Jacqueline Blanchard is a 10th generation Cajun from Bayou Lafourche in Southeast Louisiana’s Assumption Parish. Her family fled Nova Scotia during the Acadian exile and settled into the Lafourche Valley in the late 1700’s as farmers, and they’ve been there ever since. Cooking has always been in the fabric of her family - taking part in traditions such as crawfish boils in the Spring and the old Cajun boucheries each fall. Her star studded resume' includes working alongside the best of the best at Benu, Bouchon, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, all while intensely traveling across Asia whenever her schedule allowed. In 2015, she moved back home to New Orleans to open Coutelier, a highly curated knife shop focusing on hand forged Japanese cutlery - a business decision she felt was based on the needs of her peers and fellow cooking community of South Louisiana. She and her business partner travel annually to Japan, sourcing the tools of this ancient craft they have come to foster an immense respect and understanding towards. Their goal is to support and promote the unrivaled focus of the multi-generation craftsmanship executed by Japanese blacksmiths who hand forge professional cutlery and tools for their culinary community. Her love for Japanese culture and cuisine and technique has deepened immensely along the way, and she will be opening her first restaurant, Sukeban in Spring of 2022.
Jacqueline Blanchard is a 10th generation Cajun from Bayou Lafourche in Southeast Louisiana’s Assumption Parish. Her family fled Nova Scotia during the Acadian exile and settled into the Lafourche Valley in the late 1700’s as farmers, and they’ve been there ever since. Cooking has always been in the fabric of her family - taking part in traditions such as crawfish boils in the Spring and the old Cajun boucheries each fall. Her star studded resume' includes working alongside the best of the best at Benu, Bouchon, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, all while intensely traveling across Asia whenever her schedule allowed. In 2015, she moved back home to New Orleans to open Coutelier, a highly curated knife shop focusing on hand forged Japanese cutlery - a business decision she felt was based on the needs of her peers and fellow cooking community of South Louisiana. She and her business partner travel annually to Japan, sourcing the tools of this ancient craft they have come to foster an immense respect and understanding towards. Their goal is to support and promote the unrivaled focus of the multi-generation craftsmanship executed by Japanese blacksmiths who hand forge professional cutlery and tools for their culinary community. Her love for Japanese culture and cuisine and technique has deepened immensely along the way, and she will be opening her first restaurant, Sukeban in Spring of 2022.
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PFP - Jacqueline Blanchard
Jacqueline: [00:00:00] I think the first time I'd seen a Japanese knife in real life was at The Laundry. Um, you know, everybody had Japanese knives, so I thought it was like, oh man, I've got to get a japanese knife. And then, you know, the more you do the history and you know, the level of craftsmanship that goes back for generations in Japan is just unparalleled in this modern world we live in, you know, where everything's mass-produced or you know, the chef sources is ingredients from a specific farmer; he's got his relationship with that farmer; she's got that relationship with this wine maker. It's the same thing with us in everything that we do and everything that we carry here and everything that we represent. So for us, it's like we're representing these families. We're representing these products these people make that, you know, has this like wild, generational heritage to it that sometimes we really can't fathom. You know, for me, like, you know, earlier I was saying, you know, my family's got almost 300 years of history in this country, you know, that's hard to wrap your head around for me sometimes because this country is not even that old. So when you see [00:01:00] that kind of stuff in Japan, like, you know, tenfold, you know, it's even harder to wrap your head around a lot of times that kind of history, which is an, you know, a deep cultural ocean.
Jordan: Welcome to the Prix Fixe Podcast where the new voices in the culinary world share their stories in their own words. The show is produced and edited by me, Jordan Haro in Los Angeles, California. Ultimately I will remove my side of the conversation and let the guests tell their story in their own words.
Louisiana: the original melting pot of America. It's the only U.S. State where you can find European, Caribbean, African, and Native American influences alive to this day in the form of language, music and cuisine. Today's guest Jacqueline Blanchard comes from a multi-generational Acadian family who escaped religious persecution in 18th century Nova Scotia, and fled to the Mississippi river banks and Atchafalaya [00:02:00] basin in Southeast Louisiana, where they dug in and created their own way of life. Much of which is often mixed up by outsiders with nearby New Orleans whose tourist economy magnetizes the world through its own distinct cultural offerings. This is where Jacqueline lives today. I first met Jacqueline while she was the executive sous chef at Restaurant August back in 2013, where I enjoyed an unforgettable lunch on her last day of work. Her star-studded resume includes the French Laundry, Bouchon, Benu, Blue Hill Stone Barns, all paving the way for her to eventually open her own store: Coutelier NOLA, a Japanese cutlery shop, serving both professionals and aspirational home cooks of any level. They work directly with Japan's shokunin, a word used for master artisans in any craft. Some of whom have families with skin in the game, dating back nearly a thousand years ago. Their shop is simply the best. If you know me, I've tried to evangelize all of my friends and family to their shop. My set of [00:03:00] Suminagashi Damascus steel knives from them are the pride and joy of my home cooking endeavors. Jacqueline and her partner recently opened a second shop in Nashville, continuing to build upon what they started in New Orleans. Her story, her culinary journey, combined with her studious attention to history and culture is exceptionally interesting. And I look forward to sharing it with you here. Let's listen in.
