Chef Graham Laborde was born and raised in Lafayette, LA. His family has played an integral role in his culinary development from the beginning. From the first time he heard his grandmother speak the words, \u201cIf you\u2019re not going to help, get out of the kitchen,\u201d he knew where he belonged. He was initially exposed to two approaches to food. From his mother he learned technique, entertaining, and an eye for fine dining. His grandmother, the matriarch of a large family, was a master of kitchen production who never turned away another guest. Graham has found success in both worlds.<\/p>\n
Graham came up cooking and managing kitchens in New Orleans at Commander\u2019s Palace, Stella, and Boucherie (New Orleans, LA). He toured Houston in early 2010 and was immediately captivated by the developing food scene. \u00a0He eventually opened Bernadine\u2019s, a contemporary Southern restaurant named for his grandmother. \u00a0Bernadine\u2019s was named a top 10 restaurant by Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook in it\u2019s first year.<\/p>\n
Graham then rounded out his culinary career as Operations Manager for Killen\u2019s. \u00a0That\u2019s where he found his calling. He was able to see all sides of the restaurant puzzle while helping to cultivate the Killen\u2019s brand.<\/p>\n
Emerging from Covid, he and partners Benjy Mason of Johnny\u2019s Gold Brick and Christopher Roy of (Killen\u2019s, Bernadine\u2019s) joined to create Winnie\u2019s. \u00a0Winnie\u2019s, a midtown bar concept, specializes in fancy sandwiches and craft cocktails with a southern flair. \u00a0In it\u2019s first few months Winnie\u2019s has achieved remarkable critical acclaim. \u00a0Laborde looks excitedly to the future as the team continues to learn and grow.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1389,"template":"","class_list":["post-1058","chef","type-chef","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef\/1058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/chef"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chef"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southernsmoke.org\/zh_hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}