On behalf of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, we are deeply saddened by the passing of legendary restaurateur Ella Brennan. We had the joy of interviewing her in late 2016 for the LRA magazine about her life, passion and her then, new book with her daughter Ti Martin, Miss Ella of Commander's Palace.

She was inducted into the LRA Hall of Fame in 1987 and mentored countless culinarians throughout her long career. Daughter Ti Martin and cousin Lally Brennan helm the Commander's Family of Restaurants and were selected as the LRA's Restaurateurs of the Year in 2016. 

Miss Ella of Commander's Palace
by Wendy Waren

“Who would want to hear about this?” said Ella Brennan, when asked why she waited so long to write her book. “I just didn’t think people would want to know about me and my work in the restaurants.”

Her memoir titled, Miss Ella of Commander’s Palace, written with her spitfire of a daughter Ti Martin, is one you will not be able to put down. Chalk full of food memories, stories of family connectedness, heartbreak and heartache, and overcoming adversity in the midst of turbulent times, this book has it all. There’s even threatening ruffians and a call in to a New Orleans mob boss.

“There’s a lot to be said about Ella,” said Chef Frank Brigtsen. “She has a sharp mind and sharp palette. She is a quick read. She can look at a dish, taste it and immediately tell if it’s a winner or not.”

When you read the book, it will seem like she’s sitting right next to you telling you these remarkable stories about her family’s history—her parents Nellie and John, her beloved older brother Owen and glamorous sister Adelaide, and siblings John, Dick and Dottie. If you’ve ever dined at one of the family restaurants, especially Commander’s Palace, you will really begin to understand the Brennan philosophy of hospitality.

“He (Owen) was always saying to us, ‘You’ve got to make these people feel that you’re happy to have them. You’ve got to make them feel, and you just don’t show, you feel.’ That was a big word-feel,” said Ella, take from the book.

Learning how to cook never happened for her and she was thrust into Owen’s first restaurant when she was barely 20 years old. To hear her tell it, the place was a pitiful excuse for a restaurant as the shrimp was teeny and the menu boring and she would tell Owen constantly, “Your restaurant stinks.” Finally, to shut her up, he challenged her to go fix it.

“She won’t tell me what’s wrong with the dish, she’ll just tell me something’s not right,” said Tory McPhail, Executive Chef at Commander’s Palace. “In the beginning, I’d ask her to tell me what’s wrong and she doesn’t know, and I’d have to go back through all the ingredients and reevaluate each component until I got it right.”
A breakfast of scrambled eggs and sautéed bananas like her mother made, is to this day one of her favorite things.

“Thankfully my sister Dottie has mastered making them just like my mother,” she said sharply. “I live right next door to the restaurant and when the chefs make it, I have to coach them on how to do it right.”

When asked what she enjoys to eat right now, today, she replied, “Whatever the chef says is fresh. I love a good soft shell crab and redfish or trout.” Ti quipped, “She loves fish.”

If you ever wondered how Paul Prudhomme came to be at Commander’s Palace alongside Ella Brennan, the book tells the story. Brigtsen testifies that “She and Dick took a dramatically bold step in hiring Paul, and together, they broke the mold of New Orleans cuisine of the time and evolved it with a freedom that revolutionized Louisiana and New Orleans food.”

“He’d put a sauce on part of the dish and another sauce somewhere else, and I would find myself saying, ‘Stop it, Paul. Calm down. Let’s do something simple,’ and he’d respond, ‘But did you taste it?’’’

Brigtsen added, “They were both self-confident enough to insert their opinions and compromise on dishes. For example, Ms. Ella thought his gumbo was too heavy to be a first course or appetizer, so she challenged him to lighten it up and he did—with a roux-less gumbo.”

Emeril was a baby of a chef when he began at Commander’s and she didn’t think much of him at first, but he came to be a good leader and mentor to others and she is proud of the mark he made on Commander’s and the culinary world at large.

“Emeril furthered the evolution of the Haute Creole cuisine and expanded on what Paul had been doing with Cajun, but he also brought his French-Canadian/Portuguese heritage and his own insatiable curiosity to bear on the menu, “ said Ella.

Tales of Emeril’s hand-selected predecessor Jamie Shannon and his cut to short life, and current chef McPhail, are educational outlooks on identifying and fostering talent within the four walls of the restaurant.
All of this behind the scenes work was done with the diner first and foremost. She is passionate about her patrons having an unforgettable experience complete with a feeling that they are family. As I’ve been lucky to experience on a number of occasions, course after course of conversation stopping, mouthwatering cuisine—my favorite meal at Commander’s goes like this: the Shrimp and Tasso Henican, followed by the boudin stuffed quail lacquered with bourbon or cherry brandy, and the bread pudding souffl é or Strawberry shortcake in season.

“Upon first meeting Ella, many people have reported how truly intimidated they were, especially chefs,” added Brigtsen. “While she is direct and to the point, she is never rude and would never use a mistake to tear you down, but rather use the experience to build you up and make you better.”

In the beginning of his career at Commander’s, Ella would meet with McPhail in the restaurant kitchen, and she taught him early on that every dish has to tell a story and that she wanted something on the menu from the grill.

