Dining Out in Baton Rouge : Chefs Stir Up Tasty Recipes in Louisiana’s Cajun Country

BATON ROUGE, La. —  Rocky Sonnier was pouring 75 pounds of sliced pork rind into a big iron kettle full of lard.

More than two hours of careful cooking would elapse before the “Cracklin’ King” ladled out fresh crackling, a Cajun delicacy when eaten warm and sprinkled with salt and cayenne pepper.

“I studied for almost three years with a master,” Sonnier said. “This looks easy, but if the crackling is going to be light and tasty, it takes hard work and precise timing.”

While foot-stomping Cajun music blared from a portable radio, he stirred the rinds with a huge wooden paddle.

“You cook the rinds for one to 1 1/2 hours, take them out, then put them back in for two to three minutes, to give them just the right finish,” he said.

Scooped Into Large Pans

When the cracklings were ready, Sonnier scooped them into large pans. Somewhat apprehensively we bit into the piping hot pieces.

They were wonderful, crisp and slightly spicy. We began to eat them by handfuls until reason prevailed.

We weren’t quite so taken with Rocky’s other Cajun specialties: boudin (sausage stuffed with rice), pork liver, green onion and spices, and hog-head cheese (a pate of, yes, hog’s head).

Rocky takes his 100-year-old iron pot to parties and cook-offs, but visitors can buy crackling from his small takeout restaurant, Bayou Boudin & Cracklin, in Breaux Bridge between Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

Rocky was just one of the dedicated chefs we met in Cajun country. The bayous of southern Louisiana have sprouted more great cooks than cypress trees and lily pads.

While Lafayette is generally considered to be the center of Cajun culture, the entire region around Baton Rouge is a food lover’s paradise.

“The food here is every bit as good as any in the world,” says John Folse, owner-chef of Lafitte’s Landing, a restaurant between Baton Rouge and New Orleans near the Sunshine Bridge.

A true Cajun from Donaldsonville, Folse has achieved international renown for opening restaurants in several countries around the world to spread the gospel of Cajun and southern Louisiana cooking. His most recent effort was in Moscow during last May’s Reagan-Gorbachev summit.

“I tried to take something that was uniquely American and very regional and make the world aware of south Louisiana cooking,” Folse said.

Touring Soviets

We were in Baton Rouge to see a delegation of Soviet chefs who had come to visit Folse on his own turf. While the chefs toured, we set out to discover what real Louisiana cooking was like.

At Nottoway Plantation we met Tessie Mae Mitchell, who has made pecan pralines for more than 40 years. She combines milk, butter and vanilla in a large pot and cooks the mixture carefully, stirring constantly for about 45 minutes before turning out the candies onto a buttered marble slab.

“There’s no trick to it,” she says. “You have to know what you’re doing, that’s all. It just takes special care.”

We watched. It seemed simple enough, but we realized that there is more artistry to the process than meets the eye when we tasted a praline. It was the best one we had ever had. Nottoway is an 1850s-era restored plantation home that operates as a restaurant and bed and breakfast inn.

The day we met Mitchell we had arrived for lunch in the large, elegantly furnished dining room. Blackened crab cakes were served on deep-fried slices of eggplant in a champagne sauce, and smoked pork medallions came with cheese grits and sweet potato muffins.

The bread pudding for dessert was creamy and laced with rum; people come from miles around for this bread pudding. But the high point of the meal was the gumbo--rich, thick, spicy but not overpowering, and full of distinct flavors.

“I don’t do it all myself,” said chef Johnny (Jambalaya) Percle in the kitchen, as he introduced his assistants, Oralee Williams (he calls her Ma) and Lillie Nelson. “Ma does the roux, I do the pot. And what you get is gumbo.”

Nottoway Plantation is open for lunch and dinner, and costs about $30 per person.

In Baton Rouge we tried Juban’s, a slightly formal restaurant with flowered tablecloths and ceiling fans. Glynn and Miriam Juban own and operate the restaurant, and chef Tim Kringlie offers a menu centered around fresh local seafood.

