Du Jour: TJ McConnaughey, Louisiana Culinary Institute

May was a big month for Louisiana Culinary Institute student TJ McConnaughey. The Travers City, Mich., native won the right to cook at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival’s American Pavilion. “It was the trip of lifetime,” said McConnaughey, 25. In the weeks leading up to the festival, McConnaughey and several other LCI students participated in the school’s annual Race to Cannes face-off, in which they produced original recipes using assigned ingredients. McConnaughey won top honors, sealing the deal in the final “vegetarian” round with a duet of homemade ravioli. One he filled with mock Spanish chorizo of chilies, mushrooms, spices and tofu passed through a meat grinder to give it the right texture. The other was stuffed with silken tofu seasoned to taste like ricotta cheese. Two sauces accompanied the dish, simple butter tomato and roasted eggplant puree.

At the American Pavilion, McConnaughey and LCI second prize winner, Nathan Roose, cooked fast and furiously in close quarters for nearly two weeks. The tent housed a bar and restaurant and was the main stop for hungry Americans in the film business. The kitchen, however, was tiny. “It was like one in a small mobile home, and there were usually about 4-6 people working in it,” says McConnaughey. With access to only Panini grills, toaster ovens and hot plates, and with pressure to produce sometimes 200 plates at a time, McConnaughey says it taught him a valuable lesson: efficiency.

McConnaughey chose Baton Rouge for his culinary arts degree because he was drawn to the flavors of South Louisiana and the American South. Over the course of his tenure at LCI, he’s become a faithful user of native ingredients. “Grits,” he says, “I’m totally in love with them.”

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