Jacqueline: My name is Jacqueline Blanchard. I am the co-founder and CEO of Coutelier and here in New Orleans and a second location in Nashville. Being from South Louisiana, we grow up in these, you know, big Cajun families. Um, many of us who, you know, cooking is sort of at the forefront of every family gathering, a lot of our history revolves around it. A lot of our culture absolutely revolves around that. Uh, for me, I always grew up cooking, so I knew I had an [00:04:00] early path to wanting to cook professionally. My whole life, uh, that was never sort of a question in my head. So I ended up going to culinary school at Nicholls State University, which is an amazing culinary program. That's, you know, very under the radar. I think it's still the only state university in the country you can get a bachelor degree in culinary arts, like a regular four year degree. So, um, it was a pretty substantial program relevant to having sort of, you know, the history of cake, Cajun Creole cuisine. Um, Part of that curriculum in a way that I feel like doesn't really exist anywhere else. So for me, that kind of set me apart. You know, I'd gotten accepted to, you know, some, some more prestigious culinary schools around the country. And ultimately, um, it came down to the TOPS program, which paid for my school. Um, if you stay in Louisiana, you keep your grades up, you can get four years of college for. So that made a little bit more sense to me than going directly into debt. So [00:05:00] I knocked it out in four years. Um, you know, really grew through that program. I also played soccer in college too, and then blew my ACL out. So it gave me that sort of gave me a chance to refocus, uh, back onto the culinary scene a little more. So after I graduated, uh, 2006, right after Katrina. Um, and then I sort of hauled ass to California as fast as I could. You know, the city was sort of struggling to get back on its feet. And I felt like it was a really impressionable time for me as a young cook. And I wanted to get the best exposure to like the best talent that I could. So, um, I went straight to Yountville California, um, and took a little position with the French Laundry, um, and worked for Thomas Keller for a couple of years. Um, that was really you know, that's sort of a big defining moment for my career. And I was, you know, kind of young, unknown Cajun girl who would, you know, just gotten there and everybody assumed you go to some other, you know, more well-known culinary schools and no one had really ever heard of where I come from. [00:06:00] Um, so I just started taking in everything, sort of like a sponge around me. You know, it felt that the best way for me to be the best at what I could do is to surround myself with people who are better at it than I was, and more talented. You know, I think that was such a defining moment and a catalyst for, you know, my entire career from there. I'd, uh, you know, kind of move to across the country. I went through Colorado, um, worked at Frasca in Boulder, uh, with some French Laundry alumni then went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, came back home to New Orleans. Worked at Restaurant August, uh, exit executive sous for several years, and then got an opportunity to go to be a sous chef at Benu in San Francisco. Um, where we got three Michelin stars. So that was really exciting opportunity and time in my life. And then a Brandt my business partner. And I decided to come back home to new Orleans and we were shopping around the ideas of opening a restaurant and everything that we had [00:07:00] sort of thought we wanted to do. But this sort of idea of this knife shop sort of kept recirculating in our heads because throughout our careers, I'd always been exposed to the best tools. Um, your tools is always, are always the representation of your work. You know, your knife is an extension of your hand. And we had just, you know, gotten used to being around such amazing high quality things like that, uh, to represent our work. That we didn't have access to down here, you know? Um, and I think it's, it was such an unfortunate circumstance that we didn't at the time, because, you know, we were thinking, you know, this is such a, a haven for food, a world-class destination for food. There's just so many cooks our, our entire like, you know, economy revolves around, you know, our hospitality industry and, and the cooks that drive that industry. So we wanted to have something available, sort of selfishly for us and for our friends. Um, and that's kinda how it started. It really just came out of necessity. We were kind of burned out when we moved back to New Orleans from California and, [00:08:00] um, decided to sort of take a step back and we knew nothing about retail. I mean, less than nothing, nothing about it. We sort of still run this place like a restaurant. It's kind of all we know. And we've been open for six, almost six and a half years here in New Orleans. And we opened our Nashville location in 2017. So only a couple of years after we had opened this place and we kind of found a calling for it there, and the opportunities just kept presenting themselves for us. So, um, it was just became very difficult to say no to a lot of these circumstances, um, in, in order to expand, uh, and Brandt's from, uh, south of Nashville originally. So that's sort of our tie there. My tie here was, you know, South Louisiana and Brandt and I met here at Restaurant August, um, you know, 11 years ago. So, you know, we had this, you know, gravity to this place. And it there's something about the siren song of the south, that just keeps calling you back, you know, in a lot of ways when it's difficult to, you know, we have a lot of folks who just can't understand how we can live down [00:09:00] here and, uh, and face sort of like the constant trials and tribulations that come at us, these hurricanes, and recently everybody's plans getting kinda turned on their heads, uh, on top of COVID on top of all that kind of stuff. You know, it's definitely not an easy place to live, but there was something that just kept drawing us back here in a time where I never thought I'd come back to Louisiana. I am from a small town in Napoleonville, Paincourtville two different towns. My mom's from Paincourtville, my dad's from Napoleonville, um, which are about five minutes apart on Bayou Lafourche. Um, so I, you know, I'm really absolutely from the Bayou. Um, my family's got, you know, long history down there going back almost 300 years. There's definitely a route, um, to this place that sort of intangible. So there's just something about that. That just always got, bring you back here. And I think that's why we chose New Orleans was you know, for this kind of like step off a cliff, which was an entirely different direction in our careers. Um, we got a lot of backlash. Our families thought we were nuts, you know, they're like, you're leaving this [00:10:00] career you've built up, you know, sort of the top of your career. Like what are you doing to open up a knife shop in New Orleans? So, you know, um, but we really felt that this was something that was needed in New Orleans is a place where niche, uh, businesses can survive and thrive. And I think we're sort of, uh, proof of that, you know, now six, six and a half years later. Um, cause no one really thought we would make it, but here we are, you know, a second location. Brandt is from Franklin, just south of Nashville and he grew up there and then he moved to North Mississippi through middle school. And his background, he went to, um, Ole Miss, uh, and then ended up going to culinary school in New York City, uh, the French Culinary Institute. And he always had that sort of connection, you know, to, to Tennessee, um, growing up and most of his family's from Tennessee. So, you know, we, I think we're looking for a second location, but we also wanted something maybe a little closer in proximity to New Orleans that was a little bit more accessible for us. And so we took a [00:11:00] trip to Nashville one weekend and we just kept finding, we found this great spot, but we kept finding like these cool opportunities and chefs and friends who were there and being like, you know, Hey, we really need this. This would work really well here without like a ton of market research. There's certainly a food scene in Nashville that has been growing and, and Nashville itself has been sort of evolving over the last 10 years. You know, anybody will tell you that. And especially people from Nashville, it's like a whole new place. So there's, you know, we just found this great little spot and, um, it worked out really well in terms of, you know, our landlords are amazing there and there's just, you know, a great vibe there. I think that, you know, resonates in a lot of the, the products that we have and the necessity of it through the food scene, that's evolving there. Um, and so, you know, it's not too far from New Orleans, so it's, you know, it's not too difficult for us to kind of pop back and forth to check on, but I think that's sort of, you know, ultimately, you know, Brandt's, you know, family and his [00:12:00] relationship to Tennessee, um, sorta what was the jumping off point I would say for us to choose that as a location. So we each had our connection, you know, he's the Tennessee guy, I'm the Louisiana gal. We have grown every year, you know, and even in a world of COVID, um, you know, everyone's stuck home cooking. So we actually benefited from, you know, some of that when people were just finally getting into cooking in a way that they never really had time to maybe. And I think that we were able to really help direct folks in a way, you know, they weren't familiar with these products or really know what they needed. They just were excited to get into something new. And, you know, we did so many phone consultations and, you know, I think we bring a personal level to it that, you know, sort of resonates with, um, our patrons from coast to coast because, you know, we have such a wide range of customers and, and, you know, they're like family to us. A lot of them, you know, they've been with us since the beginning. And then, you know, the word sort of gets [00:13:00] out from there. Being able to survive, not just the tornado and east Nashville that led the weekend to COVID and then several hurricanes, like it just sort of proves the resiliency that we have, um, throughout, you know, a lot of these, these processes, you know, it's, it's easy to give up and it's easy to get frustrated and it's easy you know, to throw your hands up a lot of times when these are presented to you, especially as a small business, when you're, you know, your margins are thin and you're relying on so much. Um, but we've been just super fortunate. And I think we've, we were really prepared and pivoted well, and, you know, had a, had a great following that only grew from that situation. So, um, we're just super thankful that, you know, we've had such great support from, you know, really around the world throughout all of this. So, you know, w we love it. It's definitely something outside of what we were normally used to working in kitchens. We definitely do enjoy, you know, not having to get off of work at two in the morning anymore, and, uh, having a little bit more time with our families and our [00:14:00] friends. So, um, we'll definitely take that for sure.
