I have to say, since we added an IT department to Scott Boswell Enterprises, we no longer operate behind the eight ball of technology.  Putting technology and systems development in the forefront of our company has become a pivotal point of gaining new momentum.  It amazes me how we’ve made it to where we are now without all of the current systems that are rapidly being developed and implemented by my executive management team.

We have become strongly dependent on the externship program of The Culinary Institute of America since hurricane Katrina.  The addition of modern cooking techniques has created growing interest from new students who want to come to New Orleans to study in our kitchen.  Along with the “in kitchen” techniques, we have taken the interviewing and hiring process to a new level.

We are proud to announce that we are donating funds to install a highly sophisticated video conferencing terminal in Career Services office of The Culinary Institute of America because we believe it’s necessary to further push the envelope of technological development in the hiring process.  We have already successfully hired numerous externs for employment using this not so common technology in the common workforce environment.  We are excited to offer this unique tool for all CIA students to use for interviewing, mentoring and its many other uses.  This will also be available for all who wish to take advantage of our donation to the school.

Get ready everyone, for the exciting things to come!  I don’t know exactly what they are, but at the rate my team is developing and the professional relationships being established, I can guarantee you that it will all be quite exciting!

Words can’t describe the torture of those first two weeks being stranded outside New Orleans.  Watching the horror of television coverage, I began planning my first visit back into the city. I managed to get a military pass which would help me to get through the checkpoints along the way.  Of all the things that needed to be done, the first thing I did was I drove all the way into the French Quarter to retrieve payroll records since payday was August 29th, the day of the storm.  I had an entire staff scattered all over the country that needed money.  I set up a temporary office in a hotel room and my office manager walked me through payroll.  The only issue was that by now two weeks had already passed and another payroll was due.

Two payrolls, back to back, pretty much wiped out my cash flow.  I had to do something quick or everything we had worked so hard for would be lost.  I’m sure all the other residents were feeling the same as I was and we all knew that we had to get back in and do what we do.  My role: to cook.  But how was I going to cook in a completely demolished restaurant?  About that time a former sous chef who I had sent to France to work and study while I was renovating just happened to call me.  I said, “where are you?”  He replied, “Driving into New Orleans. We’re going to cook burgers, right”?  What a great idea!!!  The Stanley concept was about to come alive in a way that was never planned.  This was our only choice and at the time it seemed like a good one.

We heard rumors of an open Winn Dixie super market on the West Bank of New Orleans and set out to check our resources.  We decided to open the next day.  Why not, what were we waiting for?  The city needed hot food and we were going to prepare it.  September 18, 2005, Stanley restaurant opened its doors for business.  We had hot cheeseburgers right off the grill with potato chips and a pickle for five dollars.  We also had a full bar and air conditioning, all powered by a diesel generator.  We did 80 people our first day. In a city plagued by despair, rumors traveled fast that a restaurant called Stanley had opened on Decatur Street.  I thank God for the immense media coverage we got during those times, else our employees would have never seen their chef cooking burgers on television; it was a type of “Bat Signal.”  One by one I met them at check points, getting them through to come help us and the people working to secure and rebuild New Orleans. We started serving upwards of 500 people a day which made keeping enough supplies on hand nearly impossible. Fortunately our message sent out positive energy and other restaurants started opening.

What crazy times those were, not knowing what would happen or what our future had in store.  It was as terrifying  as it gets in every possible way.  A Japanese television channel filmed a documentary of us opening Stanley.  This triggered a conversation between Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai and I where he showed concern for what had happened and about the future of our dinner. I assured him we be ready in seven months, just like we had planned.

What an agonizing journey to watch; day after day, month after month with very little progress being made. It took two months just to get the electricity back on.  Stanley kept us alive financially while trying to regroup and get the Stella project moving again.  Four months passed and our deadline fast approaching, my spirit was now being tested again.  Would we make it?  I look back and think that was silly question to ask because we really didn’t have a choice.   Everyone pitched in because they all knew it was integral to everyone’s’ spirit that this dinner happen.

