Hot on the heels of the smash success of Eat Lafayette's Chef's Table Experience Monday night, Chef Jeremy Conner of Humble Fish dinners and E's Kitchen owner Paul Ayo have combined forces for another course of heaven, complete with wine pairings, tonight (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. The four-course dinner and wine expo, presented as part of Eat Lafayette's Food Wine Beer & Spirits Experience, continues Conner's recent obsession with the bounty of the Gulf of Mexico. Prepare yourself for the main course: seared redfish with spoonbread and grilled okra, finished with a dash of Conner's own, Gulf-sourced, Cellar Sea Salt, itself a culinary wonder.
In addition to a range-side view of an expert chef at work, the intimate dinners Ayo regularly hosts at E's give chefs a chance to communicate face to face with diners in an environment conducive to adventure-eating and feedback.
“You get to cook on a whim and put that in front of people, and bounce ideas off of them more than you could in a restaurant setting," says Conner.
While this dinner features the Gulf staple redfish, Conner's Humble Fish dinner series has engaged diners with atypical preparations and presentations of Louisiana seafood, with an eye toward sustainability and the inclusion of newer species showing up in our coastal waters.
"I like to treat Gulf seafood in a way that people aren’t really used to. A prototypical seafood restaurant is based on the foodways of three decades ago. In modern coastal fisheries we have all sorts of invasive species that need to be on tables and we need modernized ways of presenting them."
Tickets are still available but limited. The $75 price includes dinner (shrimp toast appetizer, fresh green salad, seared redfish entrée, and grilled peaches for dessert) and wine pairings for each course, care of Ayo's stores of impeccably selected vino.