GROWN AND GRAZED

article by vanelis rivera | photography by andrew bailey

LOUISIANA IS NO STRANGER TO NATURE’S BOUNTY. From corn to sugarcane, the boot of the country has been kicking up cash crops since its infancy. Even in the thick of mass production and processed foods, farming remains integral to our health, environment, and community. Many forward-thinking restaurants have taken note, creating the farm-to-table movement. To develop more self-reliant and resilient food networks, why not aim to connect with local food producers? It’s not an easy task, but it’s not impossible either. A few local food hubs have flocked to fresh products and hardworking growers in the region, accenting their menus with locally grown ingredients. Ruston recently joined part of this holistic food chain through the food truck Grown & Grazed, owned by Desi Bourgeois and his wife Dianne W. Bourgeois—a small space with a significant vision!

A South Louisiana native from Lafourche Parish, Desi’s ties to Ruston originate with Louisiana Tech University where he decided to study architecture. He gained kitchen experience at Trenton Street Cafe, and between the bustle of kitchen life and the idle world of some of his classes, he quickly realized that hands-on work was where he grooved. So in 1996 he decided to leave architecture and attend the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. There, two years of career-focused immersive training fully prepared him for a ritzy internship at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida, and he later moved to Dallas, Texas to work under Stephan Pyles, chef and a founding father of Southwestern cuisine. After the short stint in Dallas, he returned to Ruston. “I always found Ruston to be a place missing its potential, maybe. Now, the right people are in place to make that happen,” he says. At the time, that mindset was dedicated to opening Squire Creek Country Club in Choudrant. It introduced him to corporate dining, a food program style he stayed involved in until moving back to Ruston and opening Grown & Grazed. In 2003, Desi landed an executive chef position at CenturyTel (now CenturyLink) while working for the national food service, Valley Services, leading to a director’s position at JP Morgan Chase. But “feeding masses and cutting costs” is not what he imagined when leaving culinary school, yet he found value in learning the systems of corporate dining. “It’s important to know the business aspect of your craft, especially if you are trying to capitalize on it,” he says, adding, “Scheduling labor at your business is as important as what you make and how you make it.”

While tedious work, Desi’s path steadily revealed itself when in 2005 his wife got transferred to Austin. He took another corporate job with tech company Cirrus Logic, where he unleashed his culinary creativity thanks to a client open to ideas and local chef collaborations. After five years with them, Desi decided on an extensive hiatus and grew a home garden. The process of growing re-engaged him with the most important part of his job, the product: “As a chef, I never had really grown anything. When you grow fruits, vegetables, herbs on your own, you get a perspective that it’s not easy. So when you buy something from someone who grew it, it’s worth the energy, effort, time to pay a little more for it.” The best carrot you’ll ever have, he asserts, is one that you pull from the ground, wash, and put in a pan with a little butter drizzled with salt and pepper. Fired up, he sought different culinary experiences, working for free with chefs he admired, visiting restaurants on his to-eat list, and developing business plans and models. The synergy he built allowed for an opportunity with a coveted global company.

In 2012, a friend encouraged him to interview for an eighty person technology company looking for a chef. Impressed with his tasting, the employer took him to what would be his work site. When the elevator doors opened in the nondescript building, a prominent Google logo greeted him. Between August 2012 to December of the same year, the eighty person account at Google turned into a four hundred and fifty person account. “It was a lesson in logistics, is what it was,” recalls Desi. As executive chef and director, he got validation on the things he’d learned in the previous years, but the standout lesson of his five years at Google was the company’s desire to push out quality food made from quality product. Google originally only wanted organic but quickly changed their decision after researching the connection between organic farming and deforestation. “Local first,” became Desi’s mantra. For four more years, he worked with sustainable food centers and vendors at farmers’ markets, bringing them to the company. Googlers were in direct contact with growers like Marysol from Fat Frog Farms, who went out to her farm fields with her nine-month-old on her back. Suddenly, it’s not only important for Google to spend their dollars on a quality product but also on dedicated growers. “It’s not easy to be a small farmer. There’s validity when they charge a little more than that grocery store,” says Desi.

A serendipitous opportunity landed Desi and Dianne back in Ruston. At the time, the mayor’s office in Ruston was spearheading a development project involving the purchase of a downtown building with plans to design a public market space, food business incubator, community center, and a downtown hub. Eager to be part of the changes he always envisioned, he asked himself, “Do you want to wait fifteen years and hope that everything progresses the way you think it is or do you want to come back now and make this happen?” He came back on December 2017.

