NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – “It’s kind of like my life has made this big 360 turn,” said James Beard award-winning chef Alon Shaya. For him, the path to success has not been direct, but thanks to his high school home economics teacher, Donna Barnett, Shaya is now known as one of the best chefs in the country.
“I was kind of in a really bad spot you know, I was getting into a lot of trouble as a teenager, and she grabbed me by the ear and said, ‘You have a talent for cooking; you’re going to get a job at a restaurant. I’m going to make sure you show up on time and do the right thing,’ and she did. And she really like stuck through that with me,” said Shaya.
He has teamed up with Barnett to help give high school students in New Orleans the same guidance he once needed.
“We found Edna Karr, who had just started a culinary program, but they didn’t have a cutting board, or a knife, or a wooden spoon, and so we started an Amazon gift registry and needed to raise about $9,000 worth of equipment for the kids for this coming school year, and we were able to do that in 5 days,” Shaya explained.
Shaya was deemed best restaurant in the U.S this past May, and Alon Shaya was named Best Chef in the South last year. But he remains humble and grateful to his biggest fan club – Donna and his mother.
New Orleans has been Shaya’s home for the last 13 years. He helped after Katrina and mentored kids at Liberty’s Kitchen and Cafe Reconcile. His three restaurants, Domenica, Pizza Domenica, and the latest installment, Shaya, hire the kids he’s been working with so that they get the on the job experience.
“I’ve always loved cooking with children, to kind of help, you know, maybe spark that potential in someone you know the way that I needed that spark when I was a kid,” Shaya said.
Edna Karr will begin their culinary program this upcoming school year.
