Chef Willie Gaspard sits down with Foodies of Lafayette to share the remarkable journey that led him from being one of 62 grandchildren in a food-loving Cajun family to his current role as both Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage at Cypress Bayou Casino.
Growing up in Delcambre, Louisiana, Willie’s earliest food memories involve watching his grandfather cook 18 turkeys at once for family gatherings and his grandmother preparing gumbo in a crawfish pot in her garage. Despite making his schoolteacher mother cry when he chose culinary school over college (“She thought I was going to be an eight-dollar-an-hour cook for the rest of my life”), Willie quickly proved his talent by winning culinary competitions across the Gulf Coast.
The conversation takes listeners behind the scenes at Cypress Bayou Casino’s five distinct dining venues, with special focus on the acclaimed Mr. Lester’s Steakhouse. Chef Gaspard reveals the secret to their exceptional steaks: premium beef from Creekstone Farms, where cattle are grain-finished for 180 days (double the industry standard) resulting in meat that grades 60% prime compared to the typical 10%. He also shares insider information about their famous bread basket featuring six homemade varieties and how the steak trimmings from Mr. Lester’s become the spectacular fajitas at their Mexican restaurant.
Throughout the episode, Chef Gaspard’s passion for his craft shines through in stories about his award-winning soft-shell crab dish that dominated culinary competitions, the unique dynamics of casino restaurant management, and even the unexpected excitement of a cigar room chair catching fire. Whether you’re a food enthusiast planning your next special dinner or simply appreciate the artistry behind exceptional dining experiences, this conversation offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a chef who’s mastered both culinary excellence and hospitality management.
The podcast was made possible through partnerships with Ounce of Hope, Logic Refrigeration HVAC, The Cajun Table, Chris Logan Media, and Sunday Soda Fountain – proving that when a community rallies around celebrating local food culture, amazing things happen. Subscribe now to join this delicious adventure and become part of the movement that’s transforming Lafayette’s food scene one bite at a time!
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What about after that? Where’d you go from there? After there, I I was at Rip Van Winkle Garden. Oh, yum. Tell me about the Romelad. Do you know the recipe? Can you Can you give it to me? I I can. I don’t know if you would like if I did, but Okay, probably not. Welcome to the official podcast of Foodies of Lafayette, where flavor meets community. A huge thanks to our chef table sponsor, Ounce of Hope. You can learn more at ounceofh hope.com. Let’s join our hosts Heidi McDonald and Jason Stoner. Hey y’all. I’m Heidi McDonald with Foodies of Lafayette. Here today for the podcast with my partner in crime, Mr. Jason Stoner. And we’ve got with us here today, M. Chef Willie Gaspa of the absolutely amazing MLA Cypress Bayou. All of the great places down there. We’re going to get some uh inside scoop on everything they’ve got going on down there. But uh before we get into that, we want to say thank you to our partners. Beautiful Sunday Soda Fountain where we’re filming at today uh downtown Lafayette. Thank you so much for having us. It’s gorgeous as always. Really want to thank uh Seth Logic Refrigeration and HVAC. We want to thank Colin Barcier with Oounce of Hope, our new um partner with the podcast, The Cage Table, and of course, Chris Logan Media Productions. Thanks for keeping us on track. We love y’all. Now that we’ve got all the housekeeping out the way, let’s dig into it a little bit. Chef, sure. Absolutely. Thanks for having So, we had Oh, you’re you’re so welcome. Actually, I’m We were so fortunate to have you. Um, so we visited not long ago and uh what a night that was. Oh, that evening was amazing and uh it’s just amazing food. So, uh that’s kind of why you’re sitting at this table because Yeah, just we were a little impressed. We were very impressed. I’m glad you were. I’m I’m talking Michelin star type impress. I hope one day. Yeah, me too. They just opened it up for Louisiana, so hopefully soon. So, uh, I’m I’m gonna start kind of in your background and go through that a little bit. Uh, but it it I I read up on you and it looks like you grew up in a huge family. Giant family. Yeah. What tell us a little bit more about that. So, like I was one of 62 grand kids. Oh, that’s a couple, right? 