At three weeks out, things looked grim but not impossible.

Two weeks left and it was going to be close.

With one week left there seemed to be hope… we were only missing one thing: the carpet. I thought that without any carpet there would be no dinner. There’s no way we came all this way, through storms, checkpoints, not showering for days and manning a grill for over 12 hours a day to be foiled by some stupid carpet. Then one of the most magical things happened, the carpet arrived!

One day before arrival we were buttoning up the loose ends.

March 13, 2006, Chef Sakai arrived in New Orleans.  With the hint of freshly painted walls and Tanya still hanging art, we seated Chef Sakai and his guests for dinner.  It was an honor to stand there knowing what we had been through and what we had accomplished. It was the most difficult week of my life, I tell you in earnest, there’s never been a tougher one. We jump started a new kitchen with Iron Chef Sakai and a sold out dining room, three nights in a row.  Nine courses in all and with a skeleton staff also running Stanley we worked hours each day and night preparing each meal.  With the joy of success Sakai returned to Japan and our mission carried on to the next chapter.

Stella lived once again but only four nights per week, serving only 25 people to start.  I had 14 employees trying to run 2 restaurants and financially we were starting to suffer.  We went to five nights then to seven in a desperate attempt to stay alive.  We went to 40 people then 60 and soon we were getting good momentum but the Stanley project had served its purpose.  Through great sadness,  October 2006 was when we closed Stanley on Decatur so we could put all of our energy back into our flagship, Stella.

Back on track and into motion we returned to our great new mission of helping to build the “new” New Orleans we all desired.  We could build it stronger and even better than it was before.  We had the responsibility to get it right this time.  I started traveling again in pursuit of more knowledge and new fuel for my tanks that had run so drastically low.  I first gassed up in the kitchen of Iron Chef Morimoto where I spent my first post Katrina stage, soon after with Chef Eric Ziebold at City Zen in Washington DC. These experiences reignited my culinary flame that had begun to dwindle.  I became obsessed beyond all imagination of taking the great blessing of survival and turning it into a powerful restaurant energy to be shared with everyone each and every night.  After what we had been through and at this point we were clearly cooking without boundaries; I felt like I was  a 10 foot tall, bullet proof juggernaut

Looking back, we were incredibly fortunate compared to others, still to this day we count our blessings.  Our city still sits in a numbed state of shock and recovery has become a way of life that we all live each and every day.  The city’s changed in many ways but one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, New Orleans lives and and we all stand proud of how we survived and all came together to save it.

With every fall comes my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving Day.  It’s been a very special day since my earliest memories. I remember how much I loved my great grandmother’s chicken and dumplings when I was a child.  It’s funny that over the past few decades many “new” family classic dishes have surfaced and become a staple on this very special day.  My dad’s cornbread dressing (which used to be his mother’s) my mimi’s famous fruit salad, now made by my sister.  Green bean salad, candied sweet potatoes, baked spiral ham… the list goes on and on.  It’s an action packed day of cooking and eating, drinking good fare and enjoying relatives.  Great company that we haven’t enjoyed since the last time we gathered

We’re happy that everyone on our team at both restaurants gets to spend this day at home, relaxing and decompressing, eating, drinking and reflecting on what they have to be thankful for. We would like to thank everyone for all of the support! This has been an amazing year and we are grateful for everything. We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!  I’m already looking forward to leftover turkey sandwiches.  Mmmmm.

If there’s one thing that my new career has taught me it’s that there’s a huge difference betweeen being the chef and being the chef / owner.  It’s truly night and day.  When you ask young chefs and cooks, nine out of 10 will tell you that their dream is to open their own restaurant and  I was no different. For the first year of operation I did the books, managed the floor, prepared all the food and attempted a social life.  When I look back, I’m amazed that I even made it this far.  What pulled me through the abyss?  How did I survive, endlessly burning of the candle at both ends?  It’s easy,  I fell in love with the woman of my dreams.

