When Warren Leruth changed New Orleans cuisine

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One of the most important restaurants in New Orleans culinary history wasn't in New Orleans. It was in Gretna on Franklin Street. In 1965, Warren Leruth turned a renovated shotgun into a restaurant that revolutionized New Orleans dining.

"When he opened LeRuth's, he really changed New Orleans cooking," said Gene Bourg, former restaurant critic for The Times-Picayune. "Before LeRuth's, the typical New Orleans restaurant menu was a fairly limited catalog of traditional dishes. Leruth sort of rewrote the script."

The dishes he created included oyster-artichoke soup and sautéed soft-shell crabs topped with lump crabmeat. LeRuth's baked its own bread and made all its desserts and ice creams, which was not common at the time. The elegant restaurant had a European feel, and reservations had to be snagged months in advance.

Before opening LeRuth's (capital "R" in the restaurant's name, but not in the owner's), the chef worked in industrial test kitchens. The Seven Seas salad dressing was one of his creations. He returned to creating mass market products after selling LeRuth's to his sons in 1982. His consulting company worked with Krystal, Outback Steakhouse, Nestle and Popeyes. The original red beans at Popeyes used a recipe by Leruth.

LeRuth's eventually closed in 1991. The chef died in 2001 at the age of 71.

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