If you happen to drive by the intersection of North Vienna Street and East Railroad Avenue, don’t let the gravel patch deter your gaze. Catch the baby blue accents of wooden planters sprouting yellow blooms and fresh herbs, lining the entrance to picnic-style benches canopied by patio umbrellas. It’s an uncomplicated set-up, maximized by flavor-packed chow. Partially keeping its namesake, the original 1935 structure titled C. Raymond Heard Wholesale Grocery Distribution Warehouse #2 now goes by the Heard Freighthouse Food Park. The warehouse itself, a whimsical structure of brick and mortar, is still in the architectural process of transformation. Plans include a green lawn space where people can bring blankets or lawn chairs to hangout. The building is the generator, says Desi. The building will house: commissary kitchen space, a full service restaurant and bar, craft butcher shop, and artisan bakery. Additional food truck spots will be the incubator spaces. The food truck area already executes that goal. Chindian Flavors takes over the Grown & Grazed truck every other weekend, serving mouthwatering Trinidadian meals—cuisine that melds dishes from East India, China, and Africa. Bad Wolf BBQ subleases a space, dishing out Texas style brisket with other new age craft specials.

Desi wanted to communicate a message with his truck and the park: “We’re going to make good food. We’re going to make it here. We’re going to buy as locally as we possibly can.” His next goal was to make something that everybody understood, which ended up being the burger. Proudly using beef from Smith Family Farms, all burgers are dressed with mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce from Estes Farms, tomato, red onion, and pickles, grilled expertly by Tim Bryan, longtime friend of Desi. Desi claims their speciality burger, Bacon Jam Burger, “gets people to come back.” The bacon jam is made from rendered bacon, onion, garlic, chili flakes, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar. The jam takes an already savory meat and escalates the flavor, providing a perfect blend of sweetness. Twisting things up in the side dish arena, the truck now serves a watermelon salad and a coleslaw made with cabbage from Campti Field of Dreams. Thoughtfulness with ingredients prevails even more in their breakfast menu. Their Scratch Made Buttermilk Biscuits and Whole Milk Gravy—made with milk from Flowing Hills Creamery—is an easy sell, but their leading item must be their Louisiana Sweet Potato Hash. Creekstone Produce’s sweet potatoes, joined with onion, celery, and bell pepper, and choice of Bourbon Cane Glaze (using local sugar cane syrup) or Jennings Apiaries Spicy Honey Glaze make this uncommon and bright hash one known for converting sweet potato haters. Desi has fun with people who claim to hate sweet potatoes: “If you say you don’t like sweet potato fries, you’re going to end up with five or six of them in your box, just because.” You may not end up liking sweet potatoes in all its preparations, but the hash and hand-cut fries will have you making an exception with just one bite.

Flavor-consciousness also extends to the third food truck on the lot, Yolo Nitro Ice Dreamery, serving up liquid nitrogen ice cream. Same locally sourced concept but for the sweet tooth addict, Yolo accomplishes a satisfyingly tasty flavor-to-sweet ratio. You may be tempted to create-your-own, but Yolo’s ice cream specials should be your first ice-dream experience. If their Sweet Potato Pie is too adventurous for you (all butter pie crust, sweet potato ice cream, candied pecans, caramel, and cinnamon roasted house-made marshmallow), then surely the Strawberry Shortcake will do the trick (buttermilk biscuit baked with sugar, strawberry ice cream, strawberry sauce, and house-made strawberry marshmallow). Want to cool off from the summer heat a different way? Yolo is now serving mocktails. BayouLife had two servings of the strawberry-mint fizz!

Craft and creativity is what’s cooking at Heard Freighthouse Food Park. For Grown & Grazed, the park extends beyond food, community involvement and building a prominent food system speaks to Ruston’s strength in unity and foresight. According to Desi, all it takes to source locally and eat farm-to-table is to shift your perspective on what a better food product means, adding, “Don’t come here because I’m local. Come here because I’m the better choice and local.”

Grown & Grazed is located 93 East Railroad Avenue in Historic Downtown Ruston and is open Monday Through Saturday 7 AM to 3 PM. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with seasonal specials.