“How do you make steak on a plate tell a story,” asked McPhail. “We are not a steak house, but if you want a steak, we know the Louisiana farmers of Black Angus beef and for the first time ever, we are aging our beef on the second floor of the restaurant. Pair that with fresh vegetables from Covey Rise Farm on the Northshore and you’ve got a great local story.”

Everyone who has had the opportunity to sit with her tells of her ability to get them thinking about things from a different perspective.

Her peers in the industry speak of her as someone who is always doing for others, giving to the community and does not want any fanfare. One of her most notable admirers is Leah Chase of Dooky Chase Restaurant who could not say enough nice things about Ella.

“Let me tell you how exceptional Ella is,” said Chase. “Our restaurant had gotten the worst review from a critic and I was ready to take it on the chin. But Ella wasn’t going to stand for it and she got everyone she knew in huff about it and ended up talking to the writer about it. She sent me the biggest bouquet of flowers. That’s the kind of woman she is and I’m proud she’s my friend.”

“She does this thing called trust and respect,” said Martin. “I come to work every day and I have to try to earn your trust and respect. As an employee, the cook, the dishwasher, General Manager, you don’t owe me any trust and respect, I have to earn that, and you got to earn mine. If we can work from that premise every day,
we can do some magical things.”

​The recently released Miss Ella of Commander’s Palace is available in book stores nationwide now.

Jeff Gulotta and his younger brother, Michael, have an arrangement decades in the making and is playing out daily with Asian-inspired cuisine at MoPho in New Orleans’ Mid City neighborhood and internationally infl uenced dishes at Maypop in the South Market District. 

Their paths converged professionally after Hurricane Katrina, when Jeff went to work in management at an emerging restaurant group where Michael was a chef. The company where Jeff had moved up from wine director, head of the beverage department and then assistant general manager wasn’t reopening in the city.

In this post Katrina era, Jeff continued his journey in restaurant management, while Michael was honing his culinary acumen. Each with complementary skills and a growing business knowledge, the two began to contemplate a restaurant of their own. They really loved Vietnamese Pho and Bahn Mi, but at the time, getting that type of cuisine outside of New Orleans East and the West Bank was unheard of. In 2014, the two opened MoPho where they now bring Vietnamese and Louisiana cuisine together in what was once Delgado Community College’s Chimes book store. Two years later, they doubled down and opened Maypop—a Southeast Asian-inspired eatery in an up-and-coming downtown district formerly made up of parking lots used for Saints tailgating.
​
Gulotta’s learned firsthand the challenges of restaurant ownership and the importance of advocating on behalf of the family business. “The LRA was an important resource for me when we started the business and certainly since then,” he said. “From helping connect us with the City’s Special Projects division regarding a massive construction project around MoPho to giving me the opportunity to meet with U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise to share my concerns about health care, immigration and tax reform, they’ve really shown me how to be an advocate for myself and our industry.”

May 25 is #NationalHeatAwarenessDay, and here in Louisiana, we know about heat all too well. It’s often said that Louisiana has two seasons- hot and hotter (with a cold weekend or two thrown in there). Summertime is definitely the “hotter” season and there are many instances where your employees may have to perform duties outside or in environments with no air conditioning. While those job functions may be necessary, so is safeguarding them against heat related injury.
 
Heat Illness
Exposure to heat can cause illness and death. The most serious heat illness is heat stroke. Other heat illnesses, such as heat exhaustion, heat cramps and heat rash, should also be avoided.
There are precautions that should be take any time temperatures are high and the job involves physical work.
 
Risk Factors for Heat Illness

• High temperature and humidity, direct sun exposure, no breeze or wind
• Low liquid intake
• Heavy physical labor
• Waterproof clothing
• No recent exposure to hot workplaces

 
Symptoms of Heat Exhaustion

• Headache, dizziness, or fainting
• Weakness and wet skin
• Irritability or confusion
• Thirst, nausea, or vomiting

 
Symptoms of Heat Stroke

• May be confused, unable to think clearly, pass out, collapse, or have seizures
• May stop sweating

 
To Prevent Heat Illness, You Should

• Provide training about the hazards leading to heat stress and how to prevent them.
• Provide a lot of cool water to workers close to the work area. At least one pint of water per hour is needed.
• Schedule frequent rest periods with water breaks in shaded or air conditioned areas.
• Routinely check workers who are at risk of heat stress due to protective clothing and high temperature.
• Consider protective clothing that provides cooling.

 
How You Can Protect Yourself and Others

• Know signs/symptoms of heat illnesses; monitor yourself; use a buddy system.
• Block out direct sun and other heat sources.
• Drink plenty of fluids. Drink often and BEFORE you are thirsty. Drink water every 15 minutes.
• Avoid beverages containing alcohol or caffeine.
• Wear lightweight, light colored, loose fitting clothes.

 
What to Do When a Worker is Ill from the Heat

• Call a supervisor for help. If the supervisor is not available, call 911.
• Have someone stay with the worker until help arrives.
• Move the worker to a cooler/shaded area.
• Remove outer clothing.
• Fan and mist the worker with water; apply ice (ice bags or ice towels).
• Provide cool drinking water, if able to drink.

 
IF THE WORKER IS NOT ALERT or seems confused, this may be a heat stroke. CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY and apply ice as soon as possible.