Founder & Chef, Baptiste Hospitality
Three restaurants + commissary.
The SourceSource ofYOU
Andre Baptiste
Chef and founder, Baptiste HospitalityNew Orleans, LA
I build neighborhood restaurants that earn a Tuesday. Three rooms, one commissary, and a kitchen standard that holds when the line is slammed.
I trained at CIA, cooked as sous then executive chef at House Marais, and opened Baptiste Hospitality in 2017. The work is half cooking and half keeping three P&Ls honest. I still take a station on busy nights. The test of the group is whether a regular still finds the same plate on a quiet Tuesday.
Chronicle
Executive Chef, House Marais
Kitchen and menu leadership.
A.O.S. Culinary Arts, CIA
Featured
Restaurant
Baptiste on Freret
First neighborhood room: 48 seats, full week service.
Open since 2017.
Ops
Commissary kitchen
Shared prep facility feeding three restaurants.
About 18 percent prep labor reduction.
Kitchen
Marais handoff
Executive chef years that built the sous bench for later openings.
Food cost under 29 percent for eight quarters.
By the numbers
3 restaurants open
Full week service in New Orleans.
~90 staff
Full- and part-time across the group.
Commissary live
Shared prep for three kitchens.
Classified
Kitchen consulting
Limited advisory for operators building a second unit.
The Interview
Q.What does Andre Baptiste do?
A.Andre is the founder and chef of Baptiste Hospitality, a New Orleans group with three neighborhood restaurants and a commissary kitchen.
Opinion
Neighborhood over novelty
A room that only works for tourists will not survive August. Design for the people who live three blocks away.