Chef Nealy and her husband Keith work their magic in the Lola kitchen in Covington, La. Photo: Lola Restaurant
by Louisiana Seafood News Staff Writer
Chef Nealy Frentz has had an incredible year by any standard. Frentz and her husband chef Keith Frentz own Lola, a bijou eatery tucked inside an old train depot in Covington, LA, and one of the most beloved and unique cafes in the area.
The duo were crowned the King and Queen of Louisiana Seafood at the Louisiana Seafood Cookoff in 2012 and later took 2nd place in the Great American Seafood Cookoff. And, to top off the wins, Frentz traveled to New York last May to compete on the Food Network’s hit cooking series, Chopped.
On the show, competing chefs are given a basket of the same mystery ingredients to turn into an appetizer, entrée and dessert course. The title challenge of Frentz’s episode: “Leftovers Overload.” Cold macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, a congealed “blooming” onion, stale tortilla chips, a melting ice cream sundae and ketchup are a few of the ingredients the competing chefs were given for the challenge.
“You don’t understand,” Frentz recalls, laughing. “I do not eat leftovers. My husband and mother can back me up. I hate leftovers, so when they revealed the ingredients, I know it was written all over my face.”
Despite the challenge, Frentz prevailed in the first two rounds, deftly creating a mock crab cake from an old turkey sandwich and steak tacos from leftover steak, mashed potatoes and Greek salad. In the final round, Frentz used components of the melting ice cream sundae to make Hummingbird cake – her grandmother’s recipe and one of the most popular desserts on the menu at Lola.
The King and Queen of Louisiana seafood toast their achievement at their Covington restaurant. Photo: Lola Restaurant
“I candied the stale tortilla chips like we do the pecans for the cake we serve at the restaurant,” Frentz says.
“As a working chef and small restaurant owner, you have to learn how to use everything and minimize waste to keep your food costs low,” Frentz says. “I may hate leftovers, but I was able to look at everything in those baskets and see another dish because every day I’m thinking of ways to be creative with food and keep food costs down.”
Filming the reality tv show was an eye-opener for Frentz, who notes that the production was very strict about the timed challenges. “Viewers really don’t know, but they are serious about only giving the time allotted to make a dish – there’s no faking it.”
In fact, the only unrealistic element of the reality show was the high-end gear the chefs brought themselves, Frentz says. “It was like a show of knives. I could tell we were all thinking, ‘This is ridiculous. I never use these fancy knives. Do I really need this giant clever?’,” Frentz says. “I’m a working chef and I’m on the line every day. I use the same two or three cheap, utilitarian knives, not the heavy, expensive set of Global knives I brought for tv. It was hilarious.”
The newest Frenstz seafood chef – Holden Crawford Frentz, 7 pounds, 15 ounces. Photo: Lola Restaurant
Frentz made it to the third round, but the judges “chopped” her in favor of Gerald Chin, chef de cuisine of The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. Frentz is far too polite and upbeat about the experience to say she was robbed of the win (a sentiment expressed online by many fans of the show). Instead, she bubbles over about the thrill of eating her way through New York for a few days with her husband and the manager of Lola, who tagged along for the trip.
“We scored a reservation at 11 Madison Park thanks to one of our bartenders at Lola, who has connections there. We went to Eataly, Babbo, Chinatown and Little Italy,” says Frentz. “I wanted to try every canoli in Little Italy, and I think I almost did. You’d have to live there for years to be able to eat everything I wanted to try.”
After taping the episode in New York, Frentz returned home to an even bigger surprise: the 31-year old Covington chef learned she was pregnant with her second child. Fast forward to January 15, 2013: Frentz gave birth to a beautiful 20.5 inch baby boy – Holden Crawford Frentz, 7 pounds, 15 ounces.
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