Prime Cuttery’s ‘AJ’ Jones can handle kitchen heat
Published 6:16 am Wednesday, April 19, 2023
- Prime Cuttery Chef Angela “AJ” Jones. (Special to the American Press)
“When we were short handed, I would go to the back and help make the food and run it out to my customers,” she said.
It wasn’t long before the folks at Cracker Barrel noticed just how good she was at it, and offered her a position in the kitchen. The fast-pace suited her.
When “Prime” opened as a combination gourmet meat market, restaurant and bar, one of the owners recruited Jones to work in the bar. She wanted to work in the kitchen.
“I can’t mix a drink for anything,” she said, “and finally he relented. To this day, he thanks God he did that.”
Prime Cuttery gets its meat on the rack and it’s cut fresh every day. It’s chargrilled to look in flavor then finished in the oven. Jones can and does cut steaks, but she leaves the rest of the cutting, as well as the sausage and boudin making to the guys.
In addition to the popularity of Prime Cuttery’s steaks, The Reuben – a triple decker – is a popular menu item and customers enjoy Jones’ plate lunches. Thursday, she makes beef tips.
The restaurant is closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and that’s when Jones has the time to get in the kitchen and try new recipes. Most recently she knocked it out of the park with a lemon pie.
“I took it to a family crawfish boil thinking no one would really care about it and in five minutes it was all gone.
Cracker Barrel wasn’t Jones’ first foray into the kitchen.
“My dad lived in New Orleans for a little bit and fell in love with Cafe Du Monde beignets while he was there. After he moved, he would always get the box mix and I’ll never forget the first time he let me and my sister make them. He was in the kitchen, of course, supervising.”
If Jones could ask someone, living or dead, to prepare a meal for her, she would want it to be the late Lynn Boudier, her “paw paw” and she would ask him to make his homemade vegetable soup.
“He made it from the vegetables he would grow in his garden,” Jones said. “I had it only once, and it was the best vegetable soup I had ever had. After he passed, my grandma found his recipe and gave it to me.”
