1012 Corridor

You’d think you really were in la Provence.

The stucco farmhouse with its storybook tile roof is flanked by lush foliage. Inside, the vibe is warm and charming, with rustic floors and French country antiques. Cheery tables are ready for guests set to savor pork and wild pheasant pâté, lavender honey-glazed duckling and wines from small Provençal vineyards. Outside, acres of kitchen gardens burst with spring herbs, delicate salad greens and fresh vegetables. A couple dozen onyx Berkshire pigs, a rare breed known for juicy, well-rounded flavor, meander in a nearby pen.

But it’s not southern France. It’s Lacombe, Louisiana, a small town east of Mandeville on Lake Pontchartrain’s Northshore. This is La Provence the restaurant, one of the gems in the growing crown of native son Chef John Besh.

Lately, it seems Besh is everywhere, including multiple appearances on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America, and a recent spot on the television series Iconoclasts, in which he and jazz icon Wynton Marsalis discussed the status of Louisiana’s priceless culture. His three New Orleans establishments, Restaurant August, Besh Steakhouse and Lüke continue to gain national kudos. His first cookbook, My New Orleans, is due out later this year. A few months back, he was asked to cook at a Sundance Film Festival fête hosted by the rock band U2.

“How many guys from Slidell get to say that?” asks Besh, 39, in characteristic aw-shucks fashion. But the more you talk to the handsome father of four, the more you get the impression that he’s for real⎯and on a mission.

Since Hurricane Katrina, Besh has championed the state’s locally grown movement, buying goods and produce from family farmers and encouraging a return to eating seasonally and close to the source. It was always an interest of his: As a kid, he learned to cook by transforming the bounty of hunting and fishing trips into timeless classics. As a young chef, he saw how far the United States had strayed from eating local when he apprenticed in Germany’s Black Forest, where dairy products came only from nearby farms and fish were retrieved minutes before cooking from a basket floating in an adjacent stream.

After the storm, Besh says, he watched Louisiana restaurants and small farms hang in the balance. He reached out to his good friend Alice Waters, founder of the famed Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, the world’s template on how a restaurant can enhance sustainable agriculture.

“She was amazed we didn’t have the kind of structure in place to support farmers,” he said.

Besh was in a position to make a difference. He had stayed solvent by feeding recovery workers, and by 2007 had added two more restaurants, including La Provence, where he had once worked as Chef de Cuisine under owner Chef Chris Kerageorgiou, and a new brasserie, Lüke.

When many area chefs were just getting back on their feet, Besh found himself employing more than 300 people. And he had fleets of patrons passionate about higher priced, so-called “slow foods.”

“It’s still cheaper to buy from California and have things shipped,” he says, but unlike many restaurants, he says he’s in a position to afford to buy local. When Besh orders 68 varieties of heirloom tomatoes from farmers in his orbit, farmers and communities benefit.

“If we don’t value our food culture, we will become like any other part of the country,” he says.

Besh’s passion for Louisiana’s traditions stems from his large Catholic family, who relished the outdoors and great meals around the table. When Besh was nine, his father was hit by a drunk driver and was paralyzed from the waist down. Normal life completely changed, and everyone began pitching in. Besh’s job was to make breakfast, and out of the family’s tragedy, something new emerged.

“My father recognized how much I enjoyed it. He really encouraged me,” Besh said.

Later, Besh attended the Culinary Institute of America, apprenticed in Europe, then moved back to the states. His career was interrupted when, as a noncommissioned Marine Corps Reserves officer, was called up for Operation Desert Storm. He served active duty for three years, including leading a squad of infantry in combat.

“I made the best friends of my life then,” he says. “I think it taught me a lot that I needed to learn. I know what it is to serve. It taught me a lot about approaching things with humility.”

Humility, he says, is central to his to approach to cooking and to interacting with his staff members, who carry out Besh’s sustainable agriculture business model. They talk to farmers and plan menus around whatever’s fresh, be it wild catfish, specialty foul, turnips, white, red and golden beets and six different kinds of carrots.

They also take turns feeding the humanely raised pigs, Charolais cattle, Gulf Coast sheep and chickens kept on the grounds of La Provence and on more than 1,000 acres nearby. Following the principles of sustainability, they’re fed a diet to enhance their well being and quality. For example, chickens eat scraps from Louisiana-grown sweet potatoes, which produces eggs with vibrant yellow yolks rich in beta-carotene.

These days, Besh spends most of his time cooking at August, but he makes daily rounds to the other three restaurants every day, working with his well-known executive chefs to execute a strategy meant to transform the way Louisiana eats.

The frantic pace hasn’t interrupted his own commitment to the family table. Weekdays begin by preparing pain perdu for his wife and four boys, who range from ages 3 to 11. And on Sundays, his home bustles with extended family and traditional southern fare.

“I am having so much fun,” he says. “I can’t see topping what I have. Everyday life is like the icing.”