John Besh

Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

CAJUN IN THE KITCHEN | John Besh

My kitchen will be about 20 feet by 20 feet. I don't need big bedrooms—my boys love sharing rooms—but we needed a kitchen where we could have our family plus our parents over.

My stove will be a cobalt blue Viking range. I love the fact that Viking is Southern-born and -made. They could have easily opened up factories elsewhere, but they've decided to stay here and make an impact.

Morton Kosher Salt, one of Mr. Besh's essential ingredients

My refrigerator is also Viking. It is massive. But I wanted something that was large enough for our family—the boys eat like food has gone out of style. Plus, on any given Sunday there could easily be 40 people at my house. We're fashioning the outside of the fridge in refurbished sinker cypress, so it will be hidden.

I've learned over two decades of being a professional chef to plan ahead to have certain ingredients on hand. If I have a good stock and some rice, I can create a risotto in 20 minutes.

I'm the first generation from my family away from the farm. My dad grew up on a farm, my uncle's a beef cattle farmer and my grandfather has been both a beef cattle and dairy farmer. I've always had this yearning to get back to it. I started farming myself. I do my best, but I'm certainly not my grandfather.

At home I never measure. That's why my cookbook doesn't call for quarter cups of onions or tomatoes, just a whole onion or a sliced tomato. That's how we cook at home.

Our plates are made by a local potter on Magazine Street called Shadyside.

I am a huge copper-pan buff. Even when my wife and I couldn't afford it, she would give me a copper pot or pan, mostly Mauviel, for Christmas and my birthday. I do cooking demos with All-Clad's copper set, and I've snuck some of that over to the house. All day I'm surrounded by stainless steel, so I love to come home and have the rich hues of copper and brass.

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Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

Copper pots

My two essential ingredients are salt and rice. I grew up with rice at very meal—even if we had potatoes, we had rice. There's a brown jasmine rice out now called Cajun Grain, with this fantastic aroma. My go-to salt is Morton Kosher Salt, and I use finishing salts like sel gris, the large gray crystals of French sea salt, or smoked salt.

Secretly, I really love anything fried. Sometimes I'll walk down the street to FredRick's Deli across the street from my restaurant, Lüke, and order 15 oyster po'boys for my cooks. I am kind of demanding at times, so I love to bring them little surprises.

The perfect food would be a hot French fry, dipped in mayo when nobody's looking, at least not my cardiologist. It hits on everything: the texture of the fry, which is golden brown and crispy and perfectly salted, then the creaminess of the mayo, with a little vinegar that pops out. It's the perfect balance of sweet, sour and savory, with a little crunch.

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Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

Shadyside plates

The single best dish I have ever eaten was a soupe de poisson from Alain Assaud in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This terrine comes to the table with bowls of croutons, shredded Emmentaler cheese and a big bowl of rouille. The soup's made out of tiny poissons de roches caught around the rocky coastlines, cooked with fennel, onion, garlic and white wine. In this age of celebrity chefdom and trends, you crave something that hasn't changed in 100 years.

My earliest restaurant memory is Commander's Palace. Going into the big city meant you had to wear your Sunday suit. So that meant you were taking Mom out to a really nice restaurant, and that was special. At that time, all I ever wanted was to one day be a chef at Commander's Palace, like Paul Prudhomme.

The meal that changed my life was the absence of meals after Katrina. This was at a time when talking heads were questioning whether New Orleans should come back at all. I can't speak on politics, but I can speak to our culture, and we needed those meals back. We're the only indigenous urban cuisine left in the country. That's why I refused to use plastic silverware or paper plates after the storm. We figured out a way to get fresh water into the restaurant so that we could open using our Frette linens and our crystal and china. I knew if we did it right, that would give other people hope.

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Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

His risotto ingredients

My favorite place to shop used to be Fauchon in Paris. That changed when Mario Batali gave me a tour of Eataly. Now I'm thinking, how do I open a market like that in New Orleans? I love our farmers' markets but we don't have big fancy food markets down here. And we have very few seafood markets because everybody knows somebody who fishes. Even my mother and father still have their neighbor deliver them fish on a weekly basis.

The most underrated ingredient is a good chicken stock. You give me a good stock and there's probably nothing I can't make.

The most overrated ingredient would be filet mignon. It's one-dimensional. Give me a shoulder or a piece of chuck, and I'll give you something that's really rich in flavor.

—Edited from an interview by Emily Kaiser Thelin

Daymon Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

RISOTTO OF ALMOST ANYTHING

Risotto can take a range of flavors. I like the pumpkin risotto here, but try a shrimp risotto using shellfish broth, adding a pound of peeled shrimp at the last minute and letting them cook no more than 5 minutes. Or a green risotto, with a bunch of watercress or a few handfuls of spinach, chopped fine. Serves 8.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cups diced peeled fresh pumpkin
2 cups arborio rice
6 cups chicken broth, heated
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh rosemary
A few dried porcini mushrooms, rinsed
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over high heat and sweat onions until soft. Add pumpkin and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 8 minutes. Add rice, stirring with a wooden spoon to make sure each kernel is coated with oil.

2. Add 3 cups hot chicken broth, rosemary and mushrooms to rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. As the broth is absorbed, add more broth and stir often.

3. Cook rice until it is slightly al dente and most of the broth has been absorbed. The rice should be creamy and porridge-like. This should take about 18 minutes. Finish the risotto by stirring in butter and parmesan. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper before serving.

—From "My Family Table" by John Besh