Ralph & Kacoo’s on Airline Hwy.

Someone mentioned Giamanco's. I worked there as a sandwich maker for a short time before going to Gino's. It was my first restaurant job. Giamanco's had a nice kitchen and it was a pretty impressive setup. I usually spent my first 20 minutes at work in the prep room cleaning bread remnants off sheet pans. Yes, they made their own bread. They had a room size, rotating type bread oven, where the baking deck would rotate like a ferris wheel. A lot of their equipment heat source was steam. They had a steam jacketed kettle, steam tilting skillet, a buffalo chopper (these things are awesome), a walk-in cooler and a large mixer (a Hobart I think) in the prep area. They had a special area for heating up soups and gumbos. This also ran on steam. You would put cold soup in the steam jacketed tilting bowl, turn a knob to allow the steam to pass thru, wait a minute, then pour the soup into a serving bowl. They had 3 or 4 of them things. They took up a lot of space, but they were pretty neat and better than a microwave. I had my own sandwich station with cold cuts and toppings ready to go, much like a Subway setup. To my back was a double deck gas oven where I toasted the Italian bread and heated meats and cheese. I also did the toasted the garlic bread that every table received. Hamburger patties were cooked in the grill station area then pass to me. The same with fried shrimp, fried catfish, and fried oysters. They were fried at the fry station and past to me. The grill station and fry station were to my left. To my right was the sauté station, where I got my meatballs and Italian sausages. Sort of out of view from me and opposite the grill and fry stations was the salad station. Directly in front of me was the hot food holding area where all the items for a table would come together and place on a serving trays before heading out to the customers in the dining room. I didn't spend hardly any time in the dining room, but I remember it as being dark and a bit dated. The bar area felt the same. (I don't want to forget the dishroom. It had one of those long conveyor type automatic dishwasher. Steam just poured out of that room. I did not envy the dishman, but I did respect him.) Next door to the restaurant was the food storage buildings. They had separate walk-in coolers for food items depending on ideal storage temperature. Bread flour (set at 70F) was in its own cooler. My cold cuts and cheese were in another. Dairy in another. I didn't see it, but I'm sure the oysters had their own walk-in. Also, they had a large building which served as a freezer. Apparently they bought seafood in bulk when prices were low. I'm not doing this place justice with my poor writing skills, but this place was pretty impressive. The only other Baton Rouge kitchen I walked in and felt it was approaching a similar level was Ruffino's, which I believe was Dinardo's at the time. I will finish by mentioning an odd thing that happened the first night at worked at Giamancos'. I temporarily lost my hearing. I got in my truck to leave, I turned the key to start the engine. I couldn't hear the engine. I turned the key again to start the engine. I finally realized the truck was running, but I couldn't hear it. I don't think it was the due to the loud noises of large commercial kitchen. My senses were overwhelmed by the experience of that kitchen and all the activity going. There was just so much new stuff to take in that my brain just shut down my hearing. It hasn't happened since then. And yes I have the Sensation Salad recipe. And yes I feel a little bad about stealing it, but I never gave it to anyone. I was sorry to see Giamanco's go, but it had an excellent run. If you read this far and respond to my post, I will tell you a little secret about the po-boys I made, which were delicious.