Chef Folse gathers cooks like family

Meals carrying traditions make for great events. Learning of Chef John Folse’s Boucherie merited a story. Attending brought another. New Iberia chef Kernis Louviere, Envie Catering, was among the 60 chefs from around the world participating in the cultural event last Saturday — a smorgasbord of Cajun delicacies.

Held at White Oak Plantation east of Baton Rouge, the event was a sellout. Patrons mingled throughout the plantation and around the many farm buildings on the property, some as recently added as last week. Folse is building a place and an event that will continue the traditions of Louisiana families.

“I think the world is yearning to know how our ancestors, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, lived in this wilderness we call Louisiana,” said Folse. “And they did it by coming together as families and raising animals, protecting them and bringing them to the table in a really human fashion, as we’re doing here today.”

Folse said there were people attending from 26 states plus experts from every imaginable art of the boucherie from Spain, Italy and Germany.

“The main thing we want to do is that anybody that wants to know how things were done and done accurately, can learn them,” Folse said. “I don’t think there is any place doing what we’re doing anywhere in the country. We’re preserving the traditions in the way they were meant to be, exactly as it was done and making sure we preserve that for future generations. That’s the only reason we’re here.”

A collection of chefs taking time from their businesses participated in the boucherie.

“We’re reenacting accurately all of the dishes that were done at the major boucheries done in Louisiana where 10 families raised animals separately and came together to butcher the animals and share the spoils. The chefs are preparing the dishes so everyone can taste them,” Folse said.

The event is growing every year, selling out at 200 patrons. The educational parts are important to the enjoyment and understanding of the process as well. People spend the day in a beautiful place and taste some of the finest food in America, Folse said. That’s what it’s all about — working together.

Although they do an official processing of the hogs, the chefs preparing the food to be served at the noon hour bring with them the meats and ingredients needed to prepare the dish at their station.

Louviere was charged with making the white beans and Backbone Stew, a process that began long before Saturday.

“This is like a three step process. I made stock with 30 pounds of bones and what you see are the little pieces after cooking 12-14 hours,” Louviere said. “I pull the bones out, let them cool and knock the marrow out of the bones. The marrow is the flavor and the thickener that I’m using. In there (still cooking) are bones. They are in there to get the marrow out of the bones. We have a container of meat that came off of the bones that we’ll drop in at the end. It’s served over rice.”

Louviere said pork has a lot more gelatin and even with gravies, it makes them a lot richer and thicker than chicken.

“There is just so much collegian in the bone. The bone and the marrow are flavor. It makes it work,” he said.

Also being prepared by his helpers were okra fritters with a Habañero Agave glaze and Jeff Jolet’s carrot beignets topped with Louviere’s bananas Foster sauce. His team of chefs included Justin Manning with C&J Barbecue in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Amber Landry, a chef from New Orleans, and her husband Morgan Landry, with research and development for Magic Seasons. They met at an earlier boucherie and became friends joining the Envie Catering team which included Perry Trahan.