Greg Sonnier

You know part of being a chef, one of the things that really goes into becoming that chef or saying I’m a chef is creating your own dish, and the way I do that is I kind of take stuff from what I’ve learned before at other places and even around town or reading books, like cook books, and stuff like that and kind of mix them together and use my 
interpretation of this is how I think this dish should be and absolutely you become very proud of that.

-Greg Sonnier

Greg Sonnier is the head chef and owner of Gabrielle’s in New Orleans Louisiana. Born and raised in Louisiana (Bucktown, Westbank, and New Orleans) chef Greg Sonnier is a well known staple of Louisiana cooking, who has been nominated for several awards including a James Beard Award for Best Chef: South/Southeast. After losing the original location of Gabrielle’s after Katrina, Chef Sonnier became the executive chef at Kingfish restaurant in the French Quarter. Twelve years after the storm, chef Sonnier finally was able to reopen Gabrielle’s (his daughter’s namesake) and bringing back, in his words, “ an injection of Louisiana” into dishes foreign and familiar.

Bibliographic citation for this interview:  

Sonnier, Greg. Greg Sonnier Interview. Interview by Bryan Recile and Asha Thomas. Videorecording, transcript, November 19, 2018. Service Industry Collection. Documentary and Oral History Studio, Loyola University New Orleans.

For more information about the Documentary and Oral History Studio’s interview collections and their use, please contact studio director Justin A. Nystrom. This interview and all related material including text and images are © 2018 Documentary and Oral History Studio, Loyola University New Orleans.