62. Absolutely. Wow. So, like back when I was younger, this like I this story I tell like seeing a lot of food. So I I remember my grandparents cooking like 17 18 turkeys. Oh my god. For Thanksgiving. And it would all be gone. All this gone. Like my grandfather had this big giant barbecue pit like behind a pull a truck and he would cook all these turkeys on this pit. And I I remember that when I was my my grandmother would cook gumbo in like a crawfish pot in her garage for So how many kids did they have? 11. 11 kids. 62 grandkids. And then the great grandkids. I I don’t even know the number anymore. And there’s great great grandkids now. And that I don’t know the number. Do you all get together? Every once in a while. It’s kind of some of my dad’s brothers and sisters. Brothers, not all the sisters are still alive. They passed away. And it’s just hard to get Yeah. the whole family together. Yeah. My dad’s my grandmother lived to be 95 and she cooked until she was probably 94 years old. She broke her hip and that’s when it Oh, yeah. Yeah. Wow, what an amazing. Now, where did you grow up? I grew up in Delm. In Delm. Okay. Right outside of Delm. My parents lived outside of Delm. Right down the road. Right down the road. Is that where uh a lot of your inspiration comes from? Some. And my my my mother’s dad loved to cook. He was a military guy and worked at different places, but he loved to cook. Like that’s where most of my caging upbringing came from. My my maternal grandfather. He was an amazing cook. Actually, everyone talks about how their grandmother was a great cook. My mom’s mom could not cook really. No. Well, I she could bake well, but like grandma couldn’t cook. Oh, she didn’t cook. Well, I find that um she did, but it wasn’t great. It’s common for men to cook here. Like, it’s really common for men to be throwing down dinner. Absolutely. For a family. My father’s a great cook. He can He can cook. You learn some things, huh? Yeah. Absolutely. Um, so you it looks like you were grew up in Abbeyville and New Iberia as well. You but you went to school in Delin. Went to school in Del. Yeah. Um, at some point you pursued going to a culinary. Was that right away? Did you always know? Yeah. Uh, I I bounced around a few things before I decided that that’s what I wanted to do. I made my mom cry whenever I told her I was going to go to culinary school. She wanted she wanted me to go to college and I didn’t she didn’t think that back then being a chef wasn’t as glamorous as it is now. You know, it the Food Network popped up after I went to culinary school and the whole nine yards of that. Now it’s cool to be a chef. Back then it was my mom thought I was going to be a $8 an hour cook for the rest of my life, you know. Yeah. Right. Well, we certainly are glad you didn’t go to college. Yeah. Well, what do you think? And my mom was a school teacher, so Oh gosh. Oh, after after I became what I am, I always poke fun out. You know how much money a school teacher makes? Oh my goodness. Well, as the daughter of a school teacher and the granddaughter of a school teacher, I can about imagine how that conversation went when you said you didn’t want to go to school. Well, how we doing now, Mom? We proud of him. I think we are. I know she’s proud. I know she absolutely they are. Was there a particular moment that made you think, “Hey, this is the thing. This is my my path forward. Did anything happen? Any particular job?” Or the casino was a big one. I I didn’t start as the executive chef that I started out as a um chef of Cafe Bayou. Cafe Bayou was Cafe Deline before it became Deline several years ago. And everyone that went to Cypress Bayou knows Cafe Bayou. was the restaurant of Cypress Bayou Casino for a long long time. It was known for giant portions of food, cheap food. Everything we did there was under $12. Like you could get a seafood platter for $12 back in the day. We did 12 fried shrimp for $6.95. Giant plates of food. Um, and we start I I started competing with Cypress Bay back then. And they used to have culinary competitions across the GF coast and I did well like really well like and and this was early on early on. Yep. And used to win quite a bit of money and quite a bit of medals and that that that’s what made me money and medals realize that if if you need a partner in the cook off I’m I’m all for the money and medals. I wish they still did these things. Yeah. Yeah. I might go with you to dul them. Although I’m bitter, right? I don’t know if I’m allowed there. So, um I have a note here. Jubian. Is it Jub? Jubans. Jubans. Yep. That was my first restaurant job in Matt when I was in culinary school. What were you doing there? A line cook. Yeah. Under um Terry Mcdonner. He was a He was actually