Spuddy Goes to Mansurs on the Boulevard

The petro-chem sector may be Louisiana’s largest industry in
dollar terms, but food is no doubt number one in the mindset of
the collective culture. Louisiana is blessed with so many
regional cuisines, restaurants and food entrepreneurs. On this
edition of Out to Lunch Baton Rouge two colorful, local food
entrepreneurs share their unique journeys, including how COVID
has impacted the way they do business.


Spuddy


Spuddy Faucheaux is owner and chef of Spuddy’s Cajun Cooking, a
local business based on the River Road in Vacherie that
specializes in Cajun smoked meats. For more than 25 years,
Spuddy’s was a small restaurant too, beloved by locals. But that
all changed in December 2018, when a crane on a passing barge hit
the bridge over the Mississippi near Spuddy’s restaurant,
changing traffic patterns, rendering the restaurant unprofitable
and forcing Spuddy to lay off half of his employees.


So Spuddy reinvented his business. In September 2019 Spuddy
launched the Cajun Cooking Experience, which invites visitors
into the kitchen to learn about how Spuddy works his magic. The
venture took off and was an immediate success. And then
Covid hit.


Now Spuddy is forced to tweak his business yet again.


Mansurs on the Boulevard


Chef Chris Motto is an old friend of Out to Lunch. Motto, as
everybody calls him, is the Chef at Mansur’s on the Boulevard,
which is where Out to Lunch recorded every week until the
pandemic. Motto has been the award-winning chef at Mansur’s since
2009 and has been one of the leaders of Baton Rouge’s restaurant
community.


A native of Denham Springs, Motto has also proven he believes in
Baton Rouge and in doing everything he can to make it better. You
may remember – back before the pandemic – in early 2019, Motto
was a finalist on FOX’s reality cooking competition Hell’s
Kitchen. In line to win the whole thing and become a head chef at
a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, Motto backed out and walked off the
show just one week before the final. He said he did it because,
“I want to raise the culinary standards in Baton Rouge. That's
what I've been working on the last five years. I'm not ready to
give up on that."


Since then, Motto has had his own Hell’s kitchen to deal with –
running a restaurant amid a pandemic.  


See Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at our website. Check
out another local legendary food entrepreneur who dropped by for
lunch with Stephanie: Ted Kergan, owner of most of the Sonic
outlets in the state.


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