More from our conversation with Andrew Ladlie

For the first part of my Five Questions interview with Sassy Jac's chef-owner Andrew Ladlie, turn to page 50 of the April issue of Sauce. Tell us about your restaurant kitchen experience. I started out as a manager and bartender, but I soon decided I wanted to play with the guys in the kitchen – they’re the heart and soul of the restaurant. I went to St. Louis Community College’s restaurant school, and I wound up in New Orleans at a restaurant, a microbrew chain based out of California called Gordon Biersch. That was a 500-seat restaurant. I had never done anything like that before; it was a whole new ball game. It’s located in the heart of New Orleans, and during Mardi Gras we did $750,000 in business a day. 
Tell us about your wife, Jennifer Ladlie, and what she’ll bring to Sassy Jac’s. My wife was the first person I hired in the restaurant business. It was at a little spot named Coward’s in St. Peters. I was a bartender and front-of-house manager. I hired her as a hostess. She told me when she was 15 that I was going to be the one she married. She came back to St. Louis when she was 18 and hunted me down. (Laughs) She came to New Orleans with me when she was barely 19 and became a restaurant manager. She watched me go through menu after menu and learn how to cook. She’s bartended for years and she’s one of the best mixologists I know. She’s a superb trainer, and really assertive – she keeps on top of the staff. She understands the business and has an immeasurable amount of restaurant knowledge. She’s the reason the place is called Sassy Jac’s – the “Jac” is from Jen, Andrew, and my daughter, Clira, and the “Sassy” comes from my wife’s and daughter’s mouths! You must have learned a lot working under Lou Rook at Annie Gunn’s. What didn’t I learn from Lou Rook? Annie Gunn’s is a very classy operation. I started there as a line cook. Lou and (owner) Thom (Sehnert) have such a great thing there. I learned to do the research to find the best ingredients out there to make the final product as good as it can be. You see how Lou works with the vendors to get the best stuff. Food is prepared naturally and it speaks for itself – you don’t have to cover up the flavors of great meat and fish. And at Annie Gunn’s they surround themselves with employees who are good people. And your daughter is a budding chef? My daughter has these little kitchen toys. You should see her work the plastic saute pan – you know she’s a chef’s daughter. When we opened Frontenac Grill, she was helping guys in the kitchen press pizza dough and spread out sauce. She’ll be here a lot. It’s a family place. The business is so demanding – unless you can bring your family into the fold, you’ll never see them. Our employees are welcome to have their families around, too. Do you have an end-of-the-night ritual? I like to listen to the staff talk about their interactions with the customers that night. The customers entertain us, and we try to entertain them in return. Everyone smiles, and it’s always a good time. How does it feel when the kitchen is humming and everything’s coming out just right, on time? I often equate it to a sporting event. People who haven’t worked in kitchens don’t quite understand the intensity. When things are going bad they can go bad really quickly, and you can get blown out. When things are going good and we’re high-fiving each other in the kitchen, it spills over into the rest of your day. What do you like to cook at home? When I cook at home, I have a pasta that I make that my wife loves. You take everything that you have on hand and put it together and put a cream sauce on it. It’s something that the kid will eat, too.