chef that opened White Oak Plantation for John False. And then he went to Jubans and I worked under him for two years. Learned a lot from him. He’s a old Vietnam veteran and oh gosh, he had one eye. I bet that was a heck of a kitchen to work in. Absolutely. I bet you learned some things. The craziest thing I’ve ever seen that man do, he noticed someone was stealing crab meat. One of the dishwashers was stealing crab meat. He hid in a dumpster and grabbed him when he went to get the bag of crab meat out. Oh my goodness. Well, that’s not something you hear every day. You don’t mess with the Vietnam veteran. Now, what what type of food were they throwing down? That uh Cajun Creo. Cajun Creo. Fine dining. Cajun creo. Yeah. Are they still around? They are, but it changed a little bit. They’re more casual now. When I worked there, it was more fine dining and now it’s a little more casual. Okay. Okay. What about after that? Where’d you go from there? After there, I I was at Rip Van Winkle Garden. Oh, yum. Tell me about the Romelad. Do you know the recipe? Can you Can you give it to me? I I can. I don’t know if you would like if I did, but Okay. Probably not. friend of mine, but Mr. Pat Mo, I worked under the Pat Mo there for quite a few years and then he left and I became the chef there. Um, and then I left there whenever um Carolyn Doyle closed the place and then I that’s when I went to Cypress Bayou. They’re open again under different uh ownership. I’m not I’m not quite sure who owns it now, but I I work there when Carolyn Doyle owned it. Okay. Do you find that it’s been a big change for you from a culinary perspective from one place to the other? I know they all have a different identity, but it’s something that you bring differently or something that you try to bring. Yeah. Um, so in the casino world, it’s it’s a little different than any other restaurants in the world. I I don’t have to make money because all the we’re just an amenity. So it it it took a little while to get used to that like that. Wow, we can sell that for that much. We’re almost paying that much for that, you know, it’s kind of different, you know, like it’s an amenity and we we’re trying to get people to come and gamble and so like everyone thinks Mr. Leers is expensive, but I buy really really good food there. So I I only break even in Mr. Lester. So like we don’t make a fortune there like Yeah. whole scheme of things. Most of it’s comp too because of people gaming. But that was one thing that was hard to adjust to growing up in the casino world. Now I don’t know if I could go back to a real restaurant. Yeah. I think that would be hard to to actually try to make money. Yeah. It seems like it would be easy to get spa having access to Absolutely. to that. Is there anything that um has been your favorite dish that you’ve done since you’ve been with the casino? I love soft shell crabs. That’s if I had all the money that I wanted competitions with soft shell crabs, I’ i’d be a rich man. I shouldn’t have interesting. I know several people that’ll be interested to know that. Okay. So, what’s one with the sauce? What What’s What’s one of the things that you’ve won with with soft? So, I’ve done a dish that I won several times with uh so I do a orzo pasta jumbolaya with crab meat and shrimp in it. Interesting. With the crab. I stuffed the crab with crawfish and taso stuffing and um chiprop burl blanc with it. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my. I won a bunch of times with that. I bet I love soft breading over here. That’s probably one of my favorite things to eat besides steak. I love steak. But if I had to pick it would be it would be a soft shell bread. I have to tell you when we were there um at Milesters not that long ago, one of the things that I had to have as soon as I saw it on the menu was the Chateau Briump because first of all, not everywhere has that. I mean, you can’t just get that anywhere, but absolutely also that’s something that my grandmother used to cook every year for Christmas and so and she’s been gone for a while now, so I haven’t had that in a while cuz I don’t make it myself. I mean, it really is a labor of love, but I have such fond memories of her painting the the meat in the oven with the butter and and it had to be just so. And I’m telling you, when I sat down in the restaurant and had that first bite of your Chateau Bion, it literally brought tears to my eyes. It It’s amazing how food it does. It brought me right back there and it tasted just like it. So, so good. Just elevated to the next level. The little Ratatouille movie moment. It is. It is. It is. What was your favorite, Jason? What was your favorite thing we