Ultimately, it came down to representing the same tools we used every day and our level of cooking. Um, we knew the best peeler to use. We knew the best scissors, the best, you know, several of the best knives. Um, we were opening a Pandora's box when it came to the knife aspect, but, um, in terms of everyday tools, we knew, you know, the fish spatula, the microplane, that everything you knew, we knew to outfit, you know, a cooks kit. We could source that, you know, I think that just came out of our knife bag. Um, that was that process. Um, and then it grew, you know, it became about, you know, the wooden spoons, uh, Kylee Thatcher up in, uh, Lafayette, Kentucky, she makes our hand-carved wooden spoons. And now sourcing these [00:15:00] necessity items, um, from artists and makers that we want to support who are, you know, she and I designed a roux paddle that, um, you know, it was sort of, for me, something I'd always wanted to do because I wanted something very specific in a roux paddle. Um, when I made roux and she, and I talked about it, did a prototype. You know, these kinds of relationships are, are sorta what facilitates a lot of the things that we carry, um, even outside of Japan, um, because it's not, you know, we certainly, I think the craftsmanship levels of Japan and, you know, that may, that's a whole nother sideline. Um, But we all that also exists in a lot of ways down here. And a lot of the tools that we carry, um, you know, collaborating with Tchoup Industries, which is a local bag maker, Patti Dunn, she's amazing. She makes great backpacks. So, uh, went to her and said, Hey, let's get a let's design, a knife roll, and a tool roll, you know, and based off of our specs. So it was like, what, what, what, what was I missing in this that I wish I had, you know, [00:16:00] that sort of thing. So it kind of all comes down to like, our personal preferences in a lot of things, even the books that we carry, the cookbooks that we carry now, are books that we either have in our collections or ones that we lust after and love. And some, some we haven't heard of. So, you know, things always sort of direct themselves in what we choose to carry and curate in a specific aspect are tools that we've used ourselves and know that this is the best of that. There's just, uh, you know, the exposure to all the tools and accessories that we use throughout our careers working and, you know, some Michelin-caliber restaurants have always sort of, uh, resonated, you know, even in, at home, you know, you're using the same tools. So we wanted to bring that to the very dense population of cooks in the city, um, who are home cooks. They're not just professionals. So I think in the beginning, people were kind of intimidated to, you know, if you weren't a professional chef, you [00:17:00] couldn't shop here. That was not what we wanted to, to sort of put out there. We want it to make sure that folks like us, and you're like me and my family who are not professional cooks. Um, you know, I was the only one in my family that took that career, you know, professionally, but everyone fancies themselves as, you know, a professional home cook. So they want what the chefs are using. Um, and I think now they, they didn't have that sort of availability in a one-stop atmosphere. You know, you had to like kind of pop around and, you know, maybe you couldn't get that peeler, maybe that, that, that pair of scissors or, you know, something like that. I think that it just kind of came out of our basic necessity of what we needed and knew we needed and what we had used and constantly using our network of peers, you know, as you know, in the culinary industry as sort of, uh, beacons for like, 'Hey, listen, I don't know if you've seen this, like, you know, spoon or like, you should check this out. It's really cool.' So you're [00:18:00] constantly, you know, there's always this like flow of information coming through cooks and about, you know, what works about us and, um, 'Hey, try this out.' So it's, you know, it's, it's definitely, uh, a dynamic, uh, part of what we sort of represent in the shop outside of the knives, for sure.
