If you live everywhere near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, acquire Cajun-Creole cookbooks, or watch meals indicated on PBS, the call “Chef John Folse” will ring all styles of kitchen chimes. After all, his culinary empire includes—among others—the White Oak Estate and Gardens for weddings and social events, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University, and his Cajun and Creole Company Store that stocks.
Cajun and Creole meal products, plus affiliated cookbooks. But possibly Chef Folse’s biggest impact on nearby lives comes from his religion. He traces that back to his German Catholic great-grandfather, who arrived in New Orleans in the 1700s with orders to build the first St.
Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and ultimately constructed the Ursuline convent there. In the following centuries, several Catholic German families moved into the region and fashioned a decent family community, Chef Folse stated. With this Old World Catholic history, Chef Folse’s father desired his kids to become very worried about their Catholic religion. He insisted that his sons examine the traditions and techniques of the neighborhood Cajun cuisine. Chef Folse said he desired us to attend to ourselves as impartial men.
“He instilled that during us at an early age, so we all became suitable chefs at domestic,” he said. “All my brothers are still surely exact cooks. And one has his catering corporation.” These days, he brought the brothers together to preserve big crawfish boils to advantage local churches, faculties, and family gatherings.
What led this unique son to influence his career in professional cooking? He was given into the lodge enterprise at the now-closed Prince Murat Hotel in Baton Rouge. He became concerned about its operation by running in front of the house, even though he used to “hang out inside the kitchen,” he said. During that time, he met a German chef from Munich who became a manager at that resort.
“He told me something interesting about cooking,” he said. “I did not start off to be a chef. However, Fritz Blumberg told me, ‘Get off the front table and visit the kitchen.’ I never dreamed of being a cooking expert until he gave me this. And we additionally pointed out religion, meals, and family. After honing his culinary skills, Chef Folse released his organization, Chef John Folse & Company. In 1978, he opened his first restaurant.
Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant. He then set out to take the flavor of Cajun cooking and New Orleans international, including trips to Japan, China, Russia, and Italy. However, his contributions to the nearby Catholic groups in Louisiana have made a lasting impact. He is a speaker for several Catholic agencies and does a good deal of writing and research on local Catholicism. “I do loads within the community of the Catholic nuns of the Mercedarian order, a teaching order,” he added. (Note: Chef Folse is President of The Sister Dulce Foundation,
Inc. The Foundation’s Board of Directors oversees the finances, etc. Of Cypress Springs Mercedarian Prayer Center (CSMPC). “I also have done television shows on the meals of the Ursuline nuns, who’re sincerely steeped inside the cooking way of life,” he stated. “I went to peer the Mother Superior, who requested me to come back go to. She advised me about my exquisite grandfather building their convent.
Not notably, Chef Folse’s regular day, he stated, involves handling his numerous enterprise interests. He praises his “excellent personnel” of 500 employees as he visits his diverse businesses, does TV shows, and trains chefs at Nicholls State University, the home of Chef Folse’s Culinary Institute. His institute offers a Bachelor of Science or an Associate of Science diploma in the culinary and meals-and-service industry. Most importantly, Chef Folse has been guided by his Catholic religion in his successful cooking life.
