Bill Briand was cooking at Emeril’s in New Orleans when one of his chefs helped arrange the kind of offer you’re supposed to have the good sense to accept: a full scholarship to culinary school. The chef had graduated at the top of his class. No doubt e knew what the education was worth, and he wanted Briand to have it.
Briand had already given college a try. He knew he learned best with something in his hands and somebody nearby who could explain what he was doing wrong. At Emeril’s, he had both. Taking the scholarship meant leaving all that to go learn how to do it.
So he turned it down.
He stayed there nine years in all, working every station, from butcher to sauce, asking about proteins he’d never cooked and learning the arithmetic that determines whether a restaurant can afford to serve what’s on the plate. There was always another question, always somebody who’d take the time to answer it.
“I learned everything I could, every minute I was on the clock.”
His education would continue at Cochon and Cochon Butcher, then carry him to Alabama’s Gulf Coast, where he spent a decade leading Fisher’s at Orange Beach Marina and earned five consecutive James Beard Award semifinalist honors for Best Chef: South. At Little Bird in Fairhope, where he’s a partner and executive chef, all those years of learning have become the means to honor his first teacher. Before there was a chef to explain plate costs, there was his mother, Virginia, finding something good to cook wherever the Navy sent them.
