Third Coast Cuisine

Easter Buffet at Red Fish Grill!

HOURS: 10:30 AM - 4 PM   ADULTS: $45

FEATURED EASTER COCKTAILS:  Mimosas $7  Create your own Bloody Mary - $8

STARTERS
SEASONAL SALAD SELECTION: Grilled Asparagus with lemon aioli & pistachios 
Louisiana Crawfish Potato Salad  Fresh Seasonal greens with accompaniments 
Garlic & Cumin Broccoli Salad  Crabmeat Deviled Eggs

ALLIGATOR SAUSAGE AND SEAFOOD GUMBO

CHILLED SEAFOOD: Boiled Shrimp & Crawfish  Freshly Shucked P&J Oysters
Sushi Assortment  Oyster Shooters

ENTRéES

SOUTHERN COMFORT BBQ SHRIMP WITH MARSCAPONE GRITS

HICKORY GRILLED REDFISH with tasso, green beans and smoked crawfish butter sauce

PENNE PASTA with mozzarella, artichoke hearts, tomato, basil and fava beans 

GULF SHRIMP & LOBSTER RAVIOLI with Champagne Butter Sauce

SLOW COOKED SHORT RIBS  with caramelized onion mashed potatoes

STEENS SYRUP & CREOLE GLAZED NEUSKE HAM

SIDES
GINGER & POPPY SEED GLAZED CARROTS    GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
TRUFFLE, CELERY ROOT AND PARSNIP MASHED POTATOES

DESSERTS
DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING  STRAWBERRY COBBLER WITH STREUSAL TOPPING
PECAN PIE   SUGAR FREE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE    ASSORTED COOKIES
DESSERT SHOOTERS:  Banana Cream Pie, White Chocolate Cheesecake 
with strawberry compote,  Coffee, Praline & Orange 

---

KIDS BUFFET
Children 12 and under $15.00  Children 6 and under eat free 

Roast Turkey  Whipped Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes  Green Bean Casserole Cheesy Macaroni    Fried Shrimp    French Fries    French Bread Pizzas
Buttery Broccoli    Build Your Own Sundae Bar    Assorted Easter Cookies
Easter egg dying & visits with the easter bunny and PEEP!

---

Reservations 504.598.1200  115 Bourbon St  www.redfishgrill.com

It’s Carnival time, y’all, and the celebrations have begun for all the Mardi Gras revelry.  New Orleans chef Haley Bittermann will bring the festivities to the Today Show kitchen on Fat Tuesday, March 8, as she demonstrates Crescent City classics –with all the fixins! Tune in Tuesday during the program’s fourth hour (10-11 AM ET) to start your day with some N’awlins flair.  In her first appearance on the morning show, Bittermann will treat the crew on the Today Show to some New Orleans style BBQ Shrimp and a big pot of Shrimp and Sausage (or Andouille) Jambalaya, before sweetening the morning with Double Chocolate Bread Pudding and, of course, some King Cake, then all together now – dance the second line to sounds of the Mardi Gras Mambo.

Chef Haley Bittermann has been working in the kitchens of New Orleans’ for more than 20 years. Executive Chef for The Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, Bittermann has worked with Ralph’s on the Park, Red Fish Grill, Jazz Kitchen, and the upcoming "cafe b"  and Heritage Grill restaurants.  As Executive Chef at BACCO, Bittermann's cooking earned a “Four Bean” rating from The Times-Picayune, as well as being named one of New Orleans’ Best Italian and Most Romantic Restaurants from Zagat, and a “Top Ten Taste” by Southern Living.

In addition to her time in the kitchen, Bittermann is a passionate voice for New Orleans cuisine. She has cooked for two United States Presidents (Bill Clinton and George W. Bush). She was selected by The Louisiana State Office of Tourism to represent Louisiana cooking to national media outlets, and has also represented Louisiana on several envoys to Canada – including a dinner at the United States Ambassador to Canada’s residence.  She also spearheaded the recipes for Ralph Brennan's New Orleans Seafood Cookbook (2009), the award winning and definitive guide to preparing New Orleans Seafood.  

It was a cool, crisp autumn day as I entered one of those ubiquitous chain bookstores in Mobile, AL. I was not there for a cup of java or to knock out a little early Christmas shopping. No, I was there to meet royalty. Well, culinary royalty anyway. Ralph Brennan is yet another of the New Orleans Brennan’s who own some of the countries most notable eateries. Ralph is the Brennan behind BACCO and Red Fish Grill in the French Quarter, Ralph’s on the Park in mid-city New Orleans, as well as Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen at the Disneyland® Resort in Southern California.

