarillo Street and Breckenridge Avenue. There are currently nine homes built in Urban Gardens—seven are sold or under contract—and five more will be built next year. The development plan calls for a total of 21 homes eventually. The community is being built on the old grounds of Hollywood Elementary School; the garden is being planted on a lot owned by King's Children Ministry. "And the church evidently had a little...
Louisiana's fishermen confront BP spill deadline
Most decisions about the details of a huge class-action settlement of damage claims from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill will come from stately offices and a federal courtroom in New Orleans. But, as The Houston Chronicle reports, the consequences will reach farther south, where Louisianans—many of them subsistence fishermen—count on swampy bayous and gray Gulf waves for their livelihood, and are struggling to support themselves on catches they say have dwindled to a fifth of their pre-spill numbers. "It just ain't there anymore," says Maurice Phillips, a 58-year-old fisherman and trapper from Grand Bayou who traces his ancestry to the region's first Native American residents. Phillips is one of hundreds of fishermen who must decide by Thursday whether his share of a proposed $2.3 billion settlement fund will make up for the losses he has experienced since BP's Macondo well spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the waters where he and his family have...
Louisiana Food Access Summit set for Nov. 7 in Baton Rouge
About 300 farmers, nonprofit organizations, policy-makers, school officials and others are expected at a daylong food access summit on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center. LSU AgCenter nutritionist Annrose Guarino says organizers hope to improve communication among people who produce food and those who distribute it. She says the summit will include sessions on school and community gardens, food stamps and farmers markets, use of local foods in school lunch programs, developing local food policy councils, farm-to-school programs, and implementing a hunger-free Louisiana plan. Speakers will include state Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain; U.S. Department of Agriculture regional administrator Bill Ludwig; state Rep. Scott Simon, whose bill established a state Sustainable Local Food Policy Council; and LSU AgCenter Vice Chancellor Paul Coreil. The daylong summit will begin at 9:30 a.m. and wrap up at 4:30 p.m. Cost to attend is $26. You can check out a...
Louisiana launches new seafood certification program
In an effort to strengthen the brand of Louisiana seafood, the state has started a new certification program. State officials say the Louisiana Certified Seafood Program is meant to make consumers think of Louisiana seafood in a "geographically based" way, similar to the way consumers now think of Maine's lobsters and Idaho's potatoes. The program seeks to certify that seafood is caught, landed and processed in Louisiana. State officials say licensed commercial fishermen automatically qualify under the program and that dock owners, processors, grocers, dealers, restaurants and others selling seafood can participate in the program and get a certified permit. "People are demanding transparency in the seafood industry, so we're giving it to them," says Randy Pausina, of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
La. accounts for second highest catch in U.S. during banner year
The U.S. seafood catch reached a 17-year high last year, with all fishing regions of the country showing increases in both the volume and value of their harvests. Commercial fishermen last year caught 10.1 billion pounds of fish and shellfish valued at a record $5.3 billion, according to a report released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's a 23% increase in catch by weight and a 17% increase in value over 2010. Alaska led all states by far in catch volume, with 5.4 billion pounds, followed by Louisiana, California, Virginia and Washington, according to the report. Alaska was also tops in the value of its catch, at $1.9 billion, followed by Massachusetts, Maine, Louisiana and Washington. The increases are evidence that fish populations are rebuilding, says Sam Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "Overall nationally, the numbers are very good news," Rauch says. "But we don't want to miss the fact that there are parts of...
Old brand, new gigs
Lunchtime at Catholic High School comes with a particular challenge: how to feed an audience of about 1,000 teenage boys in less than an hour. Groups of students file in and choose from hot plate lunches, grab-and-go items and à la carte snacks and drinks. The setup resembles a university dining hall more than a school cafeteria, with students making their selections and checking out with pre-paid electronic ID cards.
