John Folse Culinary Institute expansion welcomed by industry & future leaders

Last September, Nicholls State University in Thibodaux held a ground breaking ceremony for a new 36,000 square-foot home for the John Folse Culinary Institute. Started in the mid-1990s, the JFCI current enrollment is now six times its original class size, and as a result additional space is needed to accommodate the growing student base.

Due to the ever growing popularity of the culinary profession and Louisiana culinary traditions, the administration sees the program doubling its current enrollment in the coming years. The culinary program is the fastest growing of those offered at Nicholls.

A good percentage of students enrolled at JFCI are being recruited from the Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation’s ProStart program. With 1,300 students enrolled in ProStart statewide, where they learn the foundational elements of culinary arts and restaurant management, many of these students find themselves pursuing their culinary degrees at the Institute.

Also, the LRAEF has awarded upwards of 55 students more than $140,000 in financial assistance through its Scholarship Fund and many of them selected JFCI. At this year’s LRAEF Five Star Futures Gala in New Orleans on August 2, 2014, another $60,000 will be awarded, raising the total to $200,000 since the Fund’s inception in 2009.

The new JFCI state-of-the-art facility is a great benefit to our industry here in Louisiana, as it serves as a training ground rooted in our culinary history and also provides advanced culinary technical training and is the only culinary institute offering a Bachelor of Science degree.

JFCI Executive Director Randy Cheramie said in a Gulfseafoodnews.com article that, the new facility will feature four 1,200 square-foot course specific kitchens—general, pastry, meat fabrication, and sauces, soups and stocks or saucier. A retail shop, selling textbooks, knives, specialty foods and other culinary accessories, is included in the plans. The student-run restaurant will also expand dinner service from the currently offered two nights a week to five nights.

While $9 million of the $12.6 million cost of the building was funded by a state capital outlay grant, the Institute must raise the remaining balance. Partial funding of $400,000 for the project came from a partnership between the JFCI and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board and was comprised of funds from an Economic Disaster Recovery Program grant and funds the LSPMB received from BP following the 2010 oil spill.

Fundraising efforts are still underway and on Sunday, March 23, 2014, Chef John Folse and the JFCI will host its First Inaugural Dinner of the Century at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans.  The “Star-Spangled Evening” pays tribute to a historic meal reminiscent of the last meal served at the White House with the hospitality of First Lady Dolley and President James Madison.

With LRA members Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace, Frank Brigtsen of Brigtsen’s Restaurant, Chris Lusk of Restaurant R’evolution, Susan Spicer of Bayona and others, this is sure to be a memorable event benefiting the new facility. Tickets are $200 per person, with $125 of the ticket price eligible as a tax-deductible donation. Proceeds benefit the construction of the JFCI’s new building.

RSVP by calling Veronica Veillion at (985) 449-7114 or veronica.veillion@nicholls.edu. 

Chef Frank Brigtsen inducted into the LRA Hall of Fame

Chef Frank Brigtsen is inducted into
the LRA's Hall of Fame, Aug. 11 at
the Five Star Futures Gala.
Photo by: Allyson O'Keefe

In the restaurant and hospitality industry, encountering genuinely kind chefs, owners and staff is really rather common. After all, we are in the business to entertain, accommodate and serve. However, when the decision came to determine which individual was to be inducted in the Louisiana Restaurant Association’s Hall of Fame this year, one man stood above the rest—Frank Brigtsen.

“His commitment to our industry and his focus on using local seafood and other ingredients separates his restaurants from many others,” said Melvin Rodrigue, 2012 LRA Chairman. “He gives of his time to the next generation of chefs and managers, even employing Louisiana ProStart graduates in his kitchens.”

A James Beard award-winning chef, Brigtsen was honored at the Five Star Future’s Gala at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, August 12, in front of 400 industry leaders, restaurateurs, chefs, managers and the 2012 class of scholarship recipients.

An individual with a heart of gold and a passion for serving his guests, Brigtsen is a tribute to hard work and creativity. Along with his wife Marna, they own Brigtsen’s Restaurant and Charlie’s Seafood where the menu changes each day.

Brigtsen’s acceptance speech was moving and sincere. In it he said, “Every time I put on my chef coat, I’m putting on 250 years of Louisiana’s proud culinary traditions and legacy. It’s my job to give back and that’s why I cook, serve and teach. I’m particularly proud that one of my students is a recipient of a general hospitality scholarship from the LRA Education Foundation.”

He shared his story of how he entered the restaurant industry during his speech.

“I was broke with no job, living at home with my mom,” he said. “I was looking through the classifieds and saw a Commander’s Palace ad looking for Creole cooks or individuals willing to be trained in the Creole traditions.”

Brigtsen apprenticed at Commander’s Palace under the guidance of Chef Paul Prudhomme. In 1980, he became the first Night Chef at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen when the restaurant began dinner service and during his seven year tenure was promoted to Executive Chef. Paul and his late wife were instrumental in helping the Brigtsen’s open their restaurant in 1986.

In 1988, Food & Wine magazine named him, “One of America’s Top 10 New Chefs,” and New Orleans magazine named him the Chef of the Year in 1994. In 1998, Brigtsen received the James Beard Award of “American Express Best Chef: Southeast.  

Past inductees into the LRA’s Hall of Fame include: Al Copeland Sr., Archie Casbarian, Ralph Brennan, Dickie Brennan, Ella Brennan and Charles Goodson.