Besh at the Market

This past Saturday, those who ventured out to the Slidell Camellia City Farmers' Market were treated to a cooking demo by Slidell native John Besh. There were alot of older ladies there, one even demanding that my daughter and I move our chairs (which we'd been sitting in for 30 minutes before the demo began) so that she didn't have to sit in the sun. Sorry, Grandma! Don't get me wrong, I'm not hateful towards elderly people, just rude elderly people!

In this pic, Besh is being greeted by Mary Dubuisson, founder of the Market


The man has a fantastic personality. Several old ladies yelled out that Besh should've won Iron Chef America and Besh agreed.


Here Besh is prepping for his bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes. He has four sons and three of them were there that day, serving samples of the bruschetta to the crowd.


It was super hot and humid that day and Besh and his chef Mike were sweating bullets, but neither one missed a beat in grilling the bread and warming the
tomato mixture.


At the end of the demo, people lined up to get his autograph or to ask questions.

Here my daughter is telling him that she's a culinary student AND that she's going to
La Provence next month. It's great when your kid looks up to the likes of Besh rather than something like Paris Hilton (shudder).

Yeah, we're looking forward to eating at La Provence. The restaurant is beautiful and the waitstaff attentive but not overbearing and food mouthwatering.



From An old article in the NY Times

He is the anti-Emeril, a polite, bona fide hometown boy who is less bam! and more bayou. That he looks good on television hasn’t hurt.

Spend some time with Mr. Besh, and it becomes clear that he knows how to work his assets, which include an addictive laugh, deep blue eyes and hair that always looks a few days away from really needing a cut.

He is a practiced bad boy. His idea of a joke is to send his Israeli-born chef at the Besh Steakhouse at Harrah’s on a nine-hour drive with a car full of Berkshire pork to a Tennessee smokehouse for what Mr. Besh calls “ham camp.”

check out this link to watch the chef (who calls himself a "cook")create
a classic southern breakfast of pork grillades and grits