During National Travel and Tourism Week, Visit Lake Charles highlighted community members in the hospitality industry who make the area shine through the excellent service they consistently provide to Southwest Louisiana visitors. Executive Chef Chris Heath, Golden Nugget Casino Hotel, was awarded the R.O.S.E. (recognized for outstanding service excellence) Award as the 2023 Outstanding Culinary Professional.

Heath grew up in Boutte, a small town between New Orleans and Gretna, and his earliest memories of cooking include helping his father, a firefighter, as they cooked and shared Cajun-influenced “big-pot meals” using local seafood.

Determined to learn about how people cook and eat in other parts of the country, he knew he wanted to attend  Le Cordon Bleu. Torn between the Scottsdale, Arizona and Chicago locations, he opted for Chicago.

“I’ve always loved the Cubs,” he said, “and there was a fine dining trend going on up there. I wanted to be a part of it.”

For nine years, he worked as a sous chef before being promoted to executive chef. As culinary manager at the Golden Nugget, he assures that the Landry brand menu items are executed to the Landry’s standard and restaurants are managed expertly. Recipes, he said, are decided upon by corporate chefs working in Houston.

His work ethic was commended by the casino’s executive chef who lauded Heath’s communication skills with customers and staff and his all-out effort, working at a full run all day.

“Nothing gets him rattled,” Property Executive Chef Michael Elliot said.

At home, it is his wife who does the cooking. “I love to cook, but with my schedule, she is usually the one in the kitchen. She cooks everyday, she is active in the local theater, she homeschools our two daughters, and yes, she is a better cook than me, 100 percent better.”

He was the winner of a Texas Renaissance Festival cook off a few years ago with his Seafood Boil on a Stick. “I like keeping it simple, he said. “It was shrimp, potatoes and sausage on a stick, actually on a little sword, but having two children I knew it was prudent to cover up the tip, so I stuck a cherry tomato on top.”

Food, according to Heath, should be fun. At Golden Nugget’s Bill’s Bar & Burger, he said the best example of a fun favorite are the Chicken Wings that are coated with flour and seasonings, fried, then plopped down into delicious, sweet barbecue sauce and butter.