Skip to main content

Reply to "These chefs are blending culinary traditions across the South"

Annie Pettry, executive chef and owner of Decca, Louisville, Kentucky

Annie Pettry grew up fishing for trout, foraging for mushrooms and growing vegetables in the family garden in Asheville. The Top Chef Season 14 contestant trained in New York's French Culinary Institute, now the International Culinary Institute. She worked with renowned chefs Craig Koketsu, Elliott Moss and Loretta Keller before moving to Louisiana in 2012 to start her own restaurant at Keller's urging.
At Decca (812 East Market St. Louisville, KY; +502 749 8128), Pettry strives to apply classic French technique to Southern ingredients to create her own take on soulful American cuisine.
Case in point: hush puppies with pimento cheese and hot pepper jelly.
"I just want to do a really good hush puppy by capturing its essence," she says.

 

Chef Annie Pettry.Chef Annie Pettry.
Lyric Lewin/CNN
To Pettry, nailing the fried cornmeal fritter's essence means getting the perfect batter. She uses melted butter instead of cold chunks to ensure maximum fluffiness, adding it to medium ground cornmeal and bits of onion. And, it has to be light and fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outside, a balance achieved by deep-frying it to just the right deep golden color.
"A really good hush puppy has good corn flavor and pieces of onion or it's not going to hit the spot for me."
FM
×
×
×
×
×
×