BR Foodies experience Le Creole

On a mission for our BR Foodies group to experience a new restaurant all at the same time, I arranged a trip for the group to dine at Le Creole on Highland Road.  Nobody had been before so other than some word of mouth, none of us knew what to expect.  

Le Creole is reasonably new to the Baton Rouge fine dining scene.  It is the latest creation of seafood lover, caterer, and restaurateur Wayne Stabiler.  His other restaurants include both Little Village locations and the City Cafe.  Wanting to get back to his Louisiana seafood distribution roots, he opened up Le Creole.  Chef Ryan Andre, who had previously be on board at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, took the reigns of the kitchen of the while Clark T. Ellis assumed the General Manager position.  

Upon arrival at Le Creole our group gathered in the bar with some cocktails while we caught up and chatted.  Clark greeted us and offered a little tour of the kitchen where we could meet Chef Andre.  The kitchen bustled with activity of chefs at their stations. 

GM Clark T. Ellis gives the BR Foodies a tour of the kitchen (left); Chef Ryan Andre poses for a picture at Le Creole (right)

My evening began with a Maker's 46 Old Fashioned.  The bartender muddled a maraschino cherry and a wedge of orange before adding the bitters, simple syrup, and bourbon.  The beverage got my taste buds kick-started as I prepared myself for a tasty meal.  I don't drink too many Old Fashioneds, but this this one could get me to change that.  I thoroughly enjoyed the beverage.  I had a whiskey sour later in the meal that did not impress me nearly as much.  I wished I had ordered a second Old Fashioned!  Before I got started eating, I first had to do some tweeting and posting which Kelly Spell happened to capture on camera!  Good times with the BR Foodies gang!

Le Creole started us out with their fresh-baked bread and some lemon herb butter from Plaquemines Parish.  The bread had a thick crust with a soft center and the butter had a tremendous flavor.  Following the bread came a cochon de lait bruschetta for each of us.  As a sampling portion of the their cochon de lait flatbread, the bruschetta featured tender pulled pork with goat cheese and provolone melted on top.  While I actually liked the flatbread version better, the pork and goat cheese combination stood out as a delicious combination.  The fork-tender pig mixed beautifully with the creamy cheese.  I could have eaten nothing other than that and been happy.  Come to think of it, I need to make a cochon de lait style pulled pork and goat cheese sandwich!

I continued my meal with tastes of Le Creole's boudin spring rolls with a raspberry sauce and a delightful watermelon, spinach and goat cheese salad.  The salad impressed me with its refreshing nature while still offering some great flavor combinations.  The sweetness of the watermelon played off of the goat cheese tang as the two danced in my mouth.  After the salad I opted for the turtle soup with sherry.  It was not the most memorable turtle soup I've had but it still satisfied my craving for more booze in food!

The true highlight on the night came in the form of the above pictured crab cake.  Chef Andre took jumbo lump crab meat and formed cakes that were held together by just a small amount of spicy mayo.  The cakes were then broiled in a hot oven instead of fried.  Served with a spicy remoulade sauce, the crab cake exploded with flavor.  Sweet crab and spicy sauce filled every bite and the texture of the lump meat with crispiness and creaminess gave a great mouth feel to each additional taste after taste.

My entree, pictured at the top of this post, featured a whole deep fried mangrove snapper served with sauteed squash, zucchini and red onion.  The whole fish presented an awe-inspiring spectacle of a dish.  Our wonderful server Erica placed it in front of me and I actually wanted to photograph the fish slightly more than I wanted to eat it.  Perhaps that is because I started to get full a course or two before the main entree, but still, it looked pretty amazing.  Once I dug into the fish and veggies I became just slightly underwhelmed.  As great as the fish looked, the flavor didn't quite deliver upon the visual expectations.  I enjoyed picking the fried flesh off the bones, but the taste failed to blow me away like some of the appetizers did.  The vegetables added nothing special to the dish and really forced the snapper to attempt to stand on its own.

We wrapped up our meal by passing around a trio of desserts.  We had a banana cake, a bread pudding and my personal favorite, a homemade cookie with ice cream.  The vanilla bean ice cream melted rapidly over a oven-hot chocolate chip cookie in an individual cast iron skillet.  Simply put, this dessert capped the meal right back up at the top of the delicious scale.

Overall I had a wonderful meal and a great experience at Le Creole.  Clark, the General Manager, and his staff took great care of us all evening long.  Erica, our waitress, delivered amazing service and it seemed like everyone else in the restaurant received plenty of attention as well.  The food belonged among Baton Rouge's upscale dining elite.  While my entree didn't amaze me, the snapper still tasted quite good, and rest of the courses certainly made the entire experience into a memorable meal.  On the way out of the dimly lit and intimate dining area I realized that the music I had been hearing all evening was coming from a live pianist.  Yet another fun touch to make me want to go back for more from Le Creole!

Thanks to Kelly Spell of the BR Foodies for most of the pictures from a great evening!