I did a lot of traveling through Asia in most of my twenties, and really fell in love with Japan, just traveling as a cook, uh, really, and had Japanese knives all throughout my career. You know, I think the first time I'd seen a Japanese knife in real life was at the Laundry. Um, and it was like, you know, everybody had Japanese knives, so I thought, and he was like, oh man, I've got to get Japanese knife. And then, you know, the more you do the history and you know, the level of craftsmanship that goes back for generations in Japan is just unparalleled in this modern world we live in, you know, where [00:19:00] everything's mass-produced. You know, made to throw away. And there's just a level of quality and craftsmanship and attention to detail that sort of doesn't exist um, in a lot of places, it doesn't upset saying it doesn't exist outside of Japan. It's just, it's kind of taken to a different level there for us in the same way, a chef would source his ingredients and have a relationship with their farmer, wherever they're procuring items from its the same with us. We take that same sort of level of attention to detail and our products with our makers. You know, we are our relationships with them on a personal level are really important to us which is just why we travel to Japan so much. Um, in order to have that, you know, Japan is a very difficult place to penetrate as a gaijin, a foreigner, um, it's sort of got this veil, you know, between you and it, and it's sorta like this membrane, you can just kind of keep poking your finger and it'll keep extending, but you'll never get through the membrane no matter how hard you poke or how hard or how long you've been there and how much you [00:20:00] know, and how much you think, you know, uh, which is really nothing in, you know, the relative sense of it's such an ancient country. And I think the history for us was fascinating outside of, um, just experiencing ourselves in tangible aspects, the quality of these knives, they were thinner. They were lighter. Your cuts were more precise. Um, you know, there's a level of performance to them that, you know, we couldn't, I personally felt like I couldn't get in, um, you know, a heavier, maybe German knife, um, you know, not to put down German knives are great, you know, and they started, you know, sort of the revolution when it came to getting knives out in the west. So, um, you know, Europe definitely has its, its its point of, um, importance in the knife making world. Um, there's just something about the beautiful craftsmanship that goes into a handmade Japanese knife, the forging process, um, the steel selection, the, you know, there's a, there's an expert in every aspect of the process. Um, [00:21:00] and it was a guy who forges. You know, maybe a different guy who grinds it down. Maybe he treats it differently. Different guy who sharpens it, different guy puts the handle on it. So, you know, there's, everyone is an expert in that very specific aspect of the process, which is really impressive. And it really shows itself, um, in the final product. So. You know, for me, I've got terrible arthritis in my hands; I'm 38 years old. It's a little too, I feel like too early in my life for that kind of stuff. But if I had used maybe lighter knives in my career earlier, I probably wouldn't be dealing with some of that stuff. So when I, you know, we have cooks coming in now who are just starting out and I, you know, I try to guide them in the direction of using something a little bit lighter so that doesn't, you know, compound on their wrists for the repetition of, you know, the, their prep work every day, you know, so a lot of that sort of plays back into the functionality. And the wooden handles there's just less material. Like, you know, the, the, the Tang is three quarters of the way it's, uh, there's no pins or [00:22:00] rivets and just less metal and no boast, no bolster. So, um, it's just overall, it becomes a lighter knife. And, you know, I think that if you're a professional, certainly. You know, with the daily repetition on your wrists and your hands, um, is a huge factor in not in, in not having fatigue. You know, we wanted to sort of bring that understanding, you know, cause people are like, well, why Japanese knives? And these are a lot of the reasons outside of the craftsmanship aspect too. Um, and there's just something very honorable about, you know, Japan just sticks to the craft, you know, the, the Moritaka family that we work with, you know, we, we work with directly, you know, with them, we've been to their house, we've had tea in their, their home we've held some of their swords from five and 600 years ago because you know, they they're our oldest house, it was 31 generations. It goes back to the 1290s. Um, and they actually did make swords for, uh, the Daimyo, which, you know, they had their own religious crusades down there. Um, you know, [00:23:00] when the, when the Dutch and the Portuguese are coming up through Southern Japan, trying to impart Christianity, uh, in a very highly, um, Buddhist, you know, area, um, and th they were just not having it.
So the Buddhists actually, you know, there's a lot of wars down there where the Buddhists armies are fighting. So they were, you know, had a very, really kind of violent nature to. Um, sort of protecting their religion and the Moritaka family was contracted to make swords for that. So not everyone is, has that history, not everybody's started making Katana swords. Some did agricultural tools for the field, for rice fields, some just forged blades for that. And then, you know, as time went on sort of switched into cutlery, and I think there was a big disconnect, you know, sort of, um, when Japan was in its sort of post-war rehabilitation process. Um, you know, in the United States started buying, you know, cars, electronics, plastics from Japan to sort of get their economy back on track there. A lot of, you know, sons of the knife makers went to get salary man [00:24:00] jobs, or, you know, worked, started working for corporations during that economic boom, which led a lot of these knife makers to not have anyone to fill in for them when they retire, when they pass on. So we're sort of dealing with a generational gap right now. So there's a lot of that. They were, they should have started apprenticing with their father when they were 12 years old or 14 years old. And then it's, you know, it becomes too late. And then, you know, when someone decides to apprentice with them, maybe it's not their son and, you know, maybe they don't have the patience they had if they would have started earlier in the process. So you're S we sort of deal with, you know, generational gap of that and the repercussions of that now, because when everyone was buying European knives, you know, the German knives, the French knives, the Japanese didn't really have a market in knives. Um, they didn't know how to get that out into the world. Um, and they certainly were pivoting into cutlery at that time. It's, it's really in the last, like two decades. Um, that it's taken off the way it has, you know, with that being said, there's just a level of, of that [00:25:00] sustaining craftsmanship that, you know, outside of, you know, maybe this family started making, you know, uh, hunting knives. Now they're making, you know, kitchen knives, you know, the craftsmanship was still there. The attention to detail the history, all that still lives. Um, so it's, it lives in the knife, you know, it's, it's a absolute pleasure to see some of these guys work. You know, you hear some amazing stories, um, and these families and you know, sort of like one of our, one of our makers, Shosui Takeda, he he's one of our more famous makers, but he, um, we were visiting him a few years ago and he lives in this tiny town Bitchu and the, um, Okayama Prefecture. And he was telling us his story has got an older brother who, long story short, wasn't the guy to take over. Um, so Shosui was, um, kind of like the wild card and he skipped his high school graduation in the sixties to see Bob Dylan in Tokyo for the first time. And his family almost disowned him for it. And then he ended up having to be the one to take over the family [00:26:00] forge. So, you know, you kind of like have these, you know, stories of like, you know, the brothers having like their, their riffs, you know, so-and-so was supposed to take over, but you know, just couldn't handle it sort of thing. And you know how that this person get to this place and this sort of a level of respect in the craft. Um, you know, it's just interesting to hear a lot of the, the ins and outs of it. Um, and it's just, you know, it's taken us the better part of, you know, seven years to get these relationships and to go to their door. And, you know, they, the Japanese are so humble and they're so hospitable in a way that kind of puts a lot of southerners to shame a lot of times, um, You know, they they're just like, how, how did you find out about us? How did you get here? Why of all the places you could've gone, why would you choose us? You know, it's this. And it's like, well, you're a really big deal. So, uh, you know, we, um, we take these relationships so seriously and, you know, it's the cornerstone of what we do, um, is to facilitate those and grow those. And, you know, every time we go to Japan, you know, we feel it more and more. We feel more like family. [00:27:00] They, um, you know, it's, it's a, it's a really outstanding experience and not just outta the knife aspect, but you know, we'd, we do source these amazing condiments and these, um, you know, this, these shoyus and these tamaris and these vinegars from these families who have also been, you know, doing this for generations. So, you know, a lot of you find the things you find along the way outside the knives are really what makes that you know, that that aspect of travel so special within it, um, you know, going to the potter's house, you know, in this top of the hill in Kyushu and, you know, she's dedicated her life to ceramics. You know, um, being able to eat lunch with her and have tea with her