Chef Mark Gasquet
A.P.P.C.A.
(504) 733-3796
Email: neworleanschef@cox.net

Here’ a few ideas about very tasty food and places in New Orleans.
First of all, I love seafood. Not only is it extremely healthy but in New Orleans it’s readily available and fresh.
You know it's reputation for health and flavor, but seafood can also be one of the speediest meals in your dinner rotation. It's versatile, easy to prepare, and as this recipe proves, you can have it on the table in a snap.
When you buy fish and shellfish, remember the golden rule: Choose what's fresher and cook it that day or the next. How do you determine if seafood is fresh? Your eyes and nose will tell you plenty. The fish's flesh should appear firm and unblemished. And it should not have a "fishy" smell--bad fish smells bad. Many times the quickest and easiest way to decide however, is to ask. A good fishmonger, the guy or gal behind the fish counter, can save you time and trouble by telling you what he or she plans to server for dinner that night.

Here’s one of my favorite recipes for salmon: (If you have one, why not send it to me?)

Salmon Fillet en Papillote (paper) with Julienne Vegetables Easy to do and soooo good!
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 serving

1/3 cup julienned fennel bulb
1/3 cup julienned leeks, white part only
1/3 cup julienned carrots
1/3 cup julienned snow peas
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon whole coriander seed, ground fine
1 (8-ounce) salmon fillet, pin bones removed
1 orange cut into wedges with white, pithy membrane removed
1 tablespoon dry vermouth

Take a 15 by 36-inch piece of parchment paper and fold in 1/2 like a book.
Draw a large 1/2 heart on paper with fold of paper being the center of the heart.
Cut out heart and open. Lay fennel, leeks, carrots, and snow peas on parchment in center to 1 side of fold.
Mix together salt, pepper, and ground coriander.
Sprinkle vegetables with 1/2 of salt, pepper, and coriander.
Lay salmon on top of vegetables and season with remaining salt, pepper and coriander.
Top with the orange wedges and sprinkle with vermouth.
Fold other side of heart over fish and starting at top of heart shape, fold up both edges of parchment, overlapping folds as you move along.
Once you reach the end tip, twist several times to secure tightly.
Place on microwave safe plate and cook for 4 minutes, on high in microwave, or until fish reaches 130 degrees.
Open parchment carefully and serve for a complete meal.

Local New Orleans Chef’s 15 Favorite Restaurants of New Orleans
According to one authority, there are 883 restaurants now open; 809 before Katrina. (For a complete list and great gourmet information go to www.nomenu.com.)
Over the years I have had the pleasure of dining in most of these restaurants, taking
menus home to imitate an entree, making changes to fit my diabetic lifestyle and recently
producing my efforts in my cookbook: Healthy New Orleans Cuisine.
I hope that you will enjoy at least some of these restaurants which are listed by areas of New Orleans.
A´ voltre bonne sante´!
For my 40 favorite top picks, order my book and I will enclose this list with a signed copy of my book. Info? mgasquet@aol.com

Chef Mark Gasquet
www.NewOrleansChef.com


French Quarter
1) Bayona. 430 Dauphine. 525-4455. Chef Susan Spicer has a new cookbook Crescent
City Cooking. Nationally acclaimed cuisine is featured in this 200 year-old cottage. Try
for a table in the patio if the weather allows.
The review in Fodor's says:
“Susan Spicer applies to her cooking style, which results in such signature dishes as the
goat cheese crouton with mushrooms in Madeira cream, and crispy, fried smoked quail
on a salad with bourbon-molasses vinaigrette. Vegetarian options include a farmers'
market medley with cheddar spoon bread. These and other imaginative dishes are served
in an early-19th-century Creole cottage that fairly glows with flower arrangements,
elegant photographs, and trompe l'oeil murals suggesting Mediterranean landscapes.”


City Park Area
2) Liuzza’s. 3636 Bienville. 482-9120 A neighborhood cafe with great onion rings and
cold schooners of draft beer.

3) Cafe Degas. 3127 Esplanade. 945-5635. French: pates, French Onion Soup. Sit on the
porch, have a glass of wine and watch the world go by. O Cher...

4) Ralph's On The Park. 900 City Park Ave. 488-1000. Take a cab or your car with
their valet parking. (Valet parking is important to me because I have two new knees.)
Ralph’s features up-to-date Creole dishes with great trained service from the Brennan
family group. An appetizer? Go for “Gulf Shrimp Remoulade” which is spicy boiled Gulf shrimp served on a chiffonade of romaine hearts, radicchio, mirliton, and celeriac with
remoulade sauce, chopped egg, red onion, and parsley. And they know how to make
gumbo. Try “Country Gumbo” which is a golden gumbo with Lake Pontchartrain blue
crabs, Gulf shrimp, bayou oysters, Creole country sausage, and green onion rice.

Lakeview Area - Take a cab or your car.
5) Tony Angello’s. 6262 Fleur de Lis Dr. 488-0888. “Creole Italian.” This is a jewel of a
restaurant which had to be completely rebuilt (9 feet of water) after hurricane Katrina.
When you go be sure to order “Feed Me” which is a generous taste of their specials, and
start off with the buster (small) fried soft-shell crabs. You will not be able to finish off the
meal! And believe me, the price is right as is the service. Reservations? Yes. But there is
always a wait at the bar.