For the first three years of my career I’d accepted the fact that I was a loner, due to the fact I spend 90% of my time in the kitchen. I figured I would be a great chef and one day in the heat of the moment, die in my kitchen… that would be my bitter end.  I wasn’t totally put off by the idea because it was the crazy roller coaster ride that I’d chosen. I learned to live with and accept it. Once I was awarded best new chef in New Orleans and the accolades I’d dreamed of started to pour in, I became crazier and crazier because all my hard work was being recognized. Proclamations of world domination were not uncommon.

Back then the little nightmare of a kitchen that we worked in every night had no ventilation, limited resources and a chain gang of employees with a turnover rate that was startling.  Stella had a reputation on the street of being the hardest kitchen in the city to work in and it kind of made me happy, in a sick sort of way. I was going to the top no matter what I had to do to get there. Bottom line, my mentality was insane—which to a certain degree I still am—but something had to give and it didn’t appear it was going to be me.

I remember one evening in particular that started like many before it; I was walking from the kitchen to the bar and all of a sudden there she was, the woman of my dreams.  I’ll be honest, marriage was the last thing on my mind as I moved in for the kill that night.  I told my bartender to keep her martini full as I sent out course after course, presenting my best hand of seduction. The first evening rocked and rolled, followed with a second only ending with her leaving to go home.  I decided she was a muse, bringing me a message that my heart was still alive and somewhere there may be someone made for me.

We managed to find each other again and began a challenging long distance courtship that resulted in relocation. This is where the roller coaster ride got even faster. I was juggling my success, an unstable kitchen staff, and as if that weren’t enough… I had fallen in love.  The timing seemed all off but in reality it could not have been more perfect because I’d truly never felt like this before.  She taught me how to love other people and for the first time, my bees were getting honey.  Now, this didn’t happen overnight because I’m as stubborn as a horse, but at least the transformation had begun and the seed had been planted.

As she became more involved with Stella!, it enabled me to travel for stages in Tokyo.  I worked with Masahiko Kobe (whom I befriended while staging in Enoteca Pinchiori, in Florence, Italy) in his restaurant Massa.  I immediately fell in love with Japan which was reflected by the “Japanese Invasion” of my menu. Masa introduced me to Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai, and the next year I found myself training in his kitchen.  This led to an introduction to Iron Chef Chinese, Chen Kenichi, and by that time my official staging patterns had starting to take form.

Chen Kenichi

I would have never been able to do any of this without Tanya’s loving set of eyes “holding down the fort” as I moved around.  I staged at Morimoto in NYC and Jean Georges in the Trump Tower. It was clear that now things were really moving.  Being names “Rising Star Chef” in 2003, along with another life changing event made me hungry to keep this rush going.

We flew Masahiko Kobe to New Orleans and held Stella’s first Iron Chef Dinner, a sold out event that fueled my passion and obsession even more.  Two weeks later we closed the restaurant and we were off to the James Beard House.  At the time, this experience was one of the most stressful events to ever take place but that didn’t matter because we had just cooked dinner in the world renowned house; crossing another mark off the master list.  I returned to Tokyo to try and schedule the dinner of a lifetime by inviting Iron Chef Sakai to come to New Orleans and do another Iron Chef Dinner in our restaurant.  He accepted my proposal and it set my soul on fire.

Masahiko Kobe

I returned to New Orleans and decided, for this grand occasion, it was time to renovate our entire restaurant; I wanted to build a dream kitchen for Chef Sakai and me. Keep in mind that this whole project had to be finished in less than a year.  We planned rigorously around the clock, creating excitement in the air and the project was rapidly unfolding.  We were approaching the magic day when we would finally close our doors and begin the project that everyone was waiting for.

