5th Annual Southwest Legacy Dinner Honors Ricky & Nancy Perioux

The Louisiana Restaurant Association Southwest Chapter held its fifth Annual Southwest Legacy Dinner on Monday, Nov. 11 at The Pioneer Club in Lake Charles. Last year’s honorees, Doug Gehrig and Gerald Mack presented this year’s award before a packed house to Ricky and Nancy Perioux, longtime husband-and-wife owners of Pat’s of Henderson. 
 
Their family legacy was born in 1948, when Agnes and Pat Huval opened their first steak and seafood restaurant in the small town of Henderson, Louisiana. In 1982, the Huvals’ daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Ricky, became the caretakers of the legacy when they built their own Cajun restaurant in Lake Charles.
 
The restaurant will remain family-owned and operated. The Periouxs were kind enough to let us leverage their legacy to seed the future of our industry, and relinquished the reins to their son, Nic Perioux. As a third generation restaurateur, Nic has spent many years prepping for this day and can recall when he first started with the restaurant back in middle school.
 
My parents truly deserve this recognition, because they’re the perfect example that good things don’t come easy,” said Nic. “They worked hard while doing a great job raising their kids, and I’m fortunate to carry on the tradition.”
 
To commemorate such an occasion, the LRA hosted a unique dining experience featuring a 5-course meal designed by five area chefs to showcase their skills and the fall season’s flavors. The culinary experience included Pujo St. Café, Clean Juice, Coushatta Casino Resort, Golden Nugget Lake Charles Hotel and Casino and The Pioneer Club.
 
The event included a live and silent auction with attractive prizes such as an overnight package at the Golden Nugget Lake Charles including golf for two and $100 dining credit, a 2-night stay at the Seven Clans Hotel in the Coushatta Casino Resort including golf for two and dinner at Big Sky Steakhouse and a Chef Tasting event for eight, at a location of your choice, with Chef Kevin Thompson of Coushatta Casino Resort and Chef Lyle Broussard of L’auberge Lake Charles.
 
The dinner generated nearly $15,000, of which a portion will benefit the LRA Education Foundation (LRAEF). The LRAEF, in turn, will use monies raised to further promote the restaurant industry as a career choice through its restaurant management and culinary arts program, ProStart, offered at fifty seven schools statewide. In the Lake Charles area, Sulphur High School and College Street Vocational Center are program participants. It will also enhance the restaurant community through expanded educational and career opportunities, including culinary and hospitality scholarships.
 
For more information, please contact Britney Ford at bford@lra.org or 225-240-7189.

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