NEW ORLEANS – Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board welcome King of Louisiana Seafood Chef Chase Woodard of Parish Restaurant & Bar in Monroe, Louisiana, to the nation’s ultimate seafood cooking competition – the Great American Seafood Cook-Off. Chef Woodard won the title King of Louisiana Seafood in Monroe in May, beating 10 other chefs at the 17th Annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off. To win the crown, Chef Woodard prepared an ahi tuna dish highlighting his creativity and the superior quality of the seafood that comes from Louisiana’s shorelines and vast waterways.
The 2024 Great American Seafood Cook-Off will be held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans on Saturday, August 3, 2024. The 20th annual event gets underway with an opening parade through the convention center at 10:45 a.m. and opening ceremonies at 11 a.m. as chefs, each representing their home state, cook in front of a live audience and a panel of nationally acclaimed judges. The Great American Seafood Cook-Off promotes the quality and variety of domestic seafood found in the United States.
“We are excited to be celebrating our 20th anniversary of this great culinary competition. It provides the perfect stage to celebrate Louisiana and America’s domestic seafood industry – the best in the world,” said Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “This year there will be a very talented field of chefs from all over the country vying to be crowned the next ‘King or Queen of American Seafood’ right here in New Orleans. Each chef will be showcasing their skills with to present the best seafood dishes with a little bit of flare from the states they are representing.”
A native of northeast Louisiana, Chef Chase Woodard was drawn to cooking from an early age. Raised in the outdoors of Sportsman‘s Paradise by a family who hunted fished and cooked together, family and hospitality are at the center of everything meaningful to Chase. The smells of duck gumbo and catfish courtboullion filled his childhood and cultivated his love for food. In 2015, he moved to New Orleans to start his culinary career, landing at Mopho with Chef Mike Gulotta. The two years he spent being mentored by Chef Gulotta laid the foundation for the knowledge he has today and furthered his passion for Louisiana flavors with Southeast Asian influences. Chef Woodard next moved to Josephine Estelle at the Ace Hotel where he was able to work with new and exciting ingredients and expand on different techniques and Italian flavors under the guidance of Chef Chris Borges. When the opportunity presented itself to come back to Northeast Louisiana, he took it! Currently, he is working with Chef Cory Bahr at Parish Restaurant & Bar, exploring the cuisine of the Delta region of Louisiana and crossing boundaries of cuisines from around the world.
The 2024 Great American Seafood Cook-Off competitors include:
- Chef Kyle Ogden; Odette; Florence, Alabama
- Chef Laura Cole; Culinary Adventures; Denali, Alaska
- Chef Nick Farrer; Isabel’s Amor; Gilbert, Arizona
- Chef Payne Harding; Cache Restaurant; Little Rock, Arkansas
- Chef Daniel Peters; Beach Walk Café @ Henderson Park Inn; Destin, Florida
- Chef Eric LeBlanc; Burton’s Grill & Bar; Atlanta, Georgia
- Chef Chase Woodard; Parish Restaurant & Bar; Monroe, Louisiana
- Chef Rob Dumas; University of Maine; Orono, Maine
- Chef Erin Miller; Urban Hearth; Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Chef Erika Lipe; SoLa; Oxford, Mississippi
- Chef Charif Arabe; Frank’s and Frank’s Outback; Pawleys Island, South Carolina
- Chef Kayla Keys; Lainey Wilson’s Bell Bottoms Up; Nashville, Tennessee
- Check Ryan Lachaine; Riel Restaurant; Houston, Texas
During the competition, each chef will prepare a dish highlighting the use of domestic seafood while interacting with the live audience, celebrity hosts Chef Cory Bahr – Food Network Star Finalist, Food Network Chopped! Champion, and a former King of Louisiana Seafood – and KLFY TV10’s Gerald Gruenig. Each dish will be presented to a panel of nationally renowned judges who will score based on presentation, creativity, composition, craftsmanship, and flavor.
To be eligible to compete in the event, chefs must either hold the current title of King or Queen of Seafood or be appointed by the lieutenant governor of their respective state or territory. Last year’s King of American Seafood, Chef Brody Olive of Voyagers Restaurant at Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach, Alabama, took home the crown preparing Gafftop catfish smoked over scrub oak, flash-fried mole crabs with Gulf shrimp horseradish cream, pickled purslane and smoked paprika coral tuile to best 11 of the nation’s best chefs. It was the fifth time a Mississippi chef took home the title.
The event is held in conjunction with the Louisiana Restaurant Association Showcase.