had to eat when we were there? Oh, I tell you, um I had I had the steak. I just I loved it. Yeah. But I I actually tried off every plate. Yeah. I’m like, “Hey, let me try that. Hey, let me try that.” But I didn’t have anything. I was impressed by every single thing that I ate. And I know that you guys actually prepared some special uh appetizers for us, some special things, and everything impressed me so much. But my steak was amazing. The bread impresses me, too. I love how y’all do the the the presentation of the breads when you sit down and the three different butters and how many different breads are in that basket? Six different. And you have to be careful because you want to eat all of the bread. I will fill up on just that and not have room for anything else. It’s fantastic. Now, how do you come up with the different ideas of Cuz you switch out what the breads are going to be. Every week we do one special bread out of the five of them are staples that we’ve come up with through the years that we if we take them away, people would try to kill us, right? Oh, absolutely. Every week we we do something special. my uh pastry girl, she uh she comes up with something, she’ll find something or look at something or she’ll just make a twist of something that we do already like change the flavors in it or something. But a lot of people don’t make bread anymore. That’s a dying dying art. Like you can buy so many different breads that are really good like Cisco and US food sells great breads that but they’re not what we do, right? Everybody got burned out during CO when they were baking bread. Absolutely. They’re like not doing it any longer. We make all our own bread, all our own pastries. Um we don’t buy anything pre-made as far as that that kind of thing. That’s awesome. That that’s a dying thing, too. Like most restaurants buy pastries that are in a box. Yeah. We make everything from scratch. And what’s the soup this week? Y’all do seasonal or weekly. He is making um chicken tortilla soup this week. Oh, yum. I asked him before I left. So, uh, looking back just a little bit, come back to really you back in. Um, so the first time that you It’s is the first time you were called an executive chef. Is that Rip Van Winkle? Yes. Yep. Do you remember what that was like? And it was something. I was young. How old were you? I think I was 21. Oh my god. Gosh. Wow. Did you feel like a chef before that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I was a cook. I I wasn’t a because no one answered to me before then. Yeah. But Yeah. And so um what did that look like back then? How did you have other people underneath? Yes, I had five, six with seven with the dishwashers. So seven people under me. Oh wow. So you carried that forward. Cafe by you though it looks like you kind of progressed back through roles. Did you have to go backward a little bit? But in the casino, it’s a little the verbiage of chefs are a little bit different. I was the restaurant chef of Okay. Cafe Bayou. Okay. So, technically, I was the executive chef of Cafe Bayou. Okay. Each restaurant has a chef in a casino and then they have an executive sue chef over them and then executive chef over all the restaurants. Okay. Which is where you are now? Yes. So, are you do you get to cook as much now or are you more managing now? I actually have two roles now. I’m actually the director of food and beverage and the executive chef. So I I don’t cook very often. Not very often. So where do you actually get to to to play in the kitchen now? At home for dinner. Yeah. And and I I I help my guys create things like they’ll run stuff by me and we’ll taste and we’ll try and keep them in check. How much uh how long does it take to like develop and like if you’re if you’re not really doing it for profit as top right then do you throw things together quick I mean you know with do you worry so much about the operating you know the the cost uh the the just creating the efficiency do you you don’t have to do you have to worry so much about that not really not not so much. And we do have to be quick. Um because a lot you guys when you come y’all want to eat, you want to enjoy, but a lot of people want to go back and gamble. Like it’s, you know, like don’t take too long with my food, you know, cuz I need to get back on the floor. Oh my gosh, I can’t even imagine. I got to go. I have to go play again. I have that itch, you know, like So you want it Yeah. They want it out there. It depends. And the way staff knows and they know the the regulars and they they know, hey, they they want their stuff quick. They’re not here to they’re not here for the experience. They just Oh, wow. But they want