Chefs cook up Louisiana cuisine, have backup turkeys

Courtney Crauthers
The Edmond Sun

EDMOND November 26, 2008 02:49 pm

— Last minute turkeys will be no problem for Chef Clint Eaves, owner of Yunique O’ Cajuns and Chef Lanney Smith, owner of A Catering Affair. Both are from Louisiana and cater a wide array of foods, but specialize in Louisiana Cajun-style cuisine.
“A lot of people have this perception of Cajun as spicy but it’s really just well-seasoned,” Eaves said. “It’s not necessarily spicy.”
All their seafood and Cajun smoked sausage comes directly from Louisiana.

Holiday Turkeys
Both Eaves and Smith said they will have a few extra turkeys on hand for those families who waited until today to start looking for their Thanksgiving birds. Between Nov. 17 and today, Eaves had 75 turkey requests and Smith had 25.
Eaves said he makes a deep fried seasoned turkey, which has become a popular trend during the past few years in Oklahoma. He said the moist turkey is seasoned and injected with Creole seasonings.
“When you deep fry turkey it seals the moisture in,” Smith said.
The two chefs have a variety of sauces and spices for turkey to meet the client’s taste buds, including sweet and spicy sauces. Smith said they currently are working on an orange cranberry sauce together.
“You’re never going to find these in Oklahoma the way we do it,” Smith said.
Deep fried turkeys cost about $6 per pound, smoked turkeys cost about $5.50 per pound and baked turkeys cost about $5 per pound, Eaves said.

other holiday cuisine
The chefs, whom both are now taking Christmas catering requests, said clients can request any cuisine for the holiday season. Both chefs do on the spot cooking, drop off services, full-service events and buffets.
“I get joy out of knowing families are getting fresh food on their table,” Eaves said.
He offers many holiday foods, including smoked ham with glaze cornbread dressing, sweet potato soufflé, orange cranberry relish and southern corn casserole. Eaves also makes homemade candies, including fudge, a white Southern chocolate called divinity and fruit cake.
“Everything we make is from scratch,” Smith said.
Smith said A Catering Affair also offers a variety of food, including southern fried chicken, stuffed prime rib, blackened tilapia and homemade bread pudding with a honey and cinnamon sauce. He also has a secret orange-pineapple glaze with smoked almonds.

About the chefs
Eaves moved to Oklahoma from Louisiana when he was 18 years old.
“There were 13 kids in my family so my mom taught us how to cook,” he said.
Eaves has catered for Oklahoma governors, senators and special events at the State Capitol.
Eaves said he gets inspiration from Jean Cockrell, who took him under his wing to act as his “Oklahoma mom.”
Smith has used his cooking to heal from several difficult experiences in his life.
“I learned how to help people and that is why I get joy in cooking,” he said.
He studied at the Culinary School at Galveston Community College and was named a 5-star certified chef by the food critics in Newport Beach, Calif. He has worked as a chef for many celebrities, including Elton John, Marilyn Manson and Brad Pitt. Smith said he also has been featured on the Great Chef series on the Discovery Channel.
However, it was when Smith was working as a chef for Disneyland that his life changed for the worse.
“My daughter was murdered and I stopped cooking for two years,” he said.
Smith said he made it through the pain with the support of his first cousins, Joyce Babineaux and Roy Washington.
Alan Greely, owner of the restaurant Golden Truffle in Costa Mesa, called Smith in 2004 to tell him he had entered him in a cook off in California. Smith returned to cooking by beating 50 other nationally known chefs in the competition.
Eventually, Smith worked as a chef in Louisiana before everything he owned was destroyed by Hurricane Rita. He relocated to Oklahoma City about three years ago in the hopes of finding a restaurant to cook for in Bricktown.
Smith had heard good things about Eaves so he located him and the two became good friends and now often work together to develop new recipes. They make and market their own line of Creole spices.
The Cajun and Creole chef turned to God six months ago.
“Being a chef on the level I was and traveling with a rock n’ roll band came with a price,” he said. “I turned my will and life over to the care of God. Clint was there with me through hard times.”
Smith has been building his catering business, which caters on site with live cooking shows.

FOR MORE information about A Catering Affair, contact Smith at cheflanney@yahoo.com or 361-7392. For more information about Yunique O’ Cajuns, contact Eaves at ceaves64@yahoo.com or 830-6739.

THE DETAILS
Thanksgiving Statistics

The average price for a turkey in November 2007 was between $1.10 and $1.15 per pound. This dropped from about $1.25 per pound in October 2007.
Based on statistics taken between 2004 and 2007 about 99 percent of Americans will spend at least 1.25 hours eating and drinking during the holiday weekend. Eighty-five percent of Americans will spend almost four hours watching television and 80 percent will travel.
SOURCE: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

THE DETAILS
TURKEY COOKING TIPS

When deep frying a turkey, be sure to dump water out of the cavity of the turkey before you drop it in oil. This mistake has been the cause of several holiday fires, Chef Lanney Smith said.
Handle turkey carefully without contaminating so as not to cause food poisoning.
Clean as you cook.
SOURCE: Chefs Lanney Smith and Clint Eaves

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.