EHC: Tell me a little about how your background continues to influence your approach to food?
AS: My love of food and cuisine began with my family.
In our family, food and gathering around food was much more than just filling a need of sustenance, it was the way we connected with one another and it held great importance. It mattered what we ate, where we ate, and who we ate with. The meal itself was revered.
My mom’s side of my family is from south Louisiana and my dad’s is from central Mississippi. Both sides, while very different, had the similarity of putting such an emphasis on meals. Hunting was bigger on my dad’s side so we ate a lot of wild game… On the Louisiana side, they would gather from the bayou and we ate things like oysters, soft shell crabs and crawfish. My style tends to land somewhere between them along with chefs and mentors and other cultures natural to the areas we have lived in since sprinkled in.
EHC: What does Early summer/Late Spring taste like to you? (what does it smell like? What texture is it?)
AS: Spring tastes green to me in the best way; Like the delicate new growth of the flora around us, spring has a delicateness to it that the rest of the seasons can’t match. I grew up near Louisiana so I think Louisiana strawberries are one of the most delicious things out there. I enjoy cooking in all of the seasons, but spring is one of my favorites.
Oh yeah, and MF’ing crawfish – Spring also tastes like crawfish.
Growing up, cooking for the holidays was always a big deal – Roasted leg of lamb, fresh asparagus from the garden and deviled eggs always remind me of big Easter meals with my family (Plus strawberries and crawfish.)
EHC: Let’s talk about White Pillars and your new project, Siren Social Club – How do these projects reflect who you are not only as a creative, but as a person?
AS: White Pillars is my creative outlet. Anytime I’m in a rut, coming up with a new dish or a new approach to an old or classic dish usually gets me out of it. Then I ran out of room on the menu, so I had to open a second restaurant.
EHC: Where does inspiration find you?
AS: At the corner of experience and memory. I love to take something that you might not even recognize and try to emote some sort of nostalgia. To try to introduce people to who I am through food is my goal, and it’s my favorite way to express myself, so that prospect is especially exciting.
EHC: Tell me about a significant food memory of yours – a moment when it really clicked that this food and dining was special.
AS: I always wanted to have a restaurant even when I was young, and I think it really came more from a want or even a need to host than it did from the food side early on. I was 3 years into a mechanical engineering degree (with the plan in the back of my mind to open a restaurant after I had saved enough money), when I realized that it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I called my folks and told them that I wanted to change my major to Hotel and Restaurant Management and go to culinary school. Thank goodness, they were very supportive, but they each had a stipulation. My dad’s was very practical, he wanted me to get a job in a restaurant to see if it was the right fit. Mom wanted me to finish on time.
So, with these two ideas in mind, I got special permission from the dean to take extra hours to stay on schedule and then I called my cousin’s brother (because Mississippi) who worked for John Currence and begged for a job. I was taking 23 hours of classes and working 3-4 days a week at Boure and I was hooked; I loved every minute of it.
On one of the very few evenings that I had off, I was hosting a dinner party at my house and it hit me. I was studying about the hospitality industry, I was working for a James Beard winning chef and I was cooking and hosting people at my house in the very limited free time that I had and I knew right then what I wanted to do with my life.
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