and unexpectedly, you know, you find yourself in these situations that you didn't anticipate when you started the trip. So I think that's the special aspect, um, for us, um, of our travels, um, in post world war II Japan, there was, you know, sort of a call to [00:28:00] electronics and cars and plastics and manufacturing. So, you know, if you were the son of a knife maker who really couldn't make a great living doing that at that point, then you went off into the cities and you got jobs at factories, or, you know, you became a salary man, and you left sort of, you know, the, the heritage of the family in the craft of that family to pursue a more lucrative life, because a lot of these knife makers just, you know, didn't have the income. Um, there was no market. So it wasn't until you know, that sort of economic boom that Japan sort of had after the war, um, that you saw the generational gaps start to resonate with these knife makers. So, you know, everyone was getting, you know, German knives, French knives, European knives were, you know, very hot on the scene at that point. And so, you know, Japan wasn't really known for its cutlery, um, at that time. So there was like a [00:29:00] weird sort of transitional spot where a lot of these guys didn't know what to do and whether to keep going with this craft, or it's just sort of like hang it up, you know, a lot of their sons went off to get jobs in big cities and then they were left to do it on their own and they didn't have an apprentice. So right now we're seeing a lot of guys who are younger taking over into these positions that, you know, once this knife maker passes on, you know, that's the end of his knives. If he doesn't have anyone that could to facilitate that forward for him. Um, so we're sort of feeling that, that generational gap missing in, you know, the patience a lot of the older, uh, blacksmiths have with the younger generation who is really just really trying to preserve the craft they're coming on just a little bit too late for some of these older guys, you know, they just don't have the patience. So, um, And then you're just, you find new guys having a full interest, like, you know, some had no history in knife making or forging and their families, but then they've now in Japan, it's become such a popular thing. [00:30:00] Um, and the market is there for it that you find people who had nothing to do with that history, getting into it now and new technologies coming from it. So, you know, Japan represents sort of a very intense spectrum where it's a very old world and it's very high tech and there's not a lot in between. Um, so you see that sort of developing in the knife world, um, from some of those newer generations, or these newer sort of endeavors from families who didn't necessarily have a lot of history in the knife making. I think that for us, it, we had familiarized ourselves with, you know, a lot of the makers that we had already had access to and some of the knives that we had already been using. And then we kind of broke off from there and sort of looking into what were the dense populations of knife makers and where were they and sort of focusing and zoning in on those places like geographically and starting to just kind of, you know, deep dive the internet, um, and [00:31:00] email and, you know, I've got, uh, one of my best friends, Keiko Seito. She's a, a, an amazing chef, designer, like Renaissance woman from Tokyo. She's one of my dear, dear friends. She's my sister out there. Um, she actually met um, me working, she was staging at restaurant August. Um, when I was working there, we became immediate friends like over 10 years ago. So she, um, she helped a little bit with some, you know, lost in translation moments, but we know it was really important for us to not have to use her as a crutch and to, you know, formulate our own sort of dialogue with them, you know, despite some of the barriers in the language aspect, our travels there with her, you know, she's always been a, a great person to point us in the right directions, um, through our travels. Um, she takes the time to travel with us a lot of times, um, because she is a chef herself, she herself is fascinated in the same type of things, and she's always showing us something new. So for us, there was a couple of accounts. Like we had to show up at, um, [00:32:00] you know, Konosuke's door, uh, this uh neighborhood in South Osaka that's very famous for its knife making. And they were like, you know who are these two gaijin, and they're like looking for knives, looking to do business with us, you know, they'd never heard of us. We had really just started. So we were literally buying knives on our trips and taking them back in duffel bags at one point, because we had not quite established ourselves yet. You know, it took, it took a really long time to do that and to get these accounts, you know, and I think we hit it at a perfect time in the market because I think now it's a little saturated. And it's hard to get product, you know, it's, um, these knives are handmade. Um, they're often made for you. There's a, you know, they're becoming more popular in the world. So there's a little backlog, there's some shipping issues right now that we're all sort of dealing with. We realized how patient you have to be in the process because you're not going to get everything right away. And you're not going to get what you ordered altogether sometimes. And it's going to get sent in pieces and parts. And, you know, it's a, it's difficult to explain, you know, sometimes our, our customers come in and they'll, they'll, they'll have seen this knife, you know, two months ago. [00:33:00] And they come back to get it and it's not there. And then they, they just can't understand why we can't call up Japan and get that knife sent over next week. You know, it's just, it's a whole nother world. You know, these are just as handmade products and it's, uh, you know, there's, there's a process to it and you have to be just, you know, extremely patient, um, And getting these accounts and, and forming these relationships and establishing these relationships and then growing these relationships, because you know, this, this guy is going to introduce you to the so-and-so knife maker that you never heard of. And now you get, you know, this opportunity to experience their work and to have that networking aspect, even in Japan, um, is so important for us. And I think we see it, you know, the last two we haven't been in Japan since I think 2019 in September was the last time we went and it's, it's like eating at us, you know? Cause it's been part of our life, you know, and it's, it's. You know, [00:34:00] an amazing cornerstone to our lifestyle and what we do. Like it's where we're obsessed, you know, really diving into this culture as deeply as we can. And you're always learning something new about it. And I think that's the fascinating part about it. A blacksmith or, you know, a knife maker in Japan who dedicates their life is called a Shokunin and a Shokunin is not necessarily just a mastercraftsman in knife making, it's a mastercraftsman in anything. Um, so a shokunin could be like a sushi chef, you know, Jiro is a shokunin. Um, there, you know, the, the there's some that, you know, potters that are shokunins so there's this like word associated with these master craftsmen, that I think is, you know, it just represents so much. It's like a shokunin is like, so Japanese, it's just a person who has dedicated their life to this one craft and doing it over and over again. Um, and that level of commitment really, I [00:35:00] feel, you know, in a lot of ways and a lot of crafts doesn't really resonate the way it does in Japan anywhere else. I think when we got turned away, Uh, Konosuke the first time I was like, really distraught. It's like, are we, what are we doing? Because is this gonna work. Like these guys won't even see us, but then we met some amazing folks in Osaka that, you know, kind of brought us back to reality. And they were like, listen, this is like what everybody has to sort of go through. So this is something once you're more established, they'll be more open to it, but you know, this is what it takes and, you know, no one just introduced us to these people. We didn't just, we don't just, we don't order from a distributor. You know, we have, you know, the process in seeking out these products. Um, in the hunt for that for us is what drives us the most. I think, um, you know, it's not easy a lot of times and you know, the language barrier certainly can be difficult, but, um, we found our way through it and we found, you know, a way to navigate it the [00:36:00] best we can. We have so much more to go. We have so much more to learn, you know, every day we're learning something new every day we found, found out about a new person or a new, new shokunin who, you know, maybe does these amazing matcha tea bowls that we want to bring back and represent? You know, so for us, it's like we're representing these families. We're representing these products these people make that, you know, has this like wild, generational heritage to it. That sometimes we really can't fathom, you know, for me, like, you know, earlier I was saying, you know, my families got almost 300 years of history in this country, you know, that's hard to wrap your head around for me sometimes because this country is not even that old. So when you see that kind of stuff in Japan, like, you know, tenfold, you know, it's even harder to wrap your head around a lot of times that kind of history, which is an, you know, a deep cultural ocean, you know? Um, and I feel like that's a little bit of, with what I find in the relation of like where I live in South Louisiana, Southeast Louisiana, specifically, you [00:37:00] know, there's a culture of fish and rice similarly there to there is in Japan, same with, um, you know, some of these smaller crafts, some of the, the food cultures and things like that, you know, the waters are deep on both ends when it comes to that kind of stuff. And I feel like for me, that's a good liaison between our cultures.
