Elton Hyndman, Nino’s Italian Restaurant

By the time he moved to Baton Rouge, Elton Hyndman had worked in restaurants in his native Canada, Madison, Wi., Australia, Indonesia, New Mexico and Seattle. Now, at the ripe old age of 34, the culinary veteran and his wife, Randee, 30, are proprietors of Nino’s, the small Italian restaurant on Bluebonnet and Essen. They purchased the eatery last May, converting what Hyndman calls a throw-back, red-sauce-centric menu into one with simpler, cleaner interpretations of Italian food.

Hyndman’s kitchen career began at age 11, when he says he fibbed about his age to start washing dishes a year earlier than Canada’s permissible age of 12. Over the years of steady work, restaurants became his go-to job. While in college at the University of Wisconsin, he worked his way up the prep line, and it finally dawned on him that cooking school degree was more his speed. Armed with a culinary arts degree, he began traveling and cheffing, working in both holes-in-the-wall and at established eateries.

While in Seattle, Hyndman took a break from the frenetic pace of restaurants to work for General Motors. The company transferred him to Baton Rouge. In short order, he says, he wanted his old rhythm back.

“I was tired of the corporate life,” he said, and “I needed to get back into the kitchen.” He discovered longtime Baton Rouge Italian restaurant Nino’s was up for sale, so he, and then girlfriend, Randee, made an offer.

“It was tiny and cute, and we felt at home,” Hyndman says of the 50-seat restaurant. “It happened really fast.”

Within the first few days, he changed the menu to feature 12-14 new pasta dishes, including egg-infused carbonara with pancetta, grape tomatoes and asparagus, and made-to-order Alfredo with dried cranberries and zucchini. The restaurant’s entrees, he says, “were like a little playground for me. I wanted a lamb chop, a veal chop, a pork chop, and a few steaks served with potatoes and fresh market vegetables. I like things fresh, clean, simple . I like to let flavors speak for themselves.”

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