We get our usual: pepperoni, a Caesar salad, pitcher of beer. Yesterday was my birthday, and now we have a chance to celebrate. My chef partner, Levi Raines, joins me for dinner down the street at a place called Pizza Delicious. I head upstairs to do laundry and start packing for Miami.ħ p.m. Her radishes are so petite and round and clean. I almost want to cry when she comes in with these beautiful baskets of vegetables. She provides beautiful produce to every chef in the city, all of it grown right here in the Ninth Ward, and I like to go in person to see what’s coming. I visit my purveyor, Michelle Posey, at Pelican Produce. I commute to Compère Lapin, do emails, start checking in orders.ġ1 a.m. Sometimes the next morning just feels like the continuation of the previous day. I like doing email late at night - not many people are up this late, which buys me time. I go back to prepping more for Miami.ġ a.m. We break down what needs to be done step by step, reassuring one another.ġ0:30 p.m. The beauty of this kitchen, though, is that everybody helps everybody. You cannot show any sign of fear - the guests pick up on it. When you run a kitchen, no matter how crazy and chaotic it gets, you have to be the calm one. Tonight it’s busy off the bat, and we’re still short-handed. Before dinner I make 20 pounds of butternut squash ravioli, 80 pounds of sweet potato gnocchi and 40 pounds of scialatielli.ĥ:30 p.m. My sous chefs know how, but I’ve been making it for years and it’s just faster if I do it it’s not worth having someone spend four hours on one task if I can do it in 90 minutes. That means I’m now both butcher and line cook, too, not to mention kitchen expediter once lunch gets busy.Ģ:30 p.m. A cook calls and says she can’t come in - back problems. When the protein order arrives, I get to work butchering.ħ:45 a.m. When produce arrives, the first big order of the day, I triple-check it and start sauce production - a simple shellfish sauce, a cauliflower purée for the pasta. I review the daily prep list and assign tasks, whether it’s breading coquettes or roasting chicken bones for the stock. until midnight every day, so pretty much as soon as I arrive each morning, I’m managing and delegating. We have people working various shifts from 4 a.m. It’s about a mile away, and I ride my Vespa.ħ a.m.
I spend most days at Compère Lapin, our restaurant in the Warehouse district.
As a chef you’re always kind of tasting along the way.Ħ:30 a.m. I don’t often eat regular meals, actually. I don’t really eat breakfast, just coffee and a large bottle of sparkling water. Instead I check my email in bed, focusing on last night’s closing report and today’s incoming orders, which dictate my day. I am trying to get into the habit of taking 15 minutes to stretch, have coffee, watch the sunrise - but it’s hard to remind myself that those little things are important. Compton during a week that had her jetting from one high-profile culinary event to the next - while also sweating the small plates in her restaurants.ĥ:30 a.m. Levi Raines, her onetime sous chef, manages the kitchen at Bywater American Bistro, under her supervision, as she focuses on Compère Lapin. Larry Miller, her husband of nine years, oversees the front of house at both restaurants.
#Nina compton professional#
In her professional life, she juggles two main men.
#Nina compton full#
Compton lives full time in New Orleans and oversees both Compère Lapin and a newer restaurant, Bywater American Bistro. Lucia, and prepared with the technical expertise and mastery of Italian cuisine that she honed in the kitchens of Daniel Boulud, Scott Conant and Norman Van Aken over the past two decades. Compton, 40, won for her work at Compère Lapin, her New Orleans restaurant, where the menu is inspired by the Caribbean comfort food of her youth in St. Last May, she secured a far more prestigious prize: She was named best chef in the American South by the James Beard Foundation, the culinary world’s Oscars. When Nina Compton first drew national attention by competing in a 2013 season of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” she fell just short of victory.
0 kommentar(er)
