Seafood Hotspots
Louisiana’s
Northshore
Elegant food
like this lovely
tuna tartare are
the hallmarks of
La Provence in
Lacombe.
Chef John Besh grew up fishing and crabbing in the
waterways of Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish, aka
Louisiana’s Northshore, an outdoors wonderland
located less than an hour’s drive from New Orleans.
B
esh recalls the outings with
fondness but remembers what
happened after the fishing
trips with even deeper affection: Cap
Feast of “rusty-colored redfish court
bouillon loaded with shrimp, crab and
oysters,” spicy boiled crawfish, succulent shrimp creole and his mother
Imelda’s trout amandine.
“The aroma of toasted almonds
and brown butter – Mom’s trout amandine – is my foremost food sense
memory,” Besh wrote in his “My New
Orleans” cookbook, which spawned a
PBS cooking series of the same name.
(His second cookbook, “John Besh:
My Family Table,” is also now a PBS
series airing nationwide.)
Besh credits his mother with
COURTESY LOUISIANANORTHSHORE.COM
John Besh at
La Provence,
Lacombe
teaching him how to cook fish, a
skill that has served him well. Now
a celebrity chef and James Beard
Award-winner, Besh is a familiar face
as a judge on Bravo’s show “Top Chef,”
and a successful restaurateur with a
number of notable New Orleans area
dining rooms, including the lovely
La Provence in Lacombe, on the
Northshore.
La Provence serves memorable
renditions of crab bisque and cornmeal-crusted oysters and its grilled
lemon fish with a crawfish ragout
over cauliflower puree and Meyer
lemon herb butter is the restaurant’s
most popular seafood dish, according
to Besh. But La Provence isn’t the only
chef-driven restaurant showcasing
“The aroma of
toasted almonds
and brown
butter – Mom’s
trout amandine
– is my foremost
food sense
memory.”
– Chef John Besh
Boiled crab at Kenney’s Seafood,
Slidell.
SUMMER 2013 | FOOD TRAVELER 23