EP261: Chef Frank Brigtsen

Chef Frank Brigtsen and his wife Marna are the owners of Brigtsen’s Restaurant, in the Riverbend neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans. Frank began his culinary career in 1973 while attending Louisiana State University. In 1979, he apprenticed at Commander’s Palace Restaurant under the guidance of Chef Paul Prudhomme and became the first Night Chef at K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen in 1980. During his seven-year tenure with Chef Prudhomme at K-Paul’s, Frank attained the position of Executive Chef. Paul and K Prudhomme were instrumental in helping Frank and Marna open Brigtsen’s in 1986. Chef Frank has been named one of the Top Ten New Chefs in America by FOOD&WINE magazine (1988) and America’s Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation Awards (1998). He has also been named Chef of the Year by New Orleans magazine and Restaurateur of the Year by the Louisiana Restaurant Association – N.O. Chapter. In 2022, Chef Frank received the Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award in Hospitality, presented by the New Orleans Food & Wine Experience. Chef Frank’s passion is teaching and sharing through food. For 15 years, he taught Contemporary Creole/Acadian cuisine as Adjunct Professor at the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University and serves as Chef-in-Residence for the Culinary Arts program at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA).