NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— At this year’s New Orleans Wine and Food Experience, Chef Frank Brigtsen is receiving the Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award.

Brigtsen spoke with WGNO about why this means so much to him, “It’s unbelievably heartwarming to think that I started my true culinary career as an apprentice at Commanders Palace owned by Ella and Dick Brennan and Chef Paul Prudhomme, Executive Chef I’m the luckiest guy in town.”

NOWFE is back this year with a full slate of events and attendance.

Aimee Brown, Executive Director of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience stated, “We are kinda back to normal. All of our events are going to be walk around events you can go up to the restaurants and talk to the chef and make reservations, you talk to wine makers wine owners, you know we hadn’t really been able to do that in the past.”

Chef Brigtsen is being noted as much for his work in the kitchen as his mentorship of generations. Pastry chef Jeanne-Marie Exposito was a student of Brigtsen’s at NOCCA and now works alongside the famed chef. She says that tutoring continues.

According to Exposito, “I feel like I learn new things every day. I’m always learning a new way to do something or chef’s coming in and showing me something new.”

For Brigtsen, that mentorship is a way to preserve our culinary culture and pay forward what was so freely given to him, “I have the privilege of doing now what Chef Paul did for me and that is giving people opportunity.”

Brigtsen continues to mentor a number of staffers at Brigtsen’s, the restaurant that he and his wife runs in the Riverbend.

He also teaches at both the NOCCA Culinary Arts program and the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University in Thobodaux.

Click here for more information on the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience