Lauren Joffrion
Chef Lauren Joffrion's sous vide duck breast with braised cabbage, fermented plums, and hoisin demi glacé
There are certain revered menu staples one can expect to find at a Gulf Coast steakhouse: garlic mashed potatoes, a Caesar salad, an upscale mac and cheese, perhaps. These are all available at Field’s Steak and Oyster Bar in Bay St. Louis, to be sure—but under former Executive Chef Lauren Joffrion’s hand, you could also find pan-seared snapper atop squid ink fettuccine in a Thai tom yum broth with sweet corn butter, Korean Gochugaru oil, hot and sour shrimp, and wonton chips; or a Gulf seafood bouillabaisse that ups the aromatic ante with the addition of saffron. Lauren Joffrion you see, is not your average Bay St. Louis chef.
In fact, her unique brand of creative culinary eclecticism piqued the interest of 2017 Small Town Chefs award-winner Jeffrey Hansell—who just before this issue went to press hired Joffrion as sous chef at his newest venture in Bay St. Louis. Right around the corner from Field’s (but unaffiliated with the steakhouse) in the first floor of the Pearl Hotel overlooking the Gulf, The Thorny Oyster aims to “celebrate bold, strong, and nuanced flavors from around the world”––which happens to align perfectly with Joffrion’s approach to cuisine.
[Read our profile on 2017 Small Town Chefs Award winner Jeffrey Hansell, here.]
Alexandra Kennon
Small Town Chefs Award winner Lauren Joffrion, formerly of Field's Steak and Oyster Bar.
“That’s my whole thing, I want to give everybody something you can’t get anywhere else around here,” Joffrion told me. Surely enough, one would be hard-pressed to find many spots on the Mississippi Gulf Coast offering a special of fried fish nestled in yellow curry. “It took a while for everyone around here to like curry,” Joffrion recalled of introducing the dish to the menu at Field’s. “The first one I ever ran did not sell at all. I was like ‘Man, curry’s not going to do too well around here.’” Two years later, she’s certainly gained the trust of Bay St. Louis diners, and her elevated curry specials became a guaranteed sell-out.
“A lot of times I’ll eat a dish somewhere and think of how I can make it completely different, but in my style,” Joffrion explained. “Or I’ll go to the Asian markets sometimes, and see something I’ve never seen before, and think ‘How can I cook with that?’ And I’ll try to make it work somehow.”
Though Joffrion grew up just down the coast from Bay St. Louis in Gulfport, her fascination and reverence for Asian cuisine and ingredients goes back to her childhood. When she was only three years old, her mother noticed her interest in cooking and bought her a step stool so she could reach the countertop to help prepare meals. “My parents like a lot of interesting foods; they travel a lot,” Joffrion said. She and her parents would watch Yan Can Cook on PBS, gleaning Chinese techniques and ingredient ideas from