the good food. Yeah. They want to go back. I got to be honest. I’m there for the food in secondary. I mean, it’s worth the drive. I was really when I was dropping Max off at school this morning, one of the other mamas was asking me about Miss Deers because she and her husband want to go down for the anniversary and Oh, perfect. Um talking about Cream Spinach and how good it was and everything and it’s so close being just an hour away. It’s the perfect little getaway. Absolutely. Um I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate that until we had little ones. And with a 2-year-old and a four-year-old, it’s the perfect foodie destination to me. You know, it’s it’s close enough that we can get there, right? Um but to to get away Yes. Yes. And to really get a more elevated experience than than what you can just about anywhere. I mean, Mr. Leers really is a special place what y’all have created there. Um, I I have a a question for you. Yes. So, one of the things that was most surprising to me is how much I enjoyed dining in the cigar room because I don’t smoke, right? I can’t stand the smell. No offense to anybody that does. Um, but it it just it bothers me and I definitely don’t want that when I’m eating, right? And so when I found out that we were going to be eating in the cigar room one night, I was a little disappointed quite frankly until I actually experienced it and realized a that filtration system y’all have is incredible and the smelling it is not a problem. Um but also just the weight of that room. It’s just I mean it’s truly royal. I mean it’s majestic. It’s I don’t have enough words to have the weight of this room. It’s the cigar room is Amazing. It really is. But as a chef, I feel like your initial reaction might have been similar to mine. Like, how’s that going to interfere with my food? Yeah. Did it take a minute to overcome that or did you just walk right in and say, “Oh, it really does. Air conditioner really does work well.” We used to be able to smoke in the whole casino like in all the restaurants when I started. Yeah. And it it it’s a little different. Um the the the smell sometimes. I can smell it sometimes. I don’t smell it, but I can smell the smell sometimes. Like if you go in there when there’s a bunch of guys, you’re super sensitive, I would think. Well, particularly because it’s your There’s a bunch of when a bunch of guys get in there that it you can smell it some. I had a guy burn a chair a couple weeks ago. Oh no. Or flames. Oh no. Oh my god. watched him on on video like he was sitting there by himself by the by the uh Uhhuh. where the big chairs are in the TV and the fireplace. He was smoking a cigar. His cherry fell off in the chair. He looked around a little bit and got up and left. A minute later, there was there had to be alcohol involved. There was a bunch of smoke then in the cigar room. Gosh, you couldn’t hardly see in the room. Oh my god. Well, go for dinner for the show. probably something exciting happening in the Mr. Lester. We couldn’t figure out who he was. He’s not a player, so he just walked out and Wow. You just never know. So, it’s not only Mr. Lester’s steakhouse. You oversee the others. Loco Loco Mexican Grill, Mabels. Yep. You got Cafe Delphine. Yep. Now, what are those? And Bobcats Barn Grill. Tell us a little bit. So, Mabels is just a quick fast food. Uh, it’s sliders, hot dogs, foot long corn dogs, and fried pretzels. That’s all we do there. It’s just a quick $5 meal. Get your food, you go back and play on the machines or plate of tables. Just something quick to eat. Five bucks. Um, Loco, it’s authentic Mexican grill. Uh, we serve the the traditional Mexican fair you get around everywhere else around here. We do. Fajitas are great there because it’s the trimming from the steaks of Mr. Leers. Well, there you go. Now, that’s the kind of insider information we need. Exactly. Get some fajitas. Stay tuned, y’all. Get some fajitas. Wow. All right. What else you got? Um, and Cafe Deline is a it’s Cajun um local stuff. At face, fried shrimp, fried catfish, uh hamburger steaks, grilled ribe eyes, uh ribs. It’s a casual dining, cinjun. We do do a uh the biggest sellers in there. We do a burger. It’s a half pound beef. We make ourselves uh homemade bun fries for 777. And we do a Wow. tin fried shrimp fries for 777. Also, we sell a bunch of those. All of them are separate kitchens. They’re all connected somewhat. Oh, okay. And in the back. Mhm. Okay. So, you can get behind the scenes. You can get through all all of them without leaving. That’s quite an impressive kitchen set up then. Yep. We also have a employee dining room that feeds all our employees. Wow. