Local chef gets to meet, film with Anthony Bourdain
By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN
It’s not every day that one gets to meet the inspiration behind his or her career choice. Nor is it likely that when one does, it will be in front of a camera being filmed for posterity. But that’s exactly what’s been happening this past week with Jessica Wightkin, a local culinary arts educator and chef. Inspired to take up the honorable profession of culinarian years ago after reading Anthony Bourdain’s book “Kitchen Confidential,” Wightkin was able to share confidences with him in her own kitchen at Taceaux Loceaux, one of the sites where Bourdain is filming a new series to bow this fall titled “Layover.”
Jessica Wightkin, right, with TV personality Anthony Bourdain, center, and Alex del Castillo. (Photo courtesy Jessica Wightkin)(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
“I’ve been a huge fan of his since forever,” she confided. “The day I finished that book, I ran to Commander’s (Palace) and asked for a job there. I worked there for four years.” After starting as a peeler of shrimp and potatoes, Wightkin’s work effort and love of cooking helped her move up to pastry chef, a position she held for more than two years.
Wightkin has studied cooking and the culinary arts through an independent studies program at the University of Alabama. She also has worked as an educator in the food arts: a chef-teacher at the Edible Schoolyard for the past three years and, recently, she began a new teaching position at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).
But no matter how gratifying the classroom experience may have been, Wightkin wanted to return to her first love, cooking. About a year and a half ago her next door neighbors at the time, Alex del Castillo and his wife Maribeth, offered Wightkin an opportunity to work at their unusual mobile taco truck serving “Nola-Mex” tacos.
Jessica Wightkin, in the window of Taceaux Loceaux with Anthony Bourdain at left. (Photo courtesy Jessica Wightkin)
“The food is very ‘chef-centric,’ but in a casual way,” she said. According to a Smithsonian.com poll taken recently, Taceaux Loceaux (its name parts are tongue-in-cheek misspellings that end with a long “o” vowel sound as found in Cajun French) is one of the top 20 food trucks in the United States.
Maribeth, formerly under Chef Emeril Lagasse’s employ, created the menu and Wightkin has been enjoying the opportunity to get back into cooking in a venue which she described as “straight up fun.” The location of the food truck can change nightly, but it is always located uptown. Every Wednesday night, for example, it is parked in front of the 45 Tchoup Bar. Thursday nights it is usually found in front of Dos Jefes Cigar Bar. “On Fridays, we’re at The Kingpin Bar on Lyons and Prytania,” she continued. “That’s where the segment was filmed.”
The premise of “Layover” is that Bourdain lands in a city and is shown around to various interesting eateries by a local host. In the case of the show he and Wightkin just wrapped shooting, Bourdain’s local host is a well-known celebrity chef. However, his identity as well as the names and locations of the several other local eateries, and the food he ate must remain secret until the program is aired in the fall.
Anthony Bourdain fan and local chef Jessica Wightkin at Taceaux Loceaux food truck, one of the top 20 food trucks in the nation. (Photo courtesy Jessica Wightkin)
Wightkin and the Del Castillos had a two-day warning that Bourdain was on his way over. The crew was supposed to be at the food truck between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. one night, but they ran late and didn’t show up until 12:45, Wightkin said. But when they did, there was magic in the air: the type that can only be felt between a hero and one of his greatest fans.
Reflecting back on Bourdain’s book, which was the source of her inspiration to become a chef, Wightkin talked about what drew her to the culinary world. “He really told it like it was,” she said. “He explained how you have to be so very strong emotionally to cut it in the business. I just felt like he was so real and raw and honest.”
She has also been a fan of Bourdain’s other TV show “No Reservations.” While much of the details of the New Orleans segment will have to remain hush hush for a while longer, Wightkin was grateful for the time they spent together and she felt a true connection to him while the segment was being filmed.
Wightkin claimed to have first gotten the cooking bug from her maternal grandmother, who taught her how to cook traditional Jewish meals like brisket. Since then she has mastered a number of different styles of cooking and has been a part of the “locavore” challenge of eating foods raised within a 100-mile radius. Twice a month she teaches adult classes at the Rosa Keller Library’s Broadmoor Community Kitchen. “It’s fast, cheap and healthy,” she noted.
Whether at NOCCA, the Keller Library or at Taceaux Loceaux, some of the items she prepares are not within the confines of kashrut. But she doesn’t apologize for it one bit. “I’m not kosher,” she admitted. “I’m a chef. I eat it all.”
