john besh

Mardi Gras may have come and gone, but thanks to advocates like chef John Besh, New Orleans cuisine will always be in style. The Louisiana-based culinary personality — who runs nine restaurants, has authored three cookbooks, runs a charitable foundation, and hosts a forthcoming show on PBS — has been one of Crescent City's biggest ambassadors. We caught up with the chef poolside in South Beach, where we discussed everything from life lessons to ingredient obsessions.

POPSUGAR: What's keeping you busy right now?
John Besh: I have a new series coming out this Spring on American Public Broadcasting, which is called John Besh's Family Table, filmed in my house. It's strictly the foods that my wife and I feed our four boys, and the way that we create menus around that idea of cooking and eating as a family. My third cookbook will be released in the Fall; it's called Cooking From the Heart. It's about anecdotes and delicious recipes from my apprenticeships in both Germany and France, a tribute to stepping back good, gutsy food like blanquette de veau, that style of cooking. I wanted to focus on the idea of eating, dining, and learning more about yourself in the process — life lessons about food.

PS: Sounds like John Besh's Family Table is inspired by your book My Family Table. Tell us more about it.
JB: I created a book because my wife challenged me to the fact that I was running all over, sourcing ingredients for all of our wonderful paying customers. But at home, I kind of left that up to my wife. [She said], "If you cared half as much about what we're eating as [you do] your customers, then we would be a lot better off." That had me really think about why is it that I do what I do. It can't be just to make a living; I need to spread this kind of passion, and it starts with family. So I started operating the kitchen at home like I would operate a professional kitchen. Let's say I'm making this great centerpiece with pork shoulder and black-eyed peas; I'll take that shoulder and create anything from a green chili to Vietnamese noodle bowls to Cuban sandwiches.

PS: Why public broadcasting?

Find out his answer when you keep reading.

Think eating out nightly and watching episodes of Kitchen Nightmares has given you a grasp on what it's like to run a restaurant? Then think again: owning a restaurant is serious (and tough) business. While the tough landscape is nothing new, you might be surprised to learn what factors are directly related to success — and which ones aren't. At day three of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, a number of culinary heavyweights came together to demystify the biz: New Orleans stalwart John Besh, Top Chef and Chicago favorite Stephanie Izard, Portland restaurateur Jenn Louis, and Miami mogul John Kunkel. Here are five points they hit upon that might surprise you.

Restaurateurs are, first and foremost, businessmen.
Kunkel shared one revelation: "A line out the door does not guarantee a profit." Understanding a balance sheet, on the other hand, might help. "I opened a restaurant . . . by basically pulling a Ponzi scheme on myself," he told the audience only half jokingly. The biggest amateur mistake is "not knowing all the costs that go into opening," Izard said. Or for that matter, the amount of work: "I have no other hobbies," Louis admitted. They all went by the wayside once she committed to opening her own restaurant.

Juggling more than one restaurant can be hugely complicated.
Izard, who has just opened a second spin-off restaurant, Little Goat, put this out there: "It's hard at restaurant number two, learning how to divide your head, when you can't do all the details. I don't know if I'll ever get to that point where I have more than two [restaurants]. I'm kind of a control freak." On the contrary, Besh pointed out that "to go from one to three restaurants is more difficult than to go from three to nine. You have to have managers that understand it, get it, and have the soul." To keep everything consistent across his Louisiana restaurants, Besh has implemented across-the-board rules. "You have to create a standardization of everything," he said. One way he does it is by sharing information with other similarly sized restaurant groups elsewhere in the country, like the Philadelphia-based Vetri Family or Chicago chef Paul Kahan's One Off Hospitality Group.

Local and sustainable is not always practical.
"Farm-to-table is not always possible," Kunkel admitted, explaining that there's a tightrope to walk between top-quality food and what the customer perceives to be a reasonable price point. "There is a balance between providing the absolute best product as a restaurant and . . . staying in business."

Keep reading to see two more interesting restaurant facts.

This morning at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, chef John Besh took the stage and discussed the new cuisine of his beloved New Orleans. The hands-on chef, who describes his cooking style as "chaotic," cooked up an amazing-looking shrimp and heirloom tomato gumbo, black pepper blue crab, and deep-fried soft-shell shrimp.

