Nina Compton on The Top Chef Runner-Up Club, Caribbean Cuisine’s Ascent and Mardi Gras Madness!!
2/16/202651 min
Award-winning chef and Top-Chef runner-up Nina Compton joins Adrienne and Joe to talk about the rise of Caribbean cuisine, Mardi Gras in a New Orleans kitchen, and life after Top Chef. In this episode, we discuss:
Caribbean food finally getting its moment in fine dining
Representing Caribbean cuisine on Top Chef
The joys of being in the Top Chef “Second Place Club”
Nina’s experience moving to New Orleans and opening Compère Lapin
Turn and Burn: Mardi Gras traditions
Walk In Confession: Nina’s first Mardi Gras mish...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdrienne Cheatham· Host0:00
[gentle music] This week on The Chef's Cut we have acclaimed chef, cookbook author, and Caribbean cuisine champion Nina Compton. We're talking with Nina about the Top Chef second place club. We were both robbed. [laughs] [laughs] Is Caribbean cuisine having a moment, or is this a movement?
Nina Compton· Guest0:21
Fine dining Caribbean restaurants, that didn't really exist for a very long time.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:25
And she's gonna share some Mardi Gras hot takes.
Nina Compton· Guest0:28
These people are gonna be judging me really hard. They're like, "You didn't say Hey Delesa."
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:32
Be sure to leave a review wherever you're listening to the show. All right, let's bring Nina in. Nina, we are so excited to talk to you today. Thank you so much for joining us.
Nina Compton· Guest0:45
Yeah, happy to be here.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:46
And we're happy to celebrate Mardi Gras with you. I, I wore my orange today.
Nina Compton· Guest0:51
King cakes are flowing. Everybody's looking forward to Mardi Gras.
Adrienne Cheatham· Host0:54
I love Mardi Gras. It's one of my favorite times of year.
Joe Flamm· Co-host0:58
Uh, Nina, one of, you know, my questions is, you know, I think what I didn't realize, like, when I think of New Orleans, it's, you know, you've been there for a long time now. Your season of Top Chef was there. You've kinda, you know, I think for a lot of people, and in my mind, you know, when I think of New Orleans chefs, like you, you know, I think of you. And, you know, I think I always just assumed that you've been there forever and that was your whole career, but you actually came up, you know, not New Orleans, and then, you know, ended up moving there. And I was just curious, like, how did you get there? You know, what happened that you ended up, you know, moving on from where you were