A taste of Bayou Country
San Antonio star chef rolls out New Orleans-inspired menu for limited time
If you’re looking forward to letting the good times roll with the celebratory arrival of Mardi Gras on March 1, there’s no need to leave town to partake in some of the best cuisine New Orleans has to offer. For a limited time, one favorite local chef is serving up the flavors of the Crescent City in San Antonio. Who dat? Celebrated culinary master chef Steve McHugh, of course.
Beginning Friday, January 14 and running through Friday, January 28, McHugh will jazz up the menu at Landrace — the signature restaurant at the Thompson San Antonio hotel helmed by the chef — transforming it from a Lone Star-focused bill of fare to one emphasizing authentic New Orleans cuisine.
The exclusive two-week taste of New Orleans is inspired by McHugh’s time in the Crescent City, where the James Beard Award finalist developed many of his culinary skills and worked in some of the city’s most notable restaurant kitchens and with legendary restaurateurs, including Dickie Brennan and Ralph Brennan.
Featuring a menu filled with “epicurean masterpieces,” McHugh’s NOLA-inspired menu aims to embody the cornerstones of haute New Orleans cuisine.
“It is easy to be inspired by the old guard of restaurants like Antoine’s, Arnaud’s, and Brennan’s, but I also look forward to sharing my own progressive approach here at Landrace,” McHugh says.
As part of the two-week stint, McHugh will showcase a Landrace menu of 14 unique dishes from his past repertoire in New Orleans.
His modern takes on NOLA classics will include turtle soup with a sherry gastrique; Trout Pontchartrain with wild mushrooms, crabmeat, hollandaise, and pecan rice; Boudin Balls with gribiche and bread-and-butter pickles; seafood gumbo with popcorn rice; Salad Maison with chicories, heirloom tomatoes, lardons, cornbread croutons, and a brown-butter vinaigrette; gnocchi with crawfish and tasso; and smoked honey-glazed duck confit with escarole, radicchio, pecan, and a red-wine vinaigrette.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be a true New Orleans feast without dessert. Among McHugh’s sweet treats will be a decadent chocolate pecan rye pie.
The full Landrace menu will be available during the two-week NOLA extravaganza, in case your dinner party has some favorites. But we highly recommend you dine on some McHugh-crafted New Orleans cuisine while you can.
Visit the Landrace website for reservations.
