Behind the Scenes at Bayona
Bayona’s Chef de Cuisine, Christiane Engeran
October 2023When she was only 19, Christiane Engeran began her culinary career with Susan Spicer at Bayona. Now, nearly three decades later, she’s creating her own specialties and leading the kitchen as Chef de cuisine.
-by Kim Ranjbar
photos by Ellis Anderson and courtesy BayonaThe first time she met Chef Susan Spicer, Christiane “Christy” Engeran was a poli-sci student at Southeastern Louisiana University, working at one of Hammond's few fine-dining destinations, Jacmel Inn.
“My sister Julie was a server [at Jacmel Inn],” says Engeran. “She said 'We need a dishwasher and you need a job.' She's an older sister, right?”
One evening Spicer and Tim Eihausen, the head chef of Nuvolari's in Mandeville, were guest chefs for a wine dinner at the inn. Energan had worked her way up the line to prep cook and Spicer took note of her hustle.
“I was there, making salads, making desserts, washing dishes, being a prep cook, you know, just running all over the kitchen, and Susan said 'If that girl decides to work in the city, I want to hire her.'”
It wasn't long until Engeran decided to take Spicer up on her word. Disillusioned with her plans to become a public defender, Engeran dropped out of school and moved in with her grandmother in Metairie. “I basically begged Susan for a job,” says Engeran. “She [Spicer] was just opening Bayona, so it was perfect timing.”
At 19, Engeran was still pretty green when she started with Bayona's opening crew over 30 years ago.
“There was so much I didn't know, so many ingredients I'd never seen.” After a few months, Engeran quickly realized her co-workers – many of whom were the same age – had already graduated from culinary school. “I realized I had to go, I wanted to go,” explained Engeran.
She quickly enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, a prestigious culinary school now defunct. Engeran spent a year in Vermont “catching up” and when she returned home to New Orleans, she apprenticed for another year at Bayona. Before she left for school, Engeran had been making salads and doing general prep work at Bayona, but when she came back as an apprentice, she was right on the line, working next to Spicer.
“She had such a wonderful crew, I was still learning so much every day,” says Engeran. After her apprenticeship at Bayona ended, Engeran returned to Vermont and graduated from the New England Culinary Institute in 1992.
Pan-seared scallops with herbaceous celery root puree and crispy Gaufrette potatoes, one of Engeran’s entrees, photo courtesy Bayona’s.
Years passed before Engeran returned to Spicer's French Quarter gem. After graduating, she helped friends open a Caribbean-inspired restaurant in Long Island called Cayenne, and when she came home to New Orleans, she applied to work at Chez Daniel, a restaurant in Metairie helmed by one of the city's finest French chefs, Daniel Bonnot.
“It was a scratch kitchen, we did everything!” says Engeran. A scratch kitchen makes everything in-house, from doing their own butchering to baking their own bread, making Chez Daniel something of a unicorn in the U.S during the mid-90s.
“Daniel would always push you,” says Engeran. “Everything you did had to be done fast and it had to be perfect.” Engeran worked for Bonnot for several years, and one summer during her tenure she traveled overseas to train with one of Bonnot's former sous chefs at an inn in Cabourg, France. “We worked doubles every day and I loved it!”
In 1998, she and her sister bought Chez Daniel from Bonnot and opened their own restaurant called Deville Bistro, but the restaurant only lasted a couple of years. “Having my own restaurant was really hard,” admits Engeran. “I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions.”
Discouraged, Engeran dropped out of the kitchen. “I decided I didn't want to cook anymore.”
She spent over a decade working locally for Whole Foods, and later Rouses Markets until the pandemic hit. “I had the same existential crisis I'm sure everybody did, where it's like oh my gosh, what am I doing with my life?” Then, about a year later Engeran heard Bayona was looking for a new chef de cuisine.
Just this past April, right before Jazz Fest, Engeran returned to Bayona, but this time, the kitchen was hers.
After Spicer launched Rosedale in 2016, and then later re-launched another rendition of her old Lakeview restaurant, Mondo, inside the new Louis Armstrong International Airport, the busy chef pulled away from the day-to-day at Bayona.
“I went to see her [Spicer] and she encouraged me to try it out before I accepted the position,” says Engeran. Even after taking the job, Engeran still frequently consults with Spicer, asking questions about sourcing and current methodologies in the kitchen. “She's been entirely receptive.”
Engeran has embraced her new position wholeheartedly and, with full support from both Spicer and Bayona's co-owner Regina Keever, is now creating some of her own dishes for Bayona's constantly changing menu. While several of Spicer's signature dishes remain – such as her Goat Cheese Crouton with mushrooms and Madeira cream or eggplant caviar – Engeran has plenty of her own tricks under her toque.
Rabbit in the Garden, one of Engeran’s creations, photo courtesy Bayona’s
For example, a current dinner entree dubbed “Rabbit in the Garden” features rabbit prepared three ways served with a reduction of game stock and carrot juice and lots of roasted vegetables. “The inspiration is everything a rabbit eats in the garden, it's really a sweet little dish.” says Engeran. Another of her entrees features pan-seared scallops with herbaceous celery root puree and crispy Gaufrette potatoes.
“I'm just trying to have fun in the kitchen,” laughs Engeran. “I am having fun in the kitchen, and as long as I am, I'll stick with it.”
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