For more information contact: Lee Anne Garner |
504.442.8373 | [email protected]
Sugar Cane Festival Celebrated through Cocktails & Cuisine
Available Now - Thru End of December
NEW ORLEANS - For chef Dominique Macquet, it’s a case of the sugar not falling far from the cane.
After growing up on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where sugar cane has long been king, Macquet
this weekend launches his first Sugar Cane Festival at his brand-new Dominique’s on Magazine - celebrating the
links between sugar grown in his faraway homeland and sugar grown all around his adopted city of New Orleans.
A dazzling selection of new dishes and cocktails serves to underline these links.
“I grew up on an island full of water and full of sugar cane,” offers the chef. “Sugar cane was our first source of
income, and Mauritius sugar is some of the most expensive and most flavorful in the world. Most of the people in
my family worked in sugar cane factories, so I’ve always felt connected to sugar.”
The connection became absolute recently when Macquet met sugar cane grower Godfrey Knight from Thibodaux
on Bayou Lafourche. The two men found they had plenty in common – especially since many of the managers at
Indian Ocean sugar refineries hail from Louisiana, and vice versa. The joys of sugar cane are the same in both
places, and so are its sorrows. There is a tight window on time in which sugar cane can be harvested and sold in
its fresh, unrefined forms (about three months), making for labors that go on 24/7 during the season. At the
conclusion of their conversation, Knight gave Macquet about 125 pounds of fresh Louisiana sugar cane, which
became the centerpiece of the new event.
The Sugar Cane Festival at Dominique’s on Magazine, scheduled to run until the end of the year, spotlights
the Louisiana product in four different forms: unaltered sugar cane juice that can be so refreshing over ice,
juice that’s reduced by about a third over heat to make its flavor more intense, sugar cane syrup that’s boiled for a
full eight hours, and pure molasses. New dishes for the festival menu include savory items like carrot and
molasses flan, crispy leg of duck with poached pear apple cider and cane syrup vinaigrette, and grilled pumpkin
with sugar cane syrup, plus such decadent desserts as sweet potato and cane syrup pie.
Macquet’s festival recipes make use of sugar cane stalks from Knight to produce skewers for grilling and for
swizzle sticks in cocktails, not to mention as a delivery system for the chef’s famous cotton candy, plus fresh
sugar cane juice, syrup and molasses from artisanal producer Tracy Baudoin, also of Thibodaux.
At his original Dominique’s in the French Quarter, Macquet was the first New Orleans chef to incorporate sugar
cane into his cooking. He cut skewers from the stalks, for instance, and used them to skewer his much-praised
sweetbreads. Before long, other chefs in New Orleans restaurants were asking where he got his sugar cane.
Also as part of the festival, Macquet has joined forces with talented mixologist Kimberly Patton-Bragg to create
three sugar cane-centric cocktails, all with roots in the classics. Patton-Bragg, (one of only eight bartenders to be
featured on the “Top Chef”-style TV show “On the Rocks” beginning this Saturday on NBC,) is making a special
caipirinha with opal basil, tangerines and lime, a mojito using orange mint, and an Old Fashioned featuring
muddled orange peel.
“I’ll be working a lot with fresh sugar cane juice, which requires about five stalks to produce a single cup,” says
the Dominique’s mixologist. “This is the first time I’ve been able to play with this raw material. I’m really excited
to have a new toy.” Chef Dominique Macquet and Mauricio Andrade’s exciting new restaurant, Dominique’s on
Magazine Street serves Dinner Tues-Sat, 5:30-10:30. Reservations can be made by calling 504.894.8881.
4729 Magazine, New Orleans, Louisiana | 504.894.8881 | www.DominiquesonMag.com