'225': B.R. artist creates work on canvas and plates
In the culinary world, a common adage describes food as equal to art. In Baton Rouge, Grace Emden lives that motto every day. Part artist, part chef and part entrepreneur, Emden provides a refreshing take on what is becoming the new definition of Baton Rouge culture. Her brushstroke on a canvas and her carefully crafted pastries stimulate both the eyes and palate. "As an artist, I naturally fell in love with food," Emden says. Emden began her life in the culinary world as a hostess at the now-closed Blue Fish Grill. The job opened her eyes to the restaurant world, and she fell in love with the atmosphere, in particular the presentation of food on a plate. She spent the next few years serving, bartending and working in kitchens while also exploring her other passions in sculpting and painting. In 2008, while watching the television show Ace of Cakes, Emden found inspiration in the combination of food, sculpture and art. Seeing an opportunity to combine her different passions, Emden...
'225 Dine': Mobile pantries delivering to Baton Rouge's food deserts
Combining the efforts of Together Baton Rouge and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, a new "mobile pantry" concept has caught on in a big way in Scotlandville. The pantry has served nearly 1,000 people, doling out 41,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables over its first two events. It seeks to solve the problems of food access in north Baton Rouge, which suffers from a lack of full-service grocery stores with fresh produce. The mobile pantry provides residents with free Louisiana fruits and vegetables at St. Michael's Episcopal Church once every two weeks, with the hope of soon increasing the frequency and regularity of the visits. The next events are scheduled to take place this Saturday, Aug. 11 and Aug. 25. To find out how you can contribute or volunteer, e-mail organizer Edgar Cage.
The whimsy of Whipsy
Like most folks in the engineering field, Mark Gabriel and Erik Durr are trained to hande serious situations that require their expertise.
Cooking up chefs
This spring, Beausoleil Executive Chef Nathan Gresham served as a judge at the Louisiana Culinary Institute's annual Race to Cannes competition, an internal faceoff among students vying for a chance to cook during the 2012 Cannes International Film Festival. The students were aware of Gresham's reputation as a talented farm-to-table chef in Baton Rouge with a devoted following of regular customers. They listened to him intently.
Olympic effort
Two weeks before the start of the London 2012 Olympics, Chef John Folse and his staff were making hundreds of his signature crab cakes in his Donaldsonville facility to be shipped overseas and served at the games.
Indie Grocers
Independent grocer Calvin Lindsly darts through the tight, neat aisles of his Bocage Village supermarket, pointing out dozens of specialty goods he's ordered over the years in response to requests from customers.
Latte e Miele Gelato
Owner Luca di Martino shares the scoop on his authentic gelato and the upcoming opening of the Jefferson location.
LSU research helps Covington dad create sports drink
Using a flavor-enhancing compound developed by LSU, a Covington single father has developed a new sports drink that uses less sugar than other sports drinks, reports The Times-Picayune. Brian Brothers says Gatorade and Powerade are missing magnesium and calcium, both key components needed to restore the chemicals the body loses in sweat. While those minerals taste bad, LSU's bitter-blocking compound has allowed Brothers to develop EX5. Brothers began working on the drink with the university in 2010; LSU is poised to receive royalties from drink sales. Currently, two flavors—lemon lime and strawberry lemonade—are selling in stores across the state, with a blue raspberry variety to be released in July and a grape variety in September. To read more about the co-creation of the sports drink, click here.
Schwan's former warehouses move in real estate
When Schwan's, the national home-delivery food company, pulled out of Louisiana late last year, it left behind three vacant warehouses, including one in Baton Rouge and one in Mandeville. But less than six months later, the Mandeville warehouse is sold, and the local warehouse, located on Choctaw, is under contract. "The fact that these moved so quickly is a very positive sign for the local economy and shows the commercial industrial market is really rebounding," says Mark Hebert of Kurz & Hebert Commercial Real Estate, who listed the properties. A Northshore construction company purchased the 8,800-square foot warehouse in Mandeville this afternoon for $725,000, while the 58,000-square-foot Choctaw warehouse is listed at $320,000. Hebert declines to identify any interested buyers. —Stephanie Riegel