Mid-City Area
6) Mona’s Cafe. 3901 Banks. 482-7743. This is a Middle Eastern restaurant which once
was a filling station. There’s convenient parking and inside and outside tables. It has
great lamb dishes, fresh hummus, and baba ghanoush. It also sports a small grocery with
groceries and freshly baked pita.


Metairie Area
7) Byblos, 1501 Metairie Rd. 834-9773. Another Middle Eastern place with great service
and affordable prices along with wonderful food. Their menu lists: hummus, Baba
ghanouj, stuffed kibbeh, Falafel, stuffed cabbage rolls, cheese pie, Tabbouleh salad, beef
shawarma, beef kabob, chicken kabob, Kafta kabob, Fried kibbeh, Kibbeh nayyi, and
Ashta (flaky dessert pastry).”

8) Cypress. 4426 Transcontinental. 885-6885. Here’s a neighborhood restaurant that I
really enjoy when I have the desire for two of my favorite appetizers such as the lightly
fried calamari with a citrus beurre blanc sauce, which is much better than the typical
marinara sauce along with the plate of six fried to perfection oysters.

9) Sun Ray Grill. 619 Pink. 837-0055. Great table-side prepared guacamole. A
couple of my favorites are the “Ahi Tuna with Two Sasames” which is sushi grade
tuna seared with black and white sesame seeds, served with steamed coconut rice,
Asian cucumber salad, sesame ponzu sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi. And the “Two
Tails & Spicy Grits” comprised of grilled jumbo shrimp over a bed of spicy jalapeno
cheese grits smothered in a crawfish and mushroom pan sauce. All at very affordable
prices.

10) New City Grille. 2700 Metairie Rd. 828-8484. A favorite with locals. Friends of
mine recommend the baked redfish served with asparagus and the pork tenderloin on a
bed of sweet potato mash, and also the excellent shrimp crab salad.


Garden District Area
11) Commander’s Palace. 1403 Washington Ave. 899-8221. Contemporary Creole.
(Make reservations well in advance.) This restaurant sets the standards having raised
some of the top chefs in the world. For instance an appetizer featured is “Fresh Escargot
and Creole Cream Cheese Gnocchi” Which is wild Burgundy snails sautéed with toasted
garlic, tasso, roasted mushrooms, soft herbs and black truffle butter.” For an entrée
there’s “Crispy Soft Shell Crab”: Jumbo lump Louisiana blue crabmeat, grilled sweet
corn, tiny tomatoes, pinched herbs, shaved sweet onions and organic grits with charred
chili-avocado emulsion. There’s always a full house, but I like lunch-time best.


Uptown Area - River Bend - Carrollton Area
12) Brigsten’s in a Riverbend cottage, 723 Dante St., 861-7610 A couple of favorite
dishes are the “Softshell Crab with Roasted Pecans & Meunière Sauce”, and the “New
Orleans BBQ Shrimp with Shrimp Calas” (Creole Rice Cake). Oh so good!

13) Clancy’s. 6100 Annunciation. 895-1111. To ensure a better meal, follow the advice
of those same locals and order the night's specials rather than sticking to the menu
(though the duck dish on the menu is as good as duck gets). You could try the fried
oysters with brie appetizer or smoked fried soft-shell crab topped with crabmeat (smoke
flavor not overpowering, crab perfectly fried without a drop of grease to taint the dish),
and veal topped with crabmeat and béarnaise sauce. Food too heavy? What the heck;
make it even more so with desserts such as lemon icebox pie. One local said it was even better than his grandma's!

14) Franky & Johnny's. 321 Arabella. 899-9146. This is a neighborhood café and
favorite “watering hole” where you can get a tray of hot crawfish, a dozen crabs, or a
bowl of gumbo along with a lot of other tasty stuff.

15) Pascal's Manale. 1838 Napoleon Ave. 895-4877. Creole Italian, which means a great mixture of Italian and traditional New Orleans cooking. Try their BBQ shrimp with some French bread to soak up the juices. This is New Orleans staple and should not be missed.


Healthy New Orleans Cuisine is a great new cookbook which has just been published by Chef Mark Gasquet, a chef with over 50 years of cooking experience.

Chef Mark is diabetic and this project, which has been in the works for about six years, has been evaluated by a registered dietitian, a nutritional analysis computer program, and is in accordance with the guidelines of the American Diabetic Association. One doesn’t need to be diabetic in order to eat tasty and healthy food.

How do I know what’s on the menus? I almost always ask for a menu to take home and then try to adapt what I enjoyed to my style of cooking. A´ votre bonne santé !

For copies of the cookbook, which sell for $22.00, tax and shipping included, call (504) 733-3796 or e-mail mgasquet@aol.com.

For my 40 favorite top picks, order my book and I will enclose this list with a signed copy of my book.

Do you have a favorite restaurant and what do you like about it? Let’s share your insights.

Chef Mark Gasquet
www.NewOrleansChef.com