BR Foodies Visit Latil's Landing at Houmas House

A group of Baton Rouge Foodies, proudly known quite simply as the BRFoodies, recently made a trip to Burnside and the famous Houmas House Plantation.  The historic house on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi is a thriving tourist and filming destination (including recent episodes of Bravo's Top Chef and Wheel of Fortune) with a Southern charm and beautiful gardens throughout the grounds.  My good friends Paul and Courtney got married at Houmas House and I got a complete tour after the Baton Rouge Socials Media Association's Coastal Social Conference last Fall, but this trip was for a different reason: FOOD!

L to R: Jeremy, Jay, Meghan, Brent, Kelly, Christina, Olivia, Josh and Nick at Houmas House

Our group met Jesse Lambert at the Turtle Bar to begin the evening with a couple cocktails.  Jesse works in marketing for the plantation and graciously offered to meet up with us and talk about the property.  The Turtle Bar sits in one of the twin Garconniere on the property which creates a really unique and historical watering hole.  From there were were off to Latil's Landing Restaurant in the old French House to find our table and start our feast. 

On the second floor of the plantation we found our beautifully set dining table in a private room.  Jesse stayed for dinner and we were also joined by the plantation's owner, Kevin Kelly.  Kevin, a New Orleans native, bought the home in 2003 and restored it to its luxurious yet preserved 1840's roots.  As great as the house and gardens are, and with all of the historical artifacts and relics around the home, Kevin seems to take equal pride in the cuisine that is served at his restaurant.  He told us that before Latil's Landing opened he would routinely find himself returning to New Orleans for dinner.  When he hired Executive Chef Jeremy Langlois to run the restaurant, all of that changed.  He now had a place in Burnside to dine, and it happened to be right outside his bedroom!

Our meal began with an amuse bouche to whet the appetite.  The cucumber and salmon tart refreshed our mouths and got us ready for more gluttonous glory.  The table was also spread with three types of bread and three different house-infused butters including one with fresh honey from the beehives at the plantation!    

Immediately following the very light salmon cucumber came a much heavier crab and mango cake.  The plentiful lump crab meat was sauteed and served with a gorgeously decorated chipotle remoulade sauce.  With the addition of the mango, the crab cake tasted simply sensational.  One of the most popular lunch dishes at Houmas House is the Crab and Mango Cake Salad, and it is quite easy to see why!   

The soup course featured a Latil's Landing specialty: a bisque of curried pumpkin, crawfish, and corn. The soup had a great flavor with a balance of sweetness and spiciness.  The pumpkin and curry tastes were bold and delightful while the crawfish and corn brought it back towards a Cajun bisque that we all know and love.   

For a third course, Sous Chef Bryan Duck delivered a Cosmopolitan Sorbet.  Meant to serve as a palate cleanser before the main entree, the sorbet delivered a little punch of refreshment.  The cranberry heavy sorbet received a little extra encouragement from a shot of orange Grey Goose vodka.  With the pre-dinner cocktails and the constant pours of wine, this sorbet was exactly what I needed to keep the night moving right along!

The duel entree came out to our table and our entire BRFoodie group gasped.  We had already been over-fed, but then we laid our eyes on the lamb and lobster and knew we couldn't stop eating yet.  The lobster portion featured a papaya stuffed lobster tail perched on top of Louisiana crawfish tails with a Creole tomato risotto.  It may have been one of the most inventive lobster dishes I've ever had.  Still, it had nothing on the lamb.  Not to slight the lobster, but the lamb nearly knocked my socks off!  The lamb had been marinated in Louisiana's own Community Coffee and then grilled to a succulent medium rare.  The chops were downright delicious and I was caught gnawing on the bones to get every ounce of flavor out of them!

Naturally, no meal is complete without a dessert at the end.  Latil's Landing served us their Sticky Toffee Bread Pudding to wrap up the meal.  The brown sugar and date bread pudding had a terrific texture and worked very nicely with the toffee sauce.  The blue berries and cream were a nice addition too!

But, as it would turn out, our meal didn't actually end with the bread pudding.  Sous Chef Duck came back up to our dining room with a round of praline shooters.  Chef explained that the shooters were a bit of molecular gastronomy.  It featured a dehydrated and finely ground praline mixed with salt.  When taken as a shot, the praline mixture re-hydrates with saliva and loosely sticks to your mouth leaving the flavor of a salted praline and a very unique textural sensation.  Playing with food is fun!

To cap off the evening, Kevin Kelly led us on a tour of the house and then out to the gardens.  We got an inside look at the former water cistern turned wine cellar that is stocked with an absolutely amazing selection of worldly wines.  Seriously... Mr. Kelly held nothing back when purchasing case after case of Wine Spectator's highest rated wines on the planet!

All in all, it was a great trip to Houmas House.  We had some fantastic drinks, an amazingly delicious meal, and an inside look at the home and property.  I highly suggest a trip out to the plantation whenever you get a chance.  I don't think you'll regret it!