If you’ve stopped by the Café recently, you may have noticed a slight change in the some of the uniforms. Several of our students (and chefs!) are donning baseball caps from the Louisiana Seafood Board’s Gulf Coast Seafood and Tourism Bash, sponsored by BP, instead of their regular Reconcile hats.

Café Reconcile has greatly benefited from the two-week bash meant to promote Gulf seafood and tourism in a variety of ways. The organization donated enough local tuna for a tuna special every day for a week, it gave our students the opportunity to promote local seafood at the BCS Championship game, supplied them with hats and t-shirts, and donated two Hornets tickets for two lucky students.  In addition, BP expressed its gratitude to our students by making a generous contribution to the “tip jar” in the cafe.  These funds will be shared by students currently enrolled in the program.

New Orleans is undoubtedly one of the best places in the nation to enjoy fresh, local seafood and we are excited to have been a part of the effort to promote our region’s fabulous resources. Remember to support your local economy today!

Soyini, Chef Joe, and Davenique show off their hats

Calvin smiles for the camera!

Students are thrilled with their generous tip!

Victoria brightens up the Cafe with her smile

The Hornets are back on the court and some Café Reconcile students will have the opportunity to see them play thanks to Senator Mary Landrieu! Today, LaVerne Saulny and other staff from the senator’s office stopped by the café to grab a bite to eat and to leave the program with a fantastic gift: two tickets to every Hornets game this season.

While we teach our students the necessity of a strong work ethic and a professional attitude, it is also important to offer them the opportunity to experience fun in our unique city. Senator Landrieu’s generous donation will help us do just that. GO HORNETS!

Alice Wright, Board Chair, accepts the box of tickets from LaVerne Saulny

Thanks, Senator Landrieu!

Let's go Hornets!

Learn how to make this delicious Seafood Cornbread courtesy of Holly Clegg.  Makes 28 squares.

Cynthia Green met Carl Crawford at the Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City Beach, Florida and immediately fell in love with his unique style of artwork. Known as “Collage Illusion,” his pieces are created by cutting colors of magazine paper and gluing the pieces to glass.  The resulting effect is that his pieces look remarkably like paintings even though they are not. But art was not the only passion the two shared, they soon learned that they both also loved giving back to their communities.

So when Cynthia and her husband James hosted an event to introduce others to Carl’s unique method of creating beautiful one-of-a kind original artwork, Carl decided to give a portion of his sales from this event to the Greens’ favorite charity: Cafe Reconcile.

The event, attended by our own Chef Joe and Hiram Nurse, featured a wonderful jazz band that played quietly while Carl proceeded to talk about himself, his method of creating art, and his decision to give a percentage of his sales to assist Cafe Reconcile.  Cynthia hopes this will not be the last time she showcases Carl’s work while simultaneously raising money for our mission (and so do we!)

Perhaps even more special, Carl also generously donated one of his favorite pieces, “All that Jazz.”  Hanging by the stairs in the Cafe, the piece adds a beautiful, vibrant energy to our restaurant.  Come in and see the unique art today!

All That Jazz- Sax

What better way to end the John Besh  “Eat Well, Do Good” Dinner series than with the man himself?  On Tuesday night, Chef John Besh and his team from Restaurant August delivered a sweet finish (both literally and figuratively!) to a phenomenal series.

By the time the guests began to arrive at Reconile, Besh’s fantastic team had already been hard at work prepping for the evening.  The lights on the Christmas tree twinkled and the champagne cocktails flowed as graduates of the Reconcile program offered dozens of trays of hors d’oeuvres to the guests.

As the crowd finally began to take their seats, Sr. Mary Lou offered a prayer of thanksgiving and Chef Besh spoke to the importance of sharing your gifts with others.  His gift, as we all know, is that of cooking delicious food that makes people happy and he certainly shared that!

The first course of the evening was country style duck and chicken liver pate served atop crispy grilled French bread.  As soon as the dish was out, Besh’s team worked with mechanical precision to plate the potato latkes with fall fruit compote that was served the moment our Reconcile grads cleared the first plates.

The third course, a creamy lentil soup, warmed up the guests and was a perfect predecessor to the main dish of the night: herb roast goose with house-made potato dumpling, braised red cabbage with apples and onions.  Beautifully tenderized after 24 hours of roasting, the goose practically melted off the fork and was matched perfectly with the braised vegetables.  Full and content, the guests  still managed to find some stomach space to make room for the sweet finish to the evening: a Spielweg chocolate torte.  Paired with a homemade sorbet and topped with edible gold leafing, the dessert was a rich, beautiful, and decadent close to a lovely evening and a wonderful series.

Though the food seemed to steal the show, the students were the real stars of the evening.  Seven graduates were in the cafe well before the guests arrived and they remained long after they were gone.  Prepping and decorating, serving and cleaning: they did it all.  Of course, they were met with deafening applause at the end of the night as they shared their stories and each guests left the cafe with John Besh’s new cookbook, personalized and signed.

Reconcile must also extend a very special thanks to Teddy Graziano of Brown-Forman for providing last night’s wine  and to Fred Holly of Republic National Distributing Co. for supplying the alcohol for the entire dinner series.  After all, it is an impeccably-paired drink that accentuates the flavors of the perfectly-cooked meal — oh, what a night!

John Besh Cookbooks under the Christmas tree!

Ariyauna and Doris pose with Santa!

Andrea (employed at American Sector) smiles with Chef Besh!

Nothing but smiles!

Potato latkes with fall fruit compote

Teamwork at its best!

Doris serves up the herb roast goose - mmmm!!

Hasan and Ashley celebrate a job well done with Chef Besh