So for us, I think the biggest inspiration we had was. Town Cutler, which was this tiny little knife shop right across the street from our apartment in San Francisco and the owner Galen Garretson just had this amazing eye for, you know, high-quality knives. And they had a sharpening service, which to me was invaluable at the time. You know, when you're working 90 hour weeks, um, and you have a day or two off, you just want to relax and hang out and not [00:38:00] spend a couple hours sharpening your knives. So I could always bring them there. Brandt could always bring them there before work, drop them off, pick them up. Um, and it was just such this like amazing high-quality service I had never seen anywhere else. And we, we got, you know, it became, we became great friends with him over the, over the last couple of years, um, because he sort of pivoted into making knives now. And so he's operating out of Reno, Nevada under the Town Cutler brand, and he's making some amazing knives. So for him to have inspired us the way he did and you know, to see the, sort of the fruits of that inspiration come to, um, to what they have. I. You know, I attribute a lot to him personally. Um, he's meant a lot to us in our business, in our, you know, growing and just sort of being somebody who we could always talk to and, you know, bounce, bounce something off of, and to see what he's doing in his knife, making endeavors now is really impressive because now we get to represent his work. Um, we get to have his knives on our wall [00:39:00] and his work only gets better and better. And it's just really impressive to see the pivot that he's taken, um, in a way that you know, sort of felt similarly to what we were doing. And, you know, we first got into opening the knife shop. Um, you know, Galen was also a cook, you know, worked with a lot of my peers in San Francisco and had that same background. So we felt like, you know, this kind of very close relationship in that aspect with each other. And, um, you know, he couldn't have been more of a. Uh, a graceful, amazing person, like in our process. Um, you know, cause we didn't ask, we didn't, we were sort of priding ourselves and doing it ourselves and not asking any other knife shops that, you know, this, the small amount that did exist, we didn't really want to be like, 'Hey, how do you do this?' Like, you know, we get that a lot of times we get emails, like basically, 'Hey, how do you open a knife shop?' So, um, we really didn't want to do that at the time. And we were just sort of finding ourselves in that and, you know, and he was so supportive of us [00:40:00] in that process and, um, you know, in, in there for any questions we might've had and bouncing ideas off of just like I was saying, you know, we sort of run this place like we would run a restaurant, we had no retail experience. So all we knew was, was that. And I think that like the levels of attention to detail the organizational aspects, just how tightly run these kitchens are that I've been able to be fortunate enough to be a part of, um, has really rubbed off in the business running aspect here and the sourcing of what we have, you know, just like, you know, the chef sources his ingredients from a specific farmer, he's got his relationship with that farmer. She's got that relationship with this wine maker. It's the same thing with us in everything that we do and everything that we carry here and everything that we represent being in these kitchens has definitely given me the tools to succeed in the way here, uh, that we have. And, you know, you start to see like, you know, menu starting to change, having been, you know, [00:41:00] representing ingredients that you're carrying and, you know, the chef got this from here. And so you're starting to see equipment change and kitchens and stuff. And so, you know, and that's from you know, some, some of the feedback that we've gotten. Um, so, you know, I hope that we have been able to impart some type of, not a movement, but, you know, sort of like a different availability that people didn't necessarily have before they have access to now. Um, and if that's changed the way they cook or the way they do things or the ingredients they use or what inspires them by the book they've found here, you know, Um, that's invaluable to us. Um, and I hope that does resonate. I've just always had this like obsession with these izakayas in Japan and through travel like these tiny little bars that you go into, and the izakaya in its like, you know, general sense is a bar that serves food. Um, I made the mistake of calling my, my friend Keiko's, uh, cafe an izakaya once and she got real upset with me. She's like, this is not an izakaya, this is a, a cafe. [00:42:00] So, uh, you know, found, found the difference in that. So, you know, she would take us izakaya hopping, um, and you you'd pop into this place and they'd be, you know, I had this one specific type of sashimi, and then you go to this next place and, you know, maybe it's karage chicken. Maybe the next place is temaki rolls, the next place is tempura. So it always changes. Um, and so, you know, I've always wanted to have a restaurant. It's always been part of, um, the fabric of my being. Um, I think that I always kind of saw this as something, you know, that would, uh, lead itself into you know, having, having a small restaurant operation, um, and this is going to be, you know, a tiny bar it's, um, you know, trying to focus on really beautiful sakes that we can't, you know, access as easily here. Um, you know, it is, it comes back to the sourcing because that's going to be a really important aspect of it. The nori, the, the, the rice, um, most importantly, um, you know, the, some of the [00:43:00] sakes some, you know, maybe some natural wines, so we're kind of creating a space where it's like, I wish I could just go to KazuNori and have, you know, a pet nat, you know, or something like in a, in a very, like, you know, more dialed in kind of aspect. So for me, that's where it is. And I think. My love for not just Japanese food, but, um, kind of have a rice obsession, um, the variations of rice and how they all differ. So, you know, so wildly, um, across the board. So for me, I've like had this, you know, rice and fish, again, back to that, it's for me, it's always been there and that's been, my calling is to have followed what, what I love the most. And I think that for me, has tied itself into this project with just something very simple, you know, something that New Orleans also doesn't have. So, um, I think that's exciting. Um, that's sort of where I am outside of cooking a lot of gumbos at home it's gumbo season now here. So I've been making a lot of gumbos and freezing it for the winter. So, uh, and just cooking [00:44:00] at home for friends like having, having, like, you know, a few friends over for dinner is like so fulfilling, you know, those are the, those are the things, that's the stuff right there. Um, I, you know, there's certain aspects of the kitchen. I miss the sport of it. I miss, you know, some of the, you know, the team aspect of that kind of stuff. That was something I always really enjoyed the live aspect of service. And, you know, in the, in the sport of that, to me, it was always what caught me, you know, while it has been really sort of a good break on my body and my mind, um, you know, I'm excited to sort of pursue this, um, this new little project that is kind of like putting the toe back into the pool.
