Celebrity Guests

From the Big Easy…

Chef John Besh

Acclaimed chef John Besh has set the benchmark for fine dining in New Orleans, with 6 successful restaurants: American Sector, August, Besh Steak, Lüke, Domenica, and La Provence. His talent and drive have earned Besh critical kudos from the outset of his career: in 1999, Food & Wine named him one of the “Top 10 Best New Chefs in America.” In 2003, Gourmet magazine included August in its “Guide to America’s Best Restaurants,” and in 2006, it cited August as one of America’s Top 50 Restaurants. Besh won the James Beard Award for Best Chef of the Southeast in 2006, and in 2007, Zagat Guide rated August #1 in New Orleans for both food and service. He has appeared on Food Network, CNN, NBC’S Today Show, and was featured in an episode of Iconoclasts with Wynton Marsalis on the Sundance Channel.

Besh grew up hunting and fishing in Southern Louisiana, learning the essentials of Louisiana’s rich culinary traditions. He received his formal training at the Culinary Institute of America, and followed that with further culinary exploration and training in Germany’s Black Forest, where he had his first exposure to truly localized cuisine, and in the south of France, where the region’s flavorful stews and roasts informed his understanding of his native Creole cuisine. Besh’s appreciation for local ingredients and local cuisine has only increased since Hurricane Katrina, as he considers these essential to the survival of the peoples and cultural heritage of New Orleans.

Besh has been actively involved in efforts locally and nationally to raise funds for hurricane survivors. He has also served as an energetic spokesman for the Louisiana Seafood Council, as well as a member of the Southern Foodways Alliance; a Board Member of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum; and is active in a state promotional program created by Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, who tapped the chef to prepare meals with the media in an effort to showcase the cuisine of Louisiana.

In Americas’s oldest fine dining city, this boy from the bayou has built a thriving restaurant group. Each venture reflects his broad-ranging culinary passions, benefits from his dedication to local products, and – though his palate has taken him around the world – celebrates the multi-faceted cuisine of his beloved southern Louisiana.

Donald Link

Herbsaint, Cochon, Butcher, and Calcasieu

Inspired by the Cajun and southern cooking of his grandparents, Louisiana native Chef Donald Link began his professional cooking career at 15 years old. Recognized as one of New Orleans’ preeminent chefs, Chef Link has peppered the streets of the Warehouse District of New Orleans with several restaurants over the course of 10 years: Herbsaint Link’s contemporary take on the French-American “bistro”; Cochon where Link offers true Cajun and southern cooking featuring the foods and cooking techniques he grew up preparing and eating; Cochon Butcher a tribute to old world butcher and charcuterie shops also serving a bar menu, sandwiches, wine and creative cocktails; and Calcasieu, a private event facility that takes its name from one of the parishes in the Acadiana region of southwest Louisiana.

Link’s flagship restaurant Herbsaint earned him a James Beard award in 2007 for Best Chef South. Gourmet Magazine has listed Herbsaint as one of the top 50 restaurants in America, and this year Herbsaint was inducted into the Nations Restaurant News Hall of Fame. Cochon was nominated in 2007 for Best New Restaurant in America by the James Beard Foundation; and was also listed in The New York Times as “one of the top 3 restaurants that count.”

The James Beard Foundation honored Link’s first cookbook– Real Cajun: Rustic Home Cooking from Donald Link’s Louisiana (Clarkson Potter) with their top award for Best American Cookbook. Released in 2009, Real Cajun is a collection of family recipes that Link has honed and perfected while honoring the authenticity of the Cajun people.

Susan Spicer

Susan Spicer began her cooking career in New Orleans as an apprentice to Chef Daniel Bonnot at the Louis XVI Restaurant in 1979. After a 4-month “stage” with Chef Roland Durand (Meilleur Oeuvrier de France) at the Hotel Sofitel in Paris in 1982, she returned to New Orleans to open the 60-seat bistro “Savoir Faire” in the St. Charles Hotel as Chef de Cuisine. In 1985, she traveled extensively in California and Europe for 6 months, returning to work in the kitchen at the New Orleans Meridien Hotel’s “Henri” (consultant chef, Marc Haeberlin of l’Auberge de I’ill).

In 1986 she left to open the tiny “Bistro at Maison de Ville” in the Hotel Maison deVille. After nearly four years as chef, she formed a partnership with Regina Keever and in the spring of 1990 opened Bayona in a beautiful, 200-year-old cottage in the French Quarter. With solid support from local diners and critics, Bayona soon earned national attention and has been featured in numerous publications from Food and Wine, Saveur, and Food Arts, to Travel & Leisure, Bon Appetit, The New York Times and more.

From 1997 through 1999, Susan owned and operated Spice, Inc., a specialty food market with take-out food, cooking classes and artisan bakery. This developed into Wild Flour Breads, which she currently co-owns with partner Sandy Whann.

In October of 2000, Susan and three partners opened Herbsaint, a casual award winning contemporary bistro-style restaurant in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. In 2008, she sold her partnership to Donald Link, but continues to be a regular patron at the bar.

Susan has been the guest chef at The James Beard House, The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok, the Lanesborough in London, Cunard and Crystal Cruise Lines, as well as appearing on local and national television, including an appearance on the finale of the popular Bravo series Top Chef in 2009. She regularly contributes her talents to numerous charity events, such as co-chairing the New Orleans chapter of Share Our Strength’s annual “Taste of the Nation” for more than 15 years and has represented New Orleans at the Superbowl hunger-relief fundraiser “Taste of the NFL” ( with one exception, 2010-the year the Saints won the Superbowl!!!) since it’s inaugural year. In May 1993 she was the recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Southeast Region and, in 1995 was chosen for the Mondavi Culinary Excellence Award. Bayona was featured as one of Restaurants and Institutions 1996 Ivy Award Winners, as well as being named to Nation’s Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1998. One of the 1989 recipients of Food and Wine’s Best New Chefs award, Chef Spicer was inducted in the summer of 2008 into the magazine’s Best New Chef Hall of Fame. In March 2009, the John Folse Culinary Institute honored Chef Spicer with the Lafcadio Hearn Award given to “…culinary professionals who have had a long term positive influence on the cuisine and culture of Louisiana and the nation…” In addition Bayona received “5 Beans,” the highest rating from the New Orleans Times- Picayune., Since 1995, Bayona has been listed in the Zagat Guide for New Orleans as one of the top 5 restaurants in the city, receiving a rating of 28 points out of 30, and has repeatedly received 4 stars from Mobile Star Awards, one of two restaurants to receive this rating in New Orleans. In May 2010, Susan was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America..

Susan’s first book, entitled Crescent City Cooking: Unforgettable Recipes from Susan Spicer’s New Orleans, was released nationwide by Knopf in late October 2007. In the spring of 2008 Crescent City Cooking was recognized by the International Association of Culinary Professionals with a nomination for Best American Cookbook, and was awarded Best New Cookbook by New Orleans Magazine. Chef Spicer’s book was also included in Food & Wine’s 2008 Best of the Best, a collection of recipes selected from their top 25 cookbooks of the year.

Her latest project is the opening of MONDO, a casual, family style restaurant due to open May of 2010 in Chef Spicer’s neighborhood of Lakeview, where she has lived for 20 years.