CHEF JOHN D. FOLSE, CEC, AAC

Chef John Folse is the owner and executive chef of his Louisiana-based corporations. Lafitte's Landing Restaurant in Donaldsonville is recognized as one of the finest restaurants in and around New Orleans. White Oak Plantation in Baton Rouge houses his catering and events management company. Louisiana's Premier Products, the state's only chef-owned and operated manufacturing company, produces soups, sauces, entrees and specialty items for chain restaurants, foodservice and retail establishments across the country. Folse has authored numerous books, which are available in bookstores across the country. He hosts his own national television cooking show, "A Taste of Louisiana" for PBS, and his syndicated radio show "Stirrin' It Up!" can be heard nationwide.

Folse is respected around the world as an authority on Cajun and Creole cuisine and culture. He has also gained national recognition within the retail and foodservice community for his efforts in new product development and manufacturing. He has taken his famous "Taste of Louisiana" from Hollywood to the Great Wall of China, opening promotional Louisiana restaurants in Hong Kong, Japan, Beijing, London, Paris, Bogota, Taipei and Seoul. In 1987, Chef Folse was honored as the "Louisiana Restaurateur of the Year" by the Louisiana Restaurant Association and in 1988, the Louisiana Sales and Marketing Executives named him "Louisiana's Marketing Ambassador to the World." That same year, Folse made international headlines by opening his Lafitte's Landing East in Moscow during the summit between President Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. This was the first time that an American restaurant had operated on Russian soil. Immediately, following this venture, John hosted 10 Soviet chefs for the first ever Soviet-American Culinary Exchange. In 1989, Chef Folse was invited to create the first Vatican State Dinner in Rome and also had a private audience with Pope John Paul II. In 1990, Chef Folse was named the National Chef of the Year, the highest honor an American chef can receive. His Lafitte's Landing Restaurant was inducted into the "Fine Dining Hall of Fame" in 1989 and received the DiRoNA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) award in 1996. In recognition of his efforts in research and development, Chef Folse's manufacturing company received TGI Friday's Inc. Procurement Product Development Award in March 1998 for assisting in the development of Friday's Jack Daniels' glaze.

Folse has been honored by local, state and international governments for his continuing efforts to showcase America's regional cooking around the world. His most prestigious acknowledgment to date was Nicholls State University's decision to name their new culinary program in his honor. The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana offers Associate and Bachelor of Science Degrees in Culinary Arts.