Got a killer sweet potato recipe? Enter the 2014 Sweet Rewards Recipe Contest before June 1

The Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) invites its members to submit an original recipe using the beloved Louisiana sweet potato in the 2014 Sweet Rewards Recipe Contest, in partnership with Louisiana Cookin’ and the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission.

From chefs to home cooks, the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission seeks your creative and delicious sweet potato dishes. Do you serve them up as an appetizer, entrée or side dish, or as desserts?

The 2014 Sweet Rewards Recipe Contest receives entries from across the country and its mission--find the best sweet potato recipes. This year’s entries can utilize fresh, frozen or canned sweet potatoes.

The Commission will award five category winners, one each in the following categories: fresh, canned, frozen, culinary student and professional chef.

Each category winner will receive $500. A grand prize winner will be selected to receive $1,000. So start shopping for fresh, canned or frozen Louisiana Sweet Potatoes and enter your recipe here. All entries must be original recipes. Deadline to enter is June 1, 2014.

While you’re getting ready to cook up your masterpiece, take a look at the winning dishes from 2012 and 2013. 

The LRA is a sponsor of the 2014 Sweet Rewards Recipe Contest along with Bruce Foods, Louisiana Cookin', Louisiana Culinary Institute, Alexia and the Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission. 

Louisiana Chef Cody Carroll vies for title of King of American Seafood, Aug. 3 at EXPO

Chef Cody Carroll represents Louisiana
in the 2013 Great American Seafood
Cookoff, August 3 at the Louisiana
Foodservice & Hospitality EXPO.

Chef Cody Carroll, owner of Hot Tails Restaurant in New Roads, carefully breaks down a large tuna under the attentive gazes of Louisiana ProStart^® instructors.

“That’s the beauty of living here,” Carroll tells the crowd. “This fish was caught just yesterday.” The teachers smile and nod their heads, jotting notes as Carroll continues his demonstration, “Fishes of the Gulf: Identification, Fabrication & Cooking Methods,” during the Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation ProStart Educator Summer Training at Grace King High School in Metairie last month.

A Louisiana boy through and through, Carroll, grew up on his family’s farm in Batchelor, where they raised pretty much all of the state’s crops—grain, wheat, soybeans, corn—and arguably its most delicious export—crawfish.

“I grew up hunting, fishing, growing things,” Carroll remembered. “It’s hard work, though and I knew I wanted to go to college and see what else was out there.”

So off to LSU he went, majoring in business and entrepreneurship, while he went back home to the farm during the summer. When he left college, Carroll, 29, had a dream to open a restaurant, but he felt he was missing a skill set.

“I knew 90 percent of what I needed to know to get started,” Carroll said. “I knew I’d learn the other 10 percent in culinary school.”

So off to the Louisiana Culinary Institute (LCI) he went, where he learned about food costs, profit margins, insurance and honed his technique. It would also be where he would meet two very important people in his life and work, his wife, Samantha—Chef de Cuisine at Hot Tails—and his Executive Sous Chef Owen Hohl.

After graduating from LCI in January 2010, the three young chefs found themselves the owners of Hot Tails by that April. The restaurant, serving what Carroll describes as “hardcore south Louisiana cuisine,” was once a drive-through convenience store, ensconced in the business section of New Roads, on Hospital Road. While their kitchen is small—only a six-burner stove, a 24-inch grill and two fryers—they have already had to expand, doubling their original capacity to 100 seats.

Their patrons have welcomed the restaurant with open arms, if not adventurous palates in the beginning.

“I like to think that part of my job is introducing our customers to different preparations of the food they grew up eating,” Carroll explains. “There are more ways to eat fish than to just fry it. We suggest dishes, they trust us and a lot of the time, end up loving it. It’s exciting to win them over.”

That competitive drive will serve Carroll well, as he and Samantha Carroll prepare to represent Louisiana in the Great American Seafood Cook-Off August 3, 2013, during the Louisiana Foodservice & Hospitality EXPO. He earned his spot in late May, winning the Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off during the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. Carroll was the first to present his offering and was confident in his flavors and preparation. His winning dish, Louisiana Speckled Trout Perdu, stayed true to his origins.

“This year was actually my second time competing in the Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off,” Carroll admits. “Last year, I wanted to try something new and I veered off course from what I do best. I didn’t even place. I knew this year I was going to stick with a recipe that was all ‘me,’ with each ingredient telling a story.”

