Scuttlebutt: B.R. chefs get homegrown surprise in Cannes

Oh la la, c’est cher: Louisiana Culinary Institute student Tri Illing and pastry chef Meredith Beck Wiggins are in Cannes, France, this week cooking with southern flair for celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival such as Roger Ebert, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Who did they bump into but the Lil Band O’ Gold during a party for a Lafayette film company. “Last night was our first p.m. shift. It was really slow. Most people were just ordering drinks,” Illing writes. “We had no running water and had to wash dishes in ice chest. It pretty much sucked until a local Lafayette band came and played.”