by Brad Rhines

One of Freret Street's newest eateries served a meal that Janette Desautel would probably be proud to rig up. Treme creator David Simon brought a menagerie of big city chefs to the High Hat Café for some down home cooking. Tom Colicchio, Wylie Dufresne, David Chang, Alfred Portale, and Eric Ripert all joined Simon and Treme writer Lolis Elie at the Uptown eatery for a feast of Southern specialties. NoDef checked in with Chip Apperson this morning, the Memphis native who, along with Chef Adolfo Garcia. co-owns the High Hat.  

Apperson was happy to host the party of big name chefs and made a point of showing them some Southern hospitality. All of the culinary heavyweights but Portale - the Top Chef judge and renowned kitchen boss at Gotham Bar and Grill - are veterans of making cameo appearances on the HBO show about post-Katrina New Orleans. (Colicchio and Dufrense once worked under Portale at the downtown Manhattan stalwart.) The four chefs appeared in the infamous first-season scene during which a group of culinary whizzes walks into Desautel's newly opened restaurant unannounced. Chang, the owner of the famed Manhattan spots, Momofuku and Ssam Bar, also appears in the series' second episode as Desautel's boss at the fictiional NYC resto, Lucky Peach.

As host, Apperson played the Desautel role on Sunday night. Despite his gracious, salt-of-the-Earth manner, the show helps us know about how he was feeling on the inside. In the fictional scene, Desautel opts to "lowball' the cadre, serving simple, regional dishes. Apperson unknowingly matched Desautel's feat, as those kinds of dishes are all High Hat serves.

“We just fed ‘em,” said Apperson, when asked what the chefs ordered.  The High Hat kitchen put out appetizers of boudin, pimento cheese, Delta-style tamales, and barbeque shrimp.  Apperson was going to pass around some menus, but he said Colicchio encouraged him to “just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Apperson, along with Chef Jeremy Wolgamott and the kitchen crew at High Hat was happy to oblige. Servers brought out plates of catfish and hush puppies, gulf fish with potato and shrimp hash, and stewed chicken with spoon bread and mustard greens. They had side dishes of smoky black-eyed peas, sweet potato salad, and stewed okra and tomatoes. For desert, Apperson brought out slices of chocolate chess pie and Satsuma ice box pie, a seasonal special, along with “grillswith,” which are grilled doughnuts topped with vanilla ice cream, a High Hat signature.

“They were very, very complimentary,” said Apperson, “and were passing things around and asking questions about what things were.”

Apperson mentioned Ripert specifically, who seemed to enjoy the barbeque shrimp. The Frenchman was even caught eating with his fingers. 

“I have a mental snapshot of it that I’ll never forget,” said Apperson.  “He runs maybe the greatest fish restaurant in the world, and he’s in here sopping up barbeque shrimp.”

Apperson asked Dufresne if the crew was in town shooting for Treme, but the chef was tight-lipped, unwilling to spill the beans. Since the High Hat came along well after the show’s established time line, it’s unlikely they were shopping for locations, through Apperson told NoDef with a laugh, “Freret Street is definitely part of the check-list of post-Katrina renaissances that could be included.  If Treme lasts six seasons, maybe someday we would be considered.”