I remember my, my Pawpaw would stop peeling crawfish for you up until you were five years old. So after five, you had to peel your own or otherwise just go hungry. Um, and these like, you know, kind of beating into your [00:45:00] head like this is how we, this is how we feel crawfish. This is how this process goes sort of thing. And being involved in that process and watching these, you know, sort of old men and women get into their crawfish boiling tactics. I think that for me, was such an early onset, like, love. I love, the process I loved when the sacks of crawfish would show up. The smell. Like there's a smell that not, you know, it's like a lake smell, sort of a brackish smell, uh, that sort of comes with the sack coming in. And that sort of brings me like right back to the kid, because I remember those sacks and they dropped off and then you'd, you'd dump all the crawfish into a big galvanized pot and then, yeah, he'd put salt all over the top, you know, sort of purge them out. So you get a lot of the, uh, like that swampy sort of like, you know, muddiness out of them. So that purging process was like a big deal and, um, you know, there's a cute picture of me and my dad sent me recently, I think I was like four years old, but I've got like a pair of Oshkosh [00:46:00] B'gosh overalls on and I've got a hose in my hand, just like standing over the, all over the tub of crawfish, just purging them. And then, so like, that was my job, you know? So I took that very seriously at that, that, that age. Um, everyone's got a different recipe for their boil. Everybody's got a different gumbo, you know, it's so noticing like. You know, even within the family, like everyone was like, oh, you know, my uncle does it this way. When my Pawpaw does it this way, or my dad does it the other way, you know? So everybody's got their sort of, you know, take on little adjustments. Um, so these were all, you know, so impressionable to me, at such a young age, um, because you're involved in it. You're, you know, watching my grandmother make gumbo, you know, she'd never tell you what was in it. You just had to watch her. Um, you had to take notes and she would never give you a recipe. And she'd, she'd just tell you to watch her. And she had pulled me up on a stool and all of my grandparents had passed away now, but, um, there's some things like, man, I wish I'd paid more attention to her making this because there's always something like missing, you know? So there's these [00:47:00] like really intensively involved situations I was just always in, because everything wrapped around, you know, this pot of gumbo, this table of crawfish, uh, this, this pig at this boucherie, you know, that's getting slaughtered, you know, which is like a great Cajun tradition, like in the winter time. The boucherie revolves around, um, the hog, you know, being sort of split off into the community. Um, and you know, there's usually a Fais Do Do around it, which is kind of like a little dance party or there's, you know, somebody smoking rabbits and, you know, maybe that's the first course. And then. The, uh, the pit gets split up into, you know, three, four different families. And everybody's got, you know, this person makes the, you know, like the tete de cochon, this person makes pied de cochon, this person makes cracklings. So this person does the belly, you know, there's, everybody's got their task, uh, when the pig gets split apart. So they, that to me was such a, and it was a respect of the pig, you know, to fed the [00:48:00] community through a winter. So this revolves around a very sort of poor community aspect because you know, the Cajuns were exiled from Nova Scotia for religious purposes and we're all migrants through down here. Um, and like I said, going back almost 300 years, that settlement, it was just these poor people with nothing who were sent down here to live in, you know, a French settlement because of Catholicism versus Protestant, um, um, religion purposes out of Acadia. So, you know, there's, there's an aspect of that that still resonates. Um, you know, the importance of that pig to that whole community is what a boucherie revolves around. So, you know, I think there's just things like that, that exists down here that just don't exist anywhere else. Certainly not in the United States, but you know, even parts of the world that tradition, like we have one of the oldest communities, um, in the United States down here, which I think is fascinating. You know, I've got a, I've got a story, like my great, great, great, [00:49:00] great grandmother, Virginia. Um, her husband died not long after the civil war and she was left with nine kids on her own along Bayou Lafourche in a town called Chevretville that doesn't exist anymore. And she basically put her kids to work for her, or was the first woman to open a mercantile store in Labadieville. And then bought the farm. She bought Georgia plantation. She, and then a few years later, she, she bought Melrose plantation. So she was one of the largest landowners, um, as a woman in the entire south on her own. Um, there's this beautiful obituary that's written about her. She died. She was very old when she died. I mean, in that time, women. People didn't live old. Um, I think she was 87 when she died and she died like 1901. So we have this like amazing history of her down there and her, you know, coming through frugality, coming from a very poor background and then doing so well with her small endeavors. You know, having her [00:50:00] children working for her, and then she was able to, you know, buy a plantation. So like things like that to me, I think resonated with kind of who I am now. I wish we knew more about her. I wish we had more record of, of that time. But I think for me, that is that wraps it all up. You know, that, that poor Cajun sort of beginnings, which is why, you know, the food culture is so important because it revolves around the family and the community. And, you know, pots of gumbo are meant to spread and feed a lot of people, fricassees are meant to spread out and feed a lot of people, you know, rice, these stews, the crawfish boil, you know, crawfish are, you know, from the swamp. They're mudbugs, they were, they were a very undesirable, uh, thing to eat, you know, and they were considered, it had a very poor correlation with them. So, you know, now it's, you know, everybody wants to come to New Orleans, wants to go to crawfish boil. Everybody wants to like find jambalaya and gumbo when they get to New Orleans and they ask where to go to get it. And I said, you got to go to either my house or someone's house because it's one of those things that, [00:51:00] you know, it's not, it's not a restaurant type food. Um, some restaurants do have it, but you want to experience that. In the communal aspect of it, which is what it's all about for us. You know, it's why our culture revolves around it. Strategies where everything centers around a table, Chef Leah Chase, you know, had some, some politicians, you know, over a bowl of gumbo, like deciding, you know, important decisions. And, you know, during the civil rights, uh, you