Sudden Impact: Kaila Mogg-Stone – Aspiring chef

Age: 19
School: Second year, Louisiana Culinary Institute
Extracurriculars: Gardening, literature, meditation, four-wheeling
Dream job: Chef
Inspiration: Chef and Food Network personality Alton Brown

When Kaila Mogg-Stone was a child, she thought mac-and-cheese was magic.

Mogg-Stone’s first memories involve stirring milk, cheese and pasta together, marveling at how all the separate parts transformed into one perfect dish. Growing up on a farm in Michigan, home-cooking was a way of life, and locally grown, natural ingredients were essential. The kitchen of Mogg-Stone’s childhood made the perfect playground for a burgeoning chef, and now southern Louisiana is teaching her the rest.

A line-cook at Bistro Byronz, Mogg-Stone finds the culinary landscape of Louisiana to be a “huge inspiration.” Her proudest moment in recent memory? The first gumbo she made from scratch.

“To see how people interact here with their food here as more than just food is very, very rare,” she says. “It’s something that I feel passionate about bringing back to the world. Dining is more than just eating. It’s a culture. It’s about building relationships and experiences between people.”

LCI representative Charlie Ruffolo calls Mogg-Stone a “homerun.”

“She has a great work ethic and tremendous amounts of potential,” Ruffolo says of the student who has earned four scholarships—including the prestigious James Beard Scholarship, while at LCI—along with the institute’s highest honor, the Culinary Excellence Award.

Though her schedule is demanding, Mogg-Stone wouldn’t have it any other way. Back on that farm, she dreamed of the magic of cooking, of cultivating something fresh, something innovative, something original. In Louisiana, she has found a new home and a new kind of magic.

“It’s that look that somebody gives you or the way they can talk about your food when they’re done,” Mogg-Stone says. “And you know that they went home telling their family, or that it made them happy.”