He talked about the history of the city and how its wide variety of settlers, from the Spanish to the French to the Vietnamese, added to the colorful cuisine that NOLA is known for. "Everyone that comes to the city adds and leaves something to the food. The Spanish brought the sofrito, the French the roux, the Africans and Native Americans — they all helped build the food of New Orleans."

Besh also provided some tips on how we can incorporate the spirit of NOLA into our own kitchens. Find out what they are, after the break.

What's Louisiana-based chef John Besh been up to these days, and where are his favorite places to hit up for Mardi Gras? Slashfood met up with Besh at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, where the star restaurateur was able to field a number of questions asked by fans over Twitter.

Besh sets the record straight on the best Louisiana hot sauce, his favorite place to eat red beans and rice, and the New Orleans dish that's always topped his list — along with some tips for culinary graduates and aspiring chefs. Head over to Slashfood to learn more about John Besh's New Orleans.

Last night's Top Chef All-Stars took things down South, and the butter and the drama were a-flying! The queen of butter herself, Paula Deen, guest judged and presented the cheftestants with the quickfire challenge: deep fry something, y'all! And Paula being Paula, she meant business: "I've deep fried mac and cheese, lasagna, chunks of butter," she told them. "No calamari sprinkled on top of a salad!"

Some of the chefs totally got the concept of Southern cooking, and some clearly didn't (how many times did Dale tell us he cooks Chinese food, not Southern?). Antonia made me nervous with her decision to do a fried shrimp salad (didn't you listen to Paula, Antonia?), but the end result was a decidedly un-salad-like combination of crispy fried shrimp and deep-fried avocado. Unfortunately, she totally spaced and only plated one dish, which prompted my favorite line of the night from Paula: "I could come over there, put you over my knee, and whip your cute little ass!"

Meanwhile, Mike and Richard were working on some chef drama of their own. Mike's fun and creative idea to fry up chicken oysters and serve them in oyster shells was apparently "inspired" by an idea in Richard's notebook. Richard was peeved, Mike was unapologetic, and it only got worse when Mike won the quickfire challenge for his dish! The house was totally abuzz with Mike's disregard for chef law, and Mike reacted by playing the jerk card for the rest of the episode.

More about this episode and the elimination challenge after the break!

Last night, the International Association of Culinary Professional (IACP) held its annual cookbook awards in Portland, OR, to acknowledge the best in recipe and literary food writing, photography, styling, and reporting. Ruth Reichl (who co-hosted the awards with Times writer Kim Severson), John Besh, and Thomas Keller all took home top prizes.

Despite the stiff competition, Besh's My New Orleans Cookbook beat out Marcus Samuelsson's New American Table; Keller's Ad Hoc at Home nabbed a prize over How to Roast a Lamb by Michael Psilakis; and Reichl's anthology Gourmet Today edged out compilations from the editors of Cooking Light and Southern Living magazines.

I'm itching to snag a copy of Gourmet Today now more than ever. What IACP cookbooks are on your wish list?

New Orleans chef John Besh has just been nominated for James Beard and IACP cookbook awards, but the Southern food authority doesn't plan to stop there. In fact, he's making a leap from tomes to TV.

The restaurateur and former Next Iron Chef contestant told the Times-Picayune that he's gearing up for two national TV shows. The first, Inedible to Incredible, has already been shot and premieres June 14 on TLC. "I basically come in and say, 'This recipe is a problem, and I'm here to help,'" Besh says of the new program.

The My New Orleans author is also filming a new series by the same name in his hometown this week. My New Orleans will debut next year on PBS.

I'm not a huge follower of John Besh, but I'm curious to see how well he'll fare with not one, but two shows. Will you tune in to watch the Southern chef on the small screen?

This morning, the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) announced the finalists for its 2010 cookbook awards. Among the finalists? Notable restaurant chefs Thomas Keller, John Besh, Marcus Samuelsson, and Michael Psilakis, as well as former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl.

The IACP awards winners in the following categories: American; Baking: Savory or Sweet; Chefs & Restaurants; Children, Youth, and Family; Compilations; Culinary History; First Book; Food Photography and Styling; Food Reference; General; Health and Special Diet; International; Library Food Writing; Professional Kitchens; Single Subject; and Wine, Beer & Spirits. To find out which notable cookbooks have — and haven't — been included, read more.