know, there's these like really important conversations, something always really revolves around the center piece being food here. And what would that can do to bring people together? How important it is to the familial aspects of what we do and how we exist. And also New Orleans, you know, people come looking for the jambalayas and the gumbos, but New Orleans is, um, you know, very Creole and it's, it's doesn't have as deep particular cajun, um, aspect to it as the outter river parishes do. Um, so the Cajuns are really out in the, bayous [00:52:00] and, you know, south of I-10 and towards Lafayette. And we encompass this sort of area, South Louisiana outside of New Orleans. So, you know, New Orleans, you know, has much more Creole aspect to it, which you know is more African, uh, Spanish, you know, type influences, things like that. Isleños things like that. Um, while, you know, the Cajun aspect is like the very French, um, the poor French, you know, uh, aspect of things, you know, the difference, you know, New Orleans is just such a melting pot. You have, you know, the Native American, um, major influence to it, the French, the German, like right across the river as a town called Vacherie, that's the kind of very German, that they call it the German coast. I mean, there's this like a major German settlement, right outside of New Orleans, um, across the river. So, you know, there, you can find like amazing, like families who have been butchers and smoking meat for a couple hundred years. And so, you know, you do see that sort of resonate, but that's some of the smoked meats we're using in the gumbos and, you know, things like [00:53:00] that. So it all kind of ties into each other. But yeah, it's, it's harder to find sometimes, you know, those, those gumbos and jambalayas at the restaurant. You're just going to have to go to someone's house. You know, everybody wants to start off at Cafe du Monde for beignets. Um, for me, it's, you know, we grew up with that. I like having to bring a friend in the French Quarter sometimes, cause I never really eat beignets so it gives me an opportunity maybe like once a year to really get into it, which I never do. But, um, you know, it's, it's hard to say because you really wanna be special in, in your intentions for navigating, you know, people's trips because you don't want to just give them the French Quarter, downtown and, and all those kinds of things you really want them to get outside of that area. Come Uptown, come into Mid City, come to the Lake. You know, there's, there's so many parts, Tremé, you know, some beautiful aspects of the Bywater, just so many great spots that full of cultural heritage, you know, I feel like it'll a little bit little overlooked [00:54:00] sometimes. A, po'boy at Domilise's uptown you know, it's just this like tiny little house right off of Tchopitoulas in the river where you can get like some of the most amazing Po'Boys, you know, um, you don't necessarily hear about that place all the time. Snowballs at Hansen's right down the street from, from Domilise's. I think a, a dinner at Brightsen's, Frank Brightsen is, you know, one of the most influential chefs of our time here. He's, uh, you know, his, he's a close pal of ours. He's right down the street from the shop, um, on Dante Street in the Riverbend, they'd been there for over 30 years. And, you know, if you really want to go get great gumbo at a restaurant, go to Brightsen's, um, you know, you can get a slice pecan pie that will blow your mind. Um, his, you know, he's got some of the most amazing seafood preparations and it's all, it's, it's nothing that's gonna, you know, it's, there's no modern takes on that kind of stuff, but it's just, it's well executed great South Louisiana, New Orleans, true New Orleans food kind of incorporating those aspects to [00:55:00] coming Uptown to experience that or going to see a show at the Maple Leaf, you know, down the street, which, you know, you can see, you know, George Porter Jr. Is the bassist for the, you know, The Meters, which was just like one of the most influential funk bands of American music he plays every Monday night, you know? Um, so it's like, you can see Rebirth Brass Band on Tuesdays. There it's, you know, you get a chance to operate within a world where you get to see these amazing world-class musicians play at these small little places that are so accessible to you. We have such an amazing Vietnamese population here, um, and, and culture and influence. Um, this was a, a big landing spot in, um, you know, the post-war era, um, for Vietnamese sought a lot of refuge down here because there are a lot of Catholic missionaries from South Louisiana that brought back a lot of families, you know, that the industries are similar, the climate was similar. So a lot of Vietnamese families settled in [00:56:00] South Louisiana because of shrimping and fishing and you know, all these industries are similar. Um, and now we have this amazing culture of Vietnamese here that, you know, I eat more Vietnamese food probably than anything else, just because, you know, it's such a special thing that we have for us here. We don't have a lot of that aspect in, um, you know, having, having other countries have the influence here outside of like, you know, the, the German and the Spanish, like the original, like seven nations that, you know, form themselves down here. And that's what you see in the influence on the food. But I think what's really special is having that Vietnamese population and the food culture that they impart on us because you see that resonate in a lot of ways. So, you know, I, I send someone across the river to the west bank to eat at Nine Roses or Tanh Dinh. Um, I think that's, you know, when I have friends come in town for Jazz Fest and you can't get a, reservation anywhere you can walk in it, you know, I want to give my secret away, but you know, you can definitely find [00:57:00] your, your place there. Um, and, and have people be like, man, next time I come back, I want to come back to this place. It was amazing. Like I had no idea. You guys had this amazing Vietnamese culture here. So like for me, I think that's one of the more, um, important directions I like to steer people for sure.
Jordan: Thanks for listening everyone for links and resources about everything discussed today, please visit the show notes in the episode, and if you want to support the podcast, the most effective way to do so is to hit the subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other platform that you're listening in from. Sharing the show with your friends and social media, is always appreciate. Shout out to Shawn Myers for creating the awesome original music. Graphic elements made by Jason Cryer. The show is produced by Homecourt Pictures. You can always reach out to me at Jordan H-A-R-0 on Instagram and Twitter. You can follow the show at Prix [00:58:00] that's P-R-I -X-F-I-X-E-P-O-D, pod on Instagram. Sorry. My French is terrible. I just call it PrixFixePod. Or email us via prixfixepodcast@gmail.com I appreciate every second of your attention and support and look forward to seeing you on the next one.