After portioning the tuna, Carroll hands over the demonstration to Hohl, Hot Tails’ resident “Tuna Master.” Hohl carefully sears the tuna filets, after seasoning them.

Carroll beams with pride when speaking of Hohl, a former Grace King ProStart student. “Owen impressed me from the beginning [at LCI]. I remember thinking he should be teaching the class! He knew so much about everything we were learning about.”

Lots of ProStart and culinary students have dreams of working in a restaurant, or opening their own restaurant one day. Carroll has sage advice, as someone who made that dream a reality.

“Focus on the food,” he advises. “Develop your menu, learn the business and keep your food and labor costs steady.” Carroll pauses and grins, “And pay attention in math class.”

Don’t miss seeing Chefs Cody and Samantha Carroll in action at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off, Hall J, at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center Saturday, August 3, 2013, 11:15 a.m.

ProStart® Students Compete for More Than $870K in Scholarships

Louisiana Seafood on board as title sponsor

The Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation (LRAEF) will host its 12^th Annual Louisiana Seafood ProStart^® Student Competition, March 5-6, 2013 at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, Hall A. A total of $872,000 in scholarship opportunities will be awarded to students whose teams place in the top three in both the culinary and management competitions. The funds were donated from nine of the leading post-secondary culinary and hospitality programs in the country, including Louisiana Culinary Institute, Le Cordon Bleu and University of New Orleans School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism, among others. This year begins a multi-year relationship with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, the competition’s title sponsor.

The competition showcases the culinary and academic talents of high school junior and senior ProStart students from 17 schools across Louisiana. The competition features two primary components: the Culinary Competition and the Management Competition.

During the Culinary Competition, Tuesday, March 5 from 10:45 a.m. – 3 p.m., teams will demonstrate their creative abilities through the preparation of a three-course, gourmet meal consisting of: a soup, salad or appetizer; a protein such as meat, fish or fowl, vegetable and starch; and a cold or flambé dessert. All teams’ menus must have at least one type of Louisiana seafood. Twenty-one judges from the foodservice industry, and post-secondary educational institutions will observe and rate their performance during the competition.

Teams participating in the Management Competition, Wednesday, March 6 from 8:30 a.m. – 1:35 p.m., will demonstrate their knowledge of the restaurant and foodservice industry by developing a restaurant proposal, delivering a verbal presentation and applying critical thinking skills to challenges managers face in day-to-day operations. Their performance will be observed and rated by 14 judges from leading colleges and universities and industry professionals.

The 2013 LRAEF ProStart Student Competition Sponsors include: Louisiana Seafood, Acme Oyster House, Auto-Chlor Services, Louisiana Hospitality Foundation, Performance Foodservice Caro, Atmos Energy, Louisiana Culinary Institute, Ocean Conservancy, Ovations, ECOLAB, Notini’s Restaurant, Capitol City Produce, Centerplate, Drago’s Seafood Restaurant, Freeman Decorating, Pontchartrain Convention & Civic Center, Reinhart Foodservice and Sysco New Orleans.

Budding culinarians compete live and
produce awe inspiring cuisine
at the Louisiana Seafood ProStart
Competition, March 5-6, 2013.

ProStart is a two-year comprehensive culinary management course for juniors and seniors in high school with two primary outcomes: to prepare students for higher education and to train students to go directly to work in Louisiana’s foodservice industry. The LRAEF pairs ProStart students and LRA members together in a mutually-beneficial relationship. Students are required to complete a 400-hour work internship, thus providing hands-on training. Many of LRA members serve as mentors to ProStart students.

The participating schools in the Management Competition are: East St. John HS, Fontainebleau HS, Hammond High Magnet School, Lakeshore HS, N. Vermillion HS, Rayne HS, Salmen HS, Slidell HS and Woodlawn HS.

Rayne High School is the team to beat in the 2013 Louisiana
Seafood ProStart Management Competition. Rayne's team
places first in 2012 in Louisiana and previously won
the National ProStart Management Competition.

 

The participating schools in the Culinary Arts Competition are: Ascension Parish Center for Excellence, East St. John HS, Fontainebleau HS, Grace King HS, Hammond High Magnet School, Lakeshore HS, Mandeville HS, N. Vermillion HS, Rayne HS, Salmen HS, Slidell HS, St. James Career Center, Thibodaux HS, WD Smith Career Center, W. Feliciana HS, West St. John HS and Woodlawn HS.

 
The winning teams will go on to represent Louisiana at the National ProStart Invitational in Baltimore, Md. April 19-21, 2013.