When the meeting was first set up, I was worried that I might only get a few minutes with the famed restaurateur, but when I realized that his book signing was scheduled at the same time as the 112th renewal of the Deep South’s oldest football rivalry, Auburn and Georgia, my outlook improved. As it turned out, the game was a barn burner so most respectable folks stayed glued to their sets. Football is, after all, the official religion of Alabama. As for me, I took advantage of the extra time to discuss some of the issues that plague our industry (food services) with a former president of the National Restaurant Association. Very interesting and eye-opening matters I assure you but unfortunately for you, dear reader, off the record.

For me, it was a conversation I will long remember. One of the selling points of being a chef for the Brennan’s is that they are foodies. They get it; they understand the passion by which chefs go about their work, in fact they share it. Recently when speaking with Chef Tory McPhail of the Commander’s Palace, he related how once a week he sits down with his employers (Ralph’s cousins) for several hours and they just chat about food. They discuss trends and pricing, movements and fads. And oh, how I envied him. But no more, for at least one afternoon, I was part of the Brennan Family.

Family is an important concept to Ralph Brennan and, to him, it transcends DNA. If you work for Ralph, you are a member of the family. If you dine at one of his restaurants, you are also a member of the family. This attitude is clearly behind why he repeatedly wins awards as the best employer in the Crescent City. In 2003, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation named him “Employer of Choice” and in 2003 and 2004, he took honors from New Orleans City Business for “Best Places To Work.”

Being from New Orleans, it should come as no surprise that Brennan has a strong tie to the bounty of the seas; most of us along the Third Coast pride ourselves in the quality of our seafood. Ralph Brennan’s book is both a tribute and a crash course on Gulf Coast seafood and, therefore, the majority of the interview focuses on such.

Paper Palate: Of your restaurants, do you have one that is your favorite?

Ralph Brennan: No. Each one is different. I’ve never duplicated a restaurant yet. They’re each different; they’re each fun. They take turns being a challenge to me. That’s kind of fun, too.

PP: You mentioned that you had restaurants all over the country; do you have anything new in the works right now?

RB: No. Katrina and the economy. Katrina set us back and we were just starting to think about where we were going to go, look around at maybe some other opportunities and then (hurricanes) Gustav and Ike came and then now these national economic problems. Right now I’m kind of nosing around at some things but nothing serious.

PP: Why a book about seafood?

RB: Well we wanted to do a book. Then we started to think about it and we looked around and tried to see what other books had been done. And I didn’t want to do a restaurant cookbook. I wanted to do something broader than that because sometimes I find restaurant cookbooks are kind of limiting. With four different restaurants, I just didn’t want to pick one.

We decided seafood could be a good area. Some people had done it but not to the extent that we did it. Then what we did was we had each of the chefs, there’s four chefs plus the executive chef, put together recipes and Gene Bourg, who’s the former food critic from the Times-Picayune, helped me select the recipes so they’re balanced. About 25% of the recipes are traditional recipes like the Trout Mangier and then we have more contemporary recipes that we do today. So it’s a blend of the old and the new and all kinds of seafood. One of our dishes at BACCO is a lobster ravioli and it’s our top selling dish and it’s not in the book because it’s not Gulf seafood.

PP: So the Gulf seafood is important to you?

RB: Yeah. We only use domestic seafood. Most of it is Gulf seafood. Our chefs have the ability to play a little bit with specials but we’re not going to import crawfish or shrimp. There are people who will sell you what they say is the same species as red fish but they come from Thailand or wherever, Vietnam. We won’t do it. We’ll pay more for it to get Gulf seafood.

PP: How does the New Orleans style of cooking seafood differ from other regions?

RB: That’s a good question. I guess it’s probably the way we season our food. The traditional Creole seasonings that we use and each area seems to have different seasonings so I would say that’s probably it, how you flavor the food.

Ralph Brennan’s New Orleans Style Seafood is published by Vissi D’Arte Books (New Orleans, LA) and is a 170-recipe masterpiece created by the perfect storm of Southern talent, restaurateur Ralph Brennan and his five talented chefs, veteran editor Gene Bourg, award-winning photographer Kerri McCaffety, and experienced recipe tester Paulette Rittenberg. It is also the perfect gift for the seafood lover in your family.


Originally published at Paper Palate on December 18, 2008.