Ella Brennan of Commander's Palace New Orleans
Beard Foundation Presents Highest Award to Big Easy Restaurateur
Mar 28, 2009
The Beard award recognizes the woman who turned Commander’s Palace into one of the nation’s most prestigious restaurants and enhanced New Orleans’ image as one of America’s gourmet destinations.
According to The Beard Foundation, the award goes to "an individual whose lifetime body of work has had a positive and long-lasting impact on the way we eat, cook and/or think about food in America."
Ella Brennan has been labelled the grande dame of New Orleans restaurants and the city's "queen of cuisine." She is now in her early 80s, retired and living next to Commander’s Palace. She still visits Commander’s, but has turned the operation over to two other family members.
"Complete Restaurateur" Doesn’t Cook
Ella has been described as "the complete restaurateur." Since entering the family business at age 18, she has done most everything in the business except cook. She has left the cooking to others while she focused on making every customer visit an enjoyable one.
She worked first at the old Absinthe House bar in the French Quarter. After her father and brother Owen opened the Vieux Carre Restaurant she said she complained about the restaurant so much that Owen challenged her to come in and improve it.
There the restaurant business "suckered me in," she told Restaurants & Institutions Magazine. "It's theater, two shows a day. It's barrels of work and fun. You work hard in the daytime, then [meet] all these interesting people at nighttime."
Opened Brennan’s in French Quarter
Later Ella was left to open Brennan’s, a new Royal Street restaurant launched by the family. It became a New Orleans and tourist favorite.
According to The Times-Picayune the family split after Owen’s death.. His three children kept the Royal Street restaurant. Ella and her siblings bought Commander’s Palace in 1969.
With Ella leading the way, they converted the old Garden District restaurant into the flagship of nouvelle Creole cuisine. It revived New Orleans' reputation as a gourmet food capital.
Launched Paul Prudhomme Career
Commanders also evolved into something of a graduate school for a series of outstanding chefs, including Paul Prudhomme, the father of blackened redfish, and television chef Emeril Lagasse. Commander's became the center of a 12-restaurant empire operating in several states.
In 1984 the Brennans were inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. In 1986 Ella had a triple bypass, but it didn’t stop her.
- Commander’s won the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Service in 1993.
- It was nominated for the foundation’s outstanding restaurant award in 1994 and 1995.
- It won the top Beard award in 1996.
The restaurant was wrecked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It reopened in 2007.
Ella Brennan began her six-decade career as a clerk and liquor buyer for the Absinthe House. From there, colleagues say, she became a tireless worker, business woman, teacher, coach, entrepreneur, highly respected employer and restaurant perfectionist.
New Orleans Ambassador
They add that she has demonstrated a tremendous taste, love and respect for food and wine She has traveled extensively, serving as a charming ambassador for New Orleans.
"Living in New Orleans was the ultimate luck in my life," she told Nation’s Restaurant News in 2004. "It is just so damn much fun to live here."
The Beard Foundation describes itself as "the nation’s preeminent recognition program" for the food and beverage industries. It was scheduled to honor Brennan and its 2009 restaurant awards May 4 at the Avery Fisher Hall in New York City’s Lincoln Center.
Sources:
New Orleans Female Celebrity Chefs
Elizabeth Mullener, The Times-Picayune, 10-7-07
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