A ‘thank you’ ?is in order – A Wee Blether

The only thing there is to do around here on Friday nights, we used to grumble back in the early 1990s, is go out to dinner.

By 7 p.m. on any Baton Rouge Friday night, the painful proof would be lined up out the doors at Superior Grill, TJ Ribs, Fleur de Lis, Mike Anderson’s, Outback Steakhouse and a handful of other reliable, crowded restaurants.

This was long before diversions such as the Shaw Center for the Arts, movie theaters with stadium seating or trendy new arts and cultural gatherings. The Shaw Center for the Arts did not yet exist, nor did Perkins Rowe or the new mall.

We simply flocked to the familiar comforts of predictable food in hoards. I remember a humorless Superior Grill hostess once informing our party that the wait for a table would be three hours.

There certainly wasn’t much variety in local cuisine, either. Sushi had barely made its tentative debut here at a small upstairs space at Hunan on Sherwood Forest. Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean and Chinese food were our ethnic staples, and for years, that was about as adventurous as Baton Rouge tastes seemed willing to get. A clutch of Vietnamese markets and cafés had begun popping up at the far eastern end of Florida Boulevard, but it would be years before they would win over homegrown palates with savory noodle soups and delicate spring rolls.

How far we’ve come since those days.

Today, Baton Rouge diners get to savor the spices and textures of India, Japan, Thailand, Polynesia, France, Greece, Spain, rural Mexico, England, Central America and Brazil, just to name a few. On top of that, a fleet of trendy food trucks now serves freshly ground hamburgers, gourmet crępes and other delights, sweet and tangy.

And of course, there’s the obvious—local restaurants serving traditional Louisiana food. Dozens of cafés and family restaurants prepare Creole, Cajun, Italian and New Orleans cuisine, and fusions of them all.

The men and women in this month’s cover story are just a few of the legions of people who work long hours in stressful conditions to prepare our meals. While we know the names and faces in the “front of the house”—the pretty hostesses, the brisk-footed servers, the nimble bartenders, the gregarious restaurateurs—few of us ever get to know the crew in the “back of the house.” Yet those kitchen staffs are the heart of Baton Rouge’s thriving culinary scene. Behold them for they are makers of feasts.

The next time you bite into some savory delight at a local restaurant—whether it’s a crusty New Orleans po-boy dressed all the way, a savory bowl of pho, or a zesty taco al pastor—remember the unseen hands that prepared it for you.

And every now and again, ask your server to poke his or her head into the back of the house to give them thanks.