Noms de manger in Baton Rouge

Dishes with proper names—you see them on menus all over Baton Rouge. Caesar Salads and Oysters Rockefeller, move over: The tradition of naming food in a clever, ironic or salutatory fashion lives on in the Red Stick. Below are just a few examples of nearby noms de manger:

Gino’s: At Gino’s Italian restaurant, dishes named after its proprietor, Gino Marino, or his mother, Grace “Mama” Marino, pepper the menu. But the famous Laurence bread appetizer has an interesting, little-known backstory. According to Gino, the family was sitting down to a meal between shifts when Mama Marino brought out a new kind of bread for everyone to try. Upon tasting it, everyone agreed it belonged on the menu but stalled on ideas for a name. Laurence, Gino’s brother, joked that since everything else on the menu carried Gino’s name, they might as well call it Gino bread. Mama paused and said, “No. I think we’ll call it Laurence bread.” Now everyone in Gino’s family has a dish named after him or her—including his sister Frances, whose name was Italianized to create Pasta Francesca.

Mike Anderson’s: Former Tiger footballer Mike Anderson likes to honor the little guy in his dishes. As he struggled once for a name for a new dish at his restaurant, a refrigerator repairman walked in and was immortalized by The Norman, a tasty shrimp or fish fillet topped by crab étouffée. There’s also the Guitreau, a grilled fish fillet topped with sautéed crawfish and shrimp, named after a plumber—not to be confused with the Sid Gautreaux, a breaded fillet of fish named after the sheriff of the same name. There’s also the Howard, a marinated drum fillet baked scales-on.

Tsunami: Tsunami’s menu of Japanese finger-food bears the names of people who, owner Leah Simon says, were a big influence on her life. Simon worked for both Senator John Breaux and Lafayette caterer Michael Doumit, and honors both of them with their own roll. Father Calais, her childhood family priest, also has a roll with a heavenly mix of tuna, salmon, crab and masago. There’s also the Biggus, named after a frequent customer who was the first to suggest making fried oyster sushi to the staff.

Juban’s: This grand dame of the Baton Rouge fine dining scene coined the Adrian, a fish fillet topped with jumbo lump crab, mushrooms, green onions and a meuničre sauce. The dish is named after the former patriarch of the Juban family, and was called the Trout Adrian back when it first made an appearance, 27 years ago. As trout has since gotten scarce, the trout fillet has become a seasonal Gulf-caught fish, but it’s just as good as when Juban’s first opened its doors.

Got a favorite dish with an odd name whose story you’re dying to learn? Know a great story behind the name of a memorable Baton Rouge dish? Mention it in the comments below!