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh, that is amazing. Well, and we and you oversee all that. Wow. You throwing Mr. Lester steaks down in there? No. A couple times I have. So, like we we have to stay for hurricanes. Oh wow. Legally they have to have surveillance and security there even through a hurricane. So I I usually stay and I cook for those guys and we we we good. We good when a hurricane. I love that. We’re back here with Chef Willie Gaspar. Before we get into the the nitty-gritty and the nuts and bolts and everything, I want to take a minute to say special thanks to our partner Oof. You can find them ounceofhope.com. You can find them at Marcelos’s, at Rous’s, um at Total Wine. Hopefully, they’ve restocked by now. They were sold out. Yes. Um it’s really an ideal product for anybody that’s looking for a little bit of relaxation. It’s a THC seltzer. If you haven’t had it yet, um I would compare it to a a wine really. Um, so anybody that’s really into a wine I’ll particularly red that kind of low-key vibe. Anybody that’s looking to go sober curious maybe give them a try ounceofhope.com and if you plug in foodies foodies 10% discount check them out. Thank you Colin. Thank you chef. Yes ma’am. Coming back to you. Tell us a little bit. So, we’re going to talk about the steaks that you Yeah. Yeah. So, the steak was fabulous. So, absolutely. Uh what you got going on with that? So, we we buy the we buy steaks at Mr. Leers from a place called Creekstone Farms in Kansas. I actually got the privilege to tour the place and it’s it’s amazing. Um very clean. Um couldn’t imagine like how clean this is. I I I never thought that a place where they butchered cattle all day. Slaughter house like and they they take care of their their workers. They had like an apartment complex built for their workers. There was like huge amount of people there and it’s very clean. And the guy brought us on a tour and like we go around to this big glass window looking out on a parking lot and there’s like Mercedes and BMWs and Harleys and Corvettes and he’s like, “See all those vehicles? That’s our butchers. I’m like, wow. Oh, wow. Wow. He said those are none of the executives parked there. Like that’s pretty amazing, you know, like wow. And um so the industry standard for uh Black Angus beef is to be finished on grade uh grain for 90 days. Creek’s um standard is 180 days. And whenever they kill their cattle, their their cattle grade about 60% prime, uh 30% choice, and 10% select. Uh the industry ch standard is the direct opposite. So like at a just a regular steak you would buy at Walmart, it’ll it’ll their beef will great 10% prime, 30% choice and 70% Oh wow. ch uh select. Um they’re they’re all USD inspected. They’re actually hala uh inspected also. the um the there’s a rabbi there blessing the cattle before they get killed. They’re actually a PETA approved kill facility. They take care of all that’s huge, right? They’re all nonstressed and they sing them la to sleep every night. That’s some happy cows. That is But there’s a huge difference in the beef. Absolutely. You can taste the difference. I can taste the difference if I put one of their steaks next to one and I take a bite of both. I can I can taste the difference. And most people came. So when I switched to Creek Stone Forms about four years ago, I had everyone that was a regular say, “What did you do?” Oh, wow. It’s so much better. And I couldn’t go back now because it wouldn’t be the same anymore. It’s expensive, but I couldn’t switch it back to just whatever anymore because people would know it. It’s It’s That’s Now, does it cut different or does it just taste different? It just tastes different. interesting. It’s just from them not being stressed and to finish twice as long on grain and it’s it’s something pretty neat. So, um that is that is just really amazing and and now I know what makes it so and I got to I got while I was there I got a funny story I got to visit one of the ranchers that they have like 12 ranchers that produce their cattle and we went to like the biggest one. And this guy had a house that looks like the house on Yellowstone. Like like giant. He has like 50,000 acres of land and three 300,000 head of cattle. We were having dinner at his house, his wife cooked for us. And one of the chefs that were with me, he was from Canada. He asked the the guy, older man. He’s like, “So if if a bull and a cow make a great calf that’s that’ll become prime, does it mean that they’re always going to make a calf that’s prime?” And the old man looked at him. He said, “No.” You know, there’s some families that when one kid’s a doctor, cattle do the same thing. Oh my goodness. Fair