Growing up as the youngest of five kids with parents from New Orleans, I was around food all the time, as my mom was an incredible cook and my dad loved to eat. We would go to New Orleans all the time as a family and that became part of my DNA if that is scientifically possible. As soon as I was old enough to work, I got a job at a pizza place near our old house and I knew right away that it was for me. I had several jobs during high school and after I graduated I went to work for The Mad Italian, a Philadelphia cheesesteak spot that had great food with awesome hospitality, and I stayed with them for 8 years. After that I packed my bags and went to Italy where I stayed for close to five years, but that’s a whole other story that I haven’t written yet.

When I got back to Atlanta in 1990, I went to work for the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, specifically the old Fish Market in Lenox Square. I tell the story in more depth in my blog that you can find here, but for now I’ll condense a bit—I stayed with them for 21 years in all, with a 3-year break in the middle for a different venture, ENO, in Midtown.

In 2000, at the age of 41, I became the lucky recipient of 4 Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts (CABG), fondly referred to as “Cabbage” aka quadruple bypass. That was a pretty weird week—I went for a checkup and ended up in the hospital, surreal I have to say. I narrowly escaped catastrophe—I almost died, went broke, and I had left ENO, but before leaving, God placed my wife into the midst of all that mess, although I wasn’t aware at the time that I would go on to marry her, or that she would give me a bicycle that would launch me back into road cycling and I got my old job back at VVV; in short, I got a chance to start over in life, spiritually and physically, and I am forever grateful to that universe that listens…

Lagarde, a concept I’ve wanted to do for a very long time and my business partner/friend Leo has had an itch to do an American restaurant since he landed here from Brazil, is now 2 years old, with a new one arriving in Milton, late 2022. Our latest venture is G’s Pizza that is nestled into the back corner of il Giallo, a small speakeasy pizzeria with its own entrance. My first encounter with pizza in Italy was indeed eye-opening—you had to eat it with a knife and fork and it was good, really good. I ate pizzas all over the place for several years, but not until my last year in the city of Cremona, the owners of Ristorante Ceresole (where I was working) took me to this small pizzeria in the center of town and told me I had to get the spicy salame and gorgonzola pie. That’s when I knew that it was inevitable, I had to make pizza—it just took 31 years and now, G’s Pizza hits the spot!

And most recently, Leo and I opened L’Antoinette, a fine-dining French restaurant in Crabapple, Milton. The idea came when a Lagarde expansion didn’t feel right for the space—especially with another Italian restaurant nearby—and I thought back to my years living in Italy’s Piedmont region, right on the French border. That time left me with a deep appreciation for the way French influence is woven into the food and culture there. We leaned into that inspiration, paired it with the elegance of classic French cuisine, and named it after a painting Leo’s wife bought years ago of a little bistro called Antoinette. From Coq au Vin to duck confit, beef bourguignon, sole, and escargot, L’Antoinette brings a piece of that Franco-Italian connection to our guests, and I couldn’t be more proud of how it’s been received.

I am honored to have been a featured chef at The James Beard House in New York, I competed in The Food Network’s “Chopped,” I was also featured on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”, years ago I was selected to participate in a TBS-TV “Super Chef Cook Off,” and more forever ago I was highlighted on “Great Chefs of the South”. I am truly grateful to have had these experiences.