A specialty of the house is the Brie and crab soup. We also tried a crawfish and wild rice soup that was chock full of fresh vegetables and delicately spicy. Speckled trout was sauteed and served with shrimp and crab in a dill butter.

For dessert, cherry ice cream was topped with chocolate fudge, finished with a raspberry coulis and served with shaved white chocolate. Dinners about $30 per person.

Another family-owned operation is Chalet Brandt, the most elegant and expensive restaurant in town.

Swiss-born Charles Brandt and his son Eric serve continental cuisine using local ingredients and influences. Guests enter the dramatically modern building to find a setting reminiscent of an Alpine chalet. Huge wooden beams define space, and Swiss banners decorate the walls.

We began with crawfish Peggy--crawfish in a tarragon white sauce baked with toasted almonds, followed by veal Chalet Brandt, tender medallions of veal in a rich brandy cream sauce with chanterelles and morels.

Dessert was a vision--meringue glace topped with freshly made vanilla ice cream, and raspberry sorbet served in a fresh raspberry coulis. It tasted as wonderful as it looked.

Dinners at Chalet Brandt cost $40 to $50 per person, without wine (there is an extensive cellar).

At the other end of the spectrum is Phil’s Oyster Bar and Seafood restaurant, a casual diner with vinyl booths and Formica-topped tables.

This is the favored lunching spot for politicians from the State House, and on Friday afternoons locals gather here in droves to watch Louisiana State University basketball games on television.

When the fresh raw oysters were served we mixed our own cocktail sauce from the ketchup, horseradish and Tabasco sauce on the table. Catfish came deep-fried and delicious, freshly cooked and not overly greasy. Lunch there will cost about $12 per person.

For a taste of Cajun culture to go with the food there’s Mulate’s, a big, noisy restaurant where live Cajun bands play every night and everybody dances the Chank-a-chank, sort of like a Texas two-step. Little kids get up and dance with their grandparents, and everybody has a ball.

The food is simple but good. We tried catfish Boutte, broiled catfish seasoned with Cajun spices and served with grilled onions. Dinner will cost $15 to $20, and there’s no charge for the entertainment.

But the best meal we had the entire time was at Lafitte’s Landing. “What we’re trying to do is stick with our roots and serve regional south Louisiana cuisine, but make it international by incorporating classical cooking techniques,” Folse said.

When we finally tried his restaurant, we began to understand. Although the ingredients were south Louisiana, the preparations had a professional finish.

Incongruously within sight of oil refining and chemical plants, the restaurant is housed in a 19th-Century building where the pirate Jean Lafitte is said to have lived. Inside, the brick walls and wooden beams create a pleasant atmosphere, but the real attraction is the food.

Large shrimp were served in a sauce that combined the sweetness of honey with the tartness of Cajun spices and just a touch of garlic, and a soup of fresh spinach was delicately flavored with Pernod. Fresh trout was sauteed in butter and served in a pecan sauce that was sweet but not overpowering. Zucchini and carrots were cooked perfectly.

For dessert there was cheesecake--incredible cheesecake, creamy and moist. And it was offered in several varieties.

We couldn’t decide between praline, butter pecan and chocolate, so we tried all three, then couldn’t decide which was best. Meals here are $30 to $40 per person.

Recommended:

Bayou Boudin & Cracklin, Breaux Bridge, (318) 332-6158.

Chalet Brandt restaurant, 7655 Old Hammond Highway, Baton Rouge, (504) 927-6040.

Juban’s restaurant, 3739 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, (504) 346-8422.

Lafitte’s Landing restaurant, Donaldsonville, (504) 473-1232.

Mulate’s, 8322 Bluebonnet, Baton Rouge, (504) 767-4794.

Nottoway Plantation, Mississippi River Road, White Castle, (504) 545-2730.

Phil’s Oyster Bar and Seafood restaurant, 5162 Government St., Baton Rouge, (504) 924-3045.