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Southern Louisiana Style
By Rachel Funel
A New Orleans wedding requires elegance, style, beauty and southern food. Couples in the south go big or go home when it comes to selecting the foods for their wedding, but most importantly their rehearsal dinner.
A rehearsal dinner is the last time the bride and groom bring their extended families together in pre-celebration of the wedding day.
At La Côte Brasserie New Orleans, Executive Chef Chuck Subra creates classic southern foods with a New Orleans flair. Subra recommends that couples choose seasonal foods when selecting their rehearsal dinner menu. La Côte undergoes menu changes every month and never has a ‘set menu' couples must choose from. “They (the couple) come in and we cook for them in a tasting. It’s all about what they think their family will eat. We get to know them on a one-on-one level. We’ll come to a medium—I’m never stuck on what it has to be,” says Subra.
Each meal Subra creates comes paired with a wine, suggested by the Restaurant Sommelier, to enhance the food experience. For an appetizer, Subra suggests La Côte’s Alligator Beignets with his custom Tabasco sweet heat sauce. This spicy Tabasco sauce, made brown sugar to add a taste of sweetness, is tossed with pounded alligator tail meat. The petite beignets are then topped with a mirliton to add a fresh taste. The meal is paired with Evolution wine to balance out the buttery side of the dish and cut the heat from the alligator.
Subra’s Blackened Oyster and Andouille Stew challenges anyone’s idea of a boring soup or salad course. The stew is created by mixing mild spices with local oysters and blackening seasoning. Subra then mixes this with locally purchased andouille. A warm cornbread cracker, served on the side, enhances the oyster flavors. An alternative for the cornbread is a frenchbread cracker (pictured). The Livio Felluga white wine suggested for the dish is a crisper wine, so it balances
the creaminess of the stew.
Subra’s recommended main entrée is the Tasso Crusted Red Fish. Subra’s fully cooked red fish dish is topped with chopped tasso and breadcrumbs and served with the southern traditional dish: seasonal fried green tomatoes . The red fish is paired with Irony, a Pinot Noir, Monetery Country wine.
For dessert, Subra goes above and beyond to prepare an outstanding New Orleans treat. The Louisiana Strawberry Pain Perdu with Satsuma ice cream and praline pecans is prepared one day in advance prior to any rehearsal dinner. The loaf bread is seared on both sides and placed beside a home-made Satsuma ice cream to enhance the flavor. The Strawberry bread pudding is paired with Munn Napa Champagne from Napa Valley to balance the creaminess of the bread.
La Côte Brasserie’s menu offerings are distinctively southern Louisiana style with Cajun influence. Subra is always open to creating a menu tailored to your guests’ preferences because “The last thing you want is having a group come in and half of your guests won’t eat the food and they leave hungry.” Subra promises at La Côte, couples will always be satisfied.
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Photographs by
Jessica Caradona
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New Orleans Weddings Magazine
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