Prepared for a style of Louisville, Kentucky? Chef Lawrence Weeks, proprietor and govt chef of North of Bourbon and his most up-to-date restaurant, Enso, is bringing his signature dishes to the EBONY Sensory Soiree Offered by Louisville Tourism, a gastronomic journey going down in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 13, 2024.
“I need to carry the nuances of Kentucky Derby dishes,” Chef Weeks declares, a reference to town the place the Derby has taken place since 1875.
That features his Southern-inspired bourbon balls and benedictine sandwiches, “which nearly no person is aware of about outdoors Kentucky. I need to carry some dishes that individuals have not seen earlier than.” (Simply in case you’re curious: benedictine is a selection made with cucumbers and cream cheese.)
It’s a becoming menu for Weeks. Born in Orange, California, and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, the chef additionally lived in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a toddler. He spent summers in Houston along with his mom’s aspect of the household.
After shocking his mother and father with the information that he needed to change from pc engineering to culinary faculty, Weeks began working in kitchens to pay for his training. After commencement, he moved to Atlanta to work with Chef Todd Richards, creator of SOUL: A Chef’s Culinary Evolution in 150 Recipes, earlier than returning to his homestead in Louisville.
Now the proud proprietor and head chef of his two esteemed eating places in Louisville, Weeks carved just a few moments out of his busy schedule to share with EBONY extra about his culinary creations and why Louisville is a burgeoning mecca to find sizzling new cooks. Get your tickets to attend the EBONY Sensory Soiree Offered by Louisville Tourism.
EBONY: You opened your first restaurant, North of Bourbon, in Louisville, December 2021.
Chef Lawrence Weeks: Sure. North of Bourbon is a southern restaurant. Lots of people need to classify it as Creole Cajun, however that is extra my private background. The restaurant’s theme is connecting the sister cities of Louisville and New Orleans. There’s an enormous emphasis on New Orleans consuming tradition and cocktails. The meals displays cultures from South Carolina all the best way to Texas and every thing in between.
Inform me extra about your Creole background. How does that play into your culinary model?
My mom’s aspect of the household is from Louisiana, a small city known as Grand Coteau. In the course of the Nice Migration, a number of them moved to Texas. That is the place my mom was born and raised.
What’s one signature dish and cocktail at North of Bourbon?
The Shrimp Yakamein is certainly one in all our signature dishes. Yakamein is New Orleans Road meals; it’s just like the final meal that you just eat after an evening of going out consuming and listening to some jazz. Its nickname is “outdated sober” as a result of it is presupposed to sober you up.
Sounds scrumptious. And what’s the cocktail you are having proper earlier than it?
I’d say the one which signifies us essentially the most is the home Outdated Usual. We use Steen’s Pure Cane Syrup, which comes from Louisiana, orange bitters and bourbon. Easy and straight to the purpose.
You simply opened a brand new restaurant within the space as nicely.
The brand new restaurant is known as Enso, which is a Buddhist image for a single brushstroke. It means every thing comes full circle. I’ve been discovering a connection between Japanese custom and approach and Southern cooking, tying in these cultures and discovering their parallels.
Does it additionally really feel full circle so that you can return dwelling to Louisville to realize your culinary desires?
That is precisely the place it comes from. One of many restaurant companions, Stacy Holyfield, discovered a quote from me that mentioned it looks like every thing’s coming full circle, and it simply match.
What’s one of many signature dishes at Enso?
The signature dish is not out but, however as of proper now, it is the chili sheet crab noodles. It is like a South Carolina or low-country sheet crab soup. We combine the crab with chili oil and serve it with dry ramen. There’s a cream sauce on the underside and a bunch of toppings, and also you whip all of the noodles and the sauce collectively on the desk.
How is the culinary scene evolving in Louisville?
I will say it’s totally younger. Cooks of my era at the moment are beginning to be cooks and restaurant house owners, so we’re actually getting a brand new take a look at what the youthful era has to supply. Certainly one of my good pals simply opened a spot known as Meesh Meesh Mediterranean. There are a number of good pop-ups, like Shoku Membership, which providers conventional Japanese meals. They’ve blown as much as the purpose the place they’re in search of brick-and-mortar areas. I believe that our culinary scene is recent and it is rising. And it is beginning to get extra various, which is wonderful.
What would you like folks to learn about Kentucky?
Now we have one thing to say in Kentucky. Now we have a deep and blended tradition right here. I believe that speaks for our historical past. A dialog we all the time have is, are we Southern, Midwestern or Northern? For the reason that civil warfare that is all the time been a factor. In Louisville, now we have the large metropolis; Central Kentucky has all that agriculture. Then you could have Japanese Kentucky, which is the Appalachian Mountains. Now we have lots to supply that is undiscovered by the remainder of the nation and the world.
