Chef Frank Brigtsen
Brigtsen’s Restaurant opened its doors 40 years ago in a small shotgun cottage in the Riverbend neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans. It wasn’t a large place, but Chef Frank Brigtsen felt it was the ideal size for what he envisioned for his restaurant.
He came up through the ranks of the culinary scene in New Orleans beginning at Commander’s Palace, where he apprenticed under Chef Paul Prudhomme in the 1970s.
According to Chef Brigtsen, this is how his relationship with Chef Paul developed:
“When I came to work at Commander’s, Chef Paul was there, and he gave me a choice of working the broiler station where I could make good money, or I could be the pantry cook — with less money, but I would be able to have more time with him,” recalled Chef Brigtsen. “I took the latter, and it was the right choice. I found him to be friendly but serious and very professional.”
Over a three-week period, they met for three one-hour conversations. Chef Paul was interviewing a variety of candidates for positions in the kitchen.
“I realized that he was culling the list, and I realized I was on the short list. I had some good kitchen experience but not in fine dining — but I somehow got hired. I was 24 years old, and I realized I wanted to pursue a culinary career,” said Brigtsen.
Then fate stepped in. One Sunday before a packed house (700 covers) for Jazz Brunch, two chefs didn’t show up. One of the chefs on the line asked Brigtsen if he knew how to make an omelet.
“I assured him that was no problem, and I found myself on the sauté station, which was usually a two-man station, but I somehow made it work. I loved it, and I ended up working all the stations in the kitchen in the following months,” he recalled.
The story goes that Brigtsen was carrying a full stack of plates when Chef Paul asked him how he felt about sauces. Brigtsen replied that of course he wanted to learn all about sauces. Around that time, Chef Paul opened K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen while still working at Commander’s; he asked Brigtsen to work for him at K-Paul’s. It was a crazy time. Chef Paul would arrive at the restaurant early in the morning and go over things with Brigtsen, then head to Commander’s for rest of the day. There was also a pantry cook and a dishwasher at K-Paul’s. And soon, the restaurant became the talk of the town. One day, when the place was humming, Chef Paul invited Brigtsen to come with him in the kitchen to learn how to make sauces.
“He taught me all the nuances of making sauces, how and when to shake the pan, when to add a little of this and a hint of seasoning. It was phenomenal.”
The 1980s was a transformative period for the food industry and American cuisine, with new ingredients and cooking techniques, plus the rise in popularity of local cuisines coming to the forefront. The old guard, made up of people like Julia Child, James Beard and Craig Claiborne, was being followed by a new breed of chefs such as Mario Batali, Alice Waters, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Daniel Boulud, Jacques Pépin and others.
“I was in my mid-20s, and I was in awe — every magazine and many cookbooks honed in on different regional cuisines such as Southwest, Cajun/Creole, Southern and others — and it made everyone in the culinary field take a different perspective on their local cuisines,” Brigtsen commented. Chef Brigtsen witnessed Chef Paul’s unique Cajun cuisine mingle with New Orleans Creole cuisine to create a contemporary blending of the two that resounded throughout the culinary world. Brigtsen had been lucky enough to be a key participant in the rise to fame of K-Paul’s, where he was able to hone his own skills. But he had also learned well from Ella Brennan at Commander’s the art of graciousness, of seeing that his customers were tended to in every phase of the experience of dining well.
Eventually, in 1986, Brigtsen began to search for the perfect place for his own restaurant, which led him to a little white cottage at 723 Dante Street. Dining there is a little like having a cozy dinner at a friend’s house or at a family gathering. But it’s the food itself that steals the spotlight.
The menu at Brigtsen’s is seasonal (King Cakes during Carnival, crawfish in the spring) and uses local seafood and produce. When local seafood is in season, the most popular dish offered is a non-fried seafood wonder called Brigtsen’s Seafood Platter that features grilled redfish with pesto shrimp sauce, baked oyster with Herbsaint creamed spinach/artichoke, baked oyster and shrimp cornbread with jalapeño-smoked corn butter and fried calamari with cherry pepper aioli.
If that doesn’t make your mouth water, other items just might do the trick — dishes like
filé gumbo with chicken and andouille sausage, roast duck, shrimp remoulade with guacamole & deviled eggs, pan-fried fish with roasted pecans and meunière sauce, pecan pie with caramel sauce and whipped cream, New Orleans BBQ shrimp with rice fritters, sweet potato bread pudding and more.
And in exciting news, Chef Frank Brigtsen is finally publishing a cookbook; it’s called Color of Flavor and should be available in late spring. Look for it at Rouses. The cookbook features gorgeous color photographs and Chef Frank’s delicious recipes.
