Chefs on Boats

Chefs on Boats

CHEF’S BRIGADE’S NEW PROGRAM BRINGS LOUISIANA RESTAURANT PROFESSIONALS ONTO THE WATER

Alexandra Kennon

Troy Gilbert, the maritime journalist and cookbook author who founded Chef’s Brigade, was unsure of what direction the nonprofit should take following its year of providing free meals during the COVID pandemic. By June of 2021, the nonprofit coalition of New Orleans restaurants and chefs had given out 3.7 million meals, and Chef’s Brigade had built up a massive network of chefs and restaurants as partners. “And so I was sitting there like, ‘Well, what is our pivot? Moving past coronavirus, where does Chef’s Brigade go next?’”

The idea of taking chefs out to the coast to get on a boat and see sediment diversions first-hand arose over a dinner shared by Gilbert, CRCL Executive Director Kimberly Reyher, and Pontchartrain Conservancy Executive Director Kristi Trail.

“And we're just kicking around ideas, for more ways that we can integrate the restaurants into the problems that are going on on the coast and also with the perils facing the seafood industry here in Louisiana,” Gilbert recalled. “Because one of the things I did notice over the course of that year working with so many restaurants is the enormous disconnect between the restaurant industry and the men and women in the seafood industry.”

The next day, as Gilbert was walking to get coffee, he had the thought, “You know what, we shouldn't just take a couple of chefs. We need to take all of them.” And thus, Chefs on Boats was born.

So far, Chef’s Brigade’s Chefs on Boats program has run thirteen trips, taking sixty-five chefs, oyster shuckers, line cooks, and restaurateurs out to Empire, Louisiana to see oyster leases and the environmental factors impacting them with their own eyes. “The oyster men, they’re all characters, as you might suspect,” Gilbert chuckled. “It’s pretty funny. They're like, ‘Wait, what do you want to do? You have a bunch of New Orleans chefs that want to come on board my boat? And listen to me tell my crazy stories? Come on!’ They love it.”

Photo by Jeffrey Spoo.

The experiences have been a lot of fun, according to Gilbert—but incredibly rewarding and beneficial, as well. “The conversations are really fascinating. Because for most of these restaurants, this is a brand new experience for them. Most people don't have access to boats. And they certainly haven't been on an oyster boat or shrimper’s boat. And having the chance to talk about the oyster industry and the shrimp industry. You know, what are the perils? What is the folklore? What is the whole picture?” Not only were the chefs eager to learn from the oystermen and shrimpers, but: “We started noticing that the oystermen were just as curious talking to the chefs as the chefs were [of] them, because there's the huge disconnect.”

Jeffrey Spoo, an oyster shucker at Sidecar Patio & Oyster Bar who recently went out on a Chefs on Boats excursion in Empire, found the experience critical and informative—even more than he initially thought it would be. “Going out on the boat with Chef’s Brigade and Capt'n Richie Blink was way more important than I was expecting,” Spoo said. “I have now experienced the whole journey of an oyster from being dredged out of the water, to returning its shell back into the same water through CRCL's shell recycling program. I was shown first hand the hurdles these farmers have to overcome due to the climate and how the hurdles are only getting bigger and more frequent.”

In addition to better informing restaurant professionals about coastal issues, Gilbert points out that being better connected to where seafood comes from can be beneficial to restaurants from an economic and marketing perspective, too. “It boggles my mind why Louisiana oysters are marketed like, ‘These are from area seven,’ or ‘from area nine.’ I mean, doesn't that sound just so delicious?” Gilbert posed with a wry laugh. “If you went into a restaurant, and on the menu they had a dozen oysters raw from area seven, or for an extra ten bucks, you can have a dozen oysters from the so-and-so family, who have been on this lease in Southeast Louisiana, farming out of Buras since 1842. They’ve got this built-in branding.”

“Getting to know the farmers, production, and the environmental challenges they face will absolutely add some prestige to selling an oyster,” emphasized Spoo. “What comes from all this is gratitude and it will go a long way in keeping this oyster industry rolling into the future.”