I was born and raised on the Westbank of New Orleans on 5th Ave in Harvey where a hub of multiple family members lived. My early childhood was spent at my Grandmother’s house where she regularly cooked dinners for all extended family and many grandchildren. She would spend countless hours in the kitchen of her shot-gun house, tending to pots of stews, beans, and rice. It was her daily mission to show her love through food.

As a teenager, I worked in a few notable restaurants at the time including Visko’s and Christian’s. After college in Birmingham AL, I continued my culinary journey working in the kitchens of Highlands Bar & Grill and Bottega Cafe in Birmingham. And Eiffel Tower Restaurant and Flagon’s Bistro in New Orleans.

In 1994, as a first generation Neo-Bistro chef, I created my first restaurant, “Cafe Dupont”, in Springville, Alabama. Springville is an idyllic antique-driven town, surrounded by small orchids, cold watercress streams, u-pick berry farms, and catfish ponds. It’s here I began to cultivate my slow food style, cooking with the seasons, gaining a working knowledge of planting and harvesting from the surrounding small farms.

Cafe Dupont then relocated to Birmingham in 2003 where it went on to be nominated for multiple James Beard awards. The restaurant continued to lead the pioneering of the farm to table style that was slowly working through small kitchens around the country.

The creation of a New Orleans based farm to table fine dining restaurant is the latest mission of coming home to Louisiana. The restaurant’s name Étoile is French for ‘star’ and refers to the prima ballerina named with my daughter in my heart.