Hiroyuki Sakai

On August 21, 2005, Stella’s doors were closed and our aggressive two month renovation began. It was one of the most invigorating weeks of my life as the crew came to work and started the demolition.  Walls came down, jack hammers were pounding, it was clear that we were on a fast-paced mission.  Five days later, on a Friday, we were already waiting for a concrete truck to pour our new slab.  The contractor told me we were waiting for a truck coming from the West Bank and it may be better to reschedule the pour for Monday since there was a storm in the Gulf of Mexico.  I insisted that we stay and at 7:00 PM that evening the slab was poured.  I remember going home that evening feeling more powerful than ever, thinking that nothing could stop me.  I reclined into my chair on a rare Friday evening off and turned on the television to relax… there she was, Katrina.  I thought to myself this can’t be true, becoming very frustrated at what I was looking at.  That’s all I needed, some dumb hurricane to delay the pace we had already set.

I tried to deny it was there, continuing with my plans and met with staff in a tentative new restaurant location the next day.  We were opening another restaurant concept called Stanley. Putting the hurricane terror out of my mine we all started to instinctively clean the abandoned kitchen.  One at a time they all started leaving, evacuating with significant others or friends… suddenly I found myself alone.  I was in the highest level of denial I had ever been.  Tanya was begging to leave but I insisted we stay, I told her that we would be alright and it was nothing to be scared of.  In my pride I wouldn’t leave and insisted that not only Tanya stay, but also my mother and godmother.  How selfish could I be?  I simply wanted it to go away and vanish.  Sunday morning August 28, 2005, I walked into the abandoned streets and felt the air being sucked out of New Orleans.  For the first time in my life, I felt the primal animal instinct that it was time to run because terror was approaching.  I couldn’t believe that this was happening.  It seemed my bubble had burst.  We packed our overnight bags and joined the long line of cars leaving the city, not having a clue of the magnitude of what was about to happen.

This post doesn’t follow the timeline that I established. This will occasionally happen when other, powerful, happenings occur that I feel are important to talk about.

With the challenges and curve balls that we must face, It’s already a difficult task to get through every day.  I question the intensity of each day’s race to prepare for each night’s show in one quest to smile when it’s all done.  It seems we’re all on a similar mission, driven by passion for what we do, with success as the only option. There are nights that are battles, other nights are like a symphonies. Really they’re one in the same and it really doesn’t matter which it is, as long as in the end we hold our heads up high.  We are used to all the stress, it’s the fuel that drives us.  When most are home, we still work hard, late into the night… counting, cleaning, and preparing for the next day, when we’ll to do it all over again.

Can you imagine working 70+ high velocity hours a week, trying to make your crazily driven chef happy… as well as yourself?  It takes a special kind of person to stand behind the kitchen door and make it happen on that level every day.  Their only moments of relaxation comes in the form of a couple beers after work, followed by collapsing in exhaustion into bed for some much needed sleep.  This cycle of daily challenges is what we know best and generally enjoy.

John Sullivan is one of my extremely hard working sous chefs at Stella!  He spends the majority of his conscious life in our kitchen.  Two nights ago, on one of those ultra-rare nights that we get out early, John went to meet a friend after work, someone he hadn’t seen in five years.  They were going to meet near John’s house, grab a couple beers and catch up on the time that had passed them by.  Then someone appeared out of nowhere and before they could blink an eye, were both laying face down on the sidewalk with a gun to their heads.  He screamed, “give me all you got or I’ll kill you on the spot” as he took their wallets, keys and cell phones from their pockets.  Then the suspect ran away, continuing to yell out all his threats, as he jumped into waiting car.

The next day John returned to work with the look of horrific anger and I asked him what the problem was.  He told the story of the evening before, sending anger through my spine, knowing somehow this repeating story had to stop.  It was the third time in less than six months that I had heard a similar story; the only difference was the person that was telling it.  The continued violation of my soldiers, not knowing what I can do to stop it is a feeling I’ve grown to hate.  We’ve been fortunate thus far as our losses are purely things that can be replaced. The fact that this is on our minds every single time we leave at night is a hard feeling to describe to anyone who hasn’t felt it. I think back and realize that it’s been too long since any of us were able to just walk home, not looking over our shoulder every five steps.