Du Jour: Chef Daniel Thompson

Chef Daniel Thompson’s culinary career has taken him from Commanders Palace and the Windsor Court Hotel, to Roy’s in Maui, to a Fourchon “flotel” where he fed up to 700 oil spill relief workers three square meals a day. Now back home in greater Baton Rouge, he’s the new executive chef of Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, where he’ll oversee the recently renovated Mansion Restaurant and banquet operations. Last year, Nottoway completed a $9 million overhaul of guest rooms, restaurants, facilities and grounds to help it become a hub for tourism and destination weddings and events. Thompson says he’s looking forward to getting to know his staff and clientele and rolling out his own Cajun/Creole nouvelle cuisine menu, which he says will take advantage of regional ingredients, including fruits, vegetables and herbs from Nottoway’s Chef’s Garden.

Thompson, 34, has also worked under Chef John Folse as executive chef at White Oak Plantation in Baton Rouge and as executive chef at the Baton Rouge Country Club. In 2006 he was recognized by Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine as one of five “Top Chefs to Watch.”

“I think I’ve known since Kindergarten I wanted to be a chef,” says Thompson. After earning a bachelor’s degree from the Southeastern Louisiana University, he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. He took with years of at home cooking with his father, a hunter, and his mother, a home economics teacher, but at school, instructors told students to forget it all to make room for grueling classical instruction.

At one point in his career, Thompson headed for Maui for a stint at a Roy Yamaguchi restaurant. He arrived a week before his start date thinking he’d stay in a hotel and enjoy the sites. “The hotels were like $300 a night, so the second day, I bought a tent and camped out on the beach,” he says.

It was worth it when he woke up to the sound of whales, he recalls.

Today, the married father of two is eager to draw new patrons to Nottoway.

“I want it to be a destination spot that’s at the tip of everyone’s tongue – the best restaurant around,” he says.