enough. So, you are no stranger to competitions. Nope. You have done I I don’t know how hundred probably Gosh, that’s a lot. And uh you win some, you lose some or what? Absolutely. Yeah. Any of them stand out in particular? Yeah. One time in Shrefport at a at the American Red Cross used to put on a culinary competition in Shreport. I won six. So it was categories and then six of the categories I won gold medals in and I won judges choice and best of show. I walked away with a bunch of money and a bunch of crystal and a big magnum of wine and Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Like felt like winning the Super Bowl, I guess. What’s been your favorite dish that you cooked for a competition? Soft shell crabs. For everything is soft shell crab. Okay. That that dish I told you earlier about, that was one that I won a lot in competition with the Yeah. soft shell crab. And I I I did some a duck dish too that I I won quite a bit with um just a marinated duck breast with a honey thyme balsamic reduction. I I won quite a bit with that. Do those ever show up on that menu? Every once in a while. I used to have it on the menu in Leicester. We took it off a few years back. Yeah. Well, that’s So you do switch it up though. Actually, we’re working on a new menu right now. It should come out probably in about a month. How often do you switch your menu? Twice a year. Okay. Okay. You keep you keep certain things, right? Absolutely. The steaks we can’t really touch. Steaks are stakes. You know, people lose their mind when you change your menu completely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. We changed the salads up some. We changed the uh we we try to put a one or two different vegetables and starches on it and keep the staples. So, it looks like you’ve got a pork chop with a bea. Have you’ve done a pork chop with a beeta beer? You kind of change up that menu, keeping it fresh. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so what’s it like? You you you you sit above this team. What’s your style there? Do you get in with them and Yeah, absolutely. I work with them. I I I actually I work the line sometimes. I’ll get on in the kitchen and cook and whenever uh one of my guys on vacation or whatnot or however or sick or I mean someone’s always sick. So just walk around with a clipboard. No, not all the time. sometimes, but not all the time. And I I like to get in the kitchen and play with them. And we we’ve been playing with the new menu festers lately. So, we’ve been trying some breads and trying a few things out. And without naming any names, do they ever bring you something that you’re like, “Oh, no. That’s not going to work.” Of course. Of course. I’ve gotten brought things that have been in the warmer box all night. Try this. Is it still good? He’ll know who I’m talking about if he’s if he watches this. Not everything can be a win. That’s how we find the best things. I think trying have a stomach of steel. From all the things I’ve tried that probably weren’t good. So in in in all this time in the business, you’re enjoying what you do. Absolutely. That is amazing. I love you. Yeah, I love to hear that. I thank you for coming uh for on this podcast because uh your food is amazing. The restaurant is amazing. Delicious. Um, and I I was so impressed and I can’t wait to go back. We’ll be back later this month. Um, but thank you so much. I’d like to thank a couple of our partners that make all of this possible and thank you for believing in us. We’ve got Logic Refrigeration HVAC. Seth and Logic H uh refrigeration HVAC service restaurant equipment uh in and just about any restaurant equipment, but they’re also huge in our community fridge project and has donated uh preventive maintenance services as well as commercial fridges to those projects to those properties. And so we really appreciate you, Seth, and and we love what you’re doing in the community as well as what you do with the local restaurants, keeping everything cool. Uh, also I’d like to thank the Cajun table uh seasoning uh Cajun seasonings and we’ve got a mild, we’ve got a hot and then a boil. And uh they’re terrific. If you’d like to pick some of those up, then you can do so at the Cajun Table Restaurant and uh we want to thank you both. Thank you so much, Chef. We really appreciate you being here. Great information. Thanks for all that you do. Awesome. Thank you all for joining us. Let’s eat. Let’s eat. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. And thanks again to Ounce of Hope. Use code foodies at ounceofhope.com for 10% off your online order. Until next time, let’s eat.
2 Comments
We're so proud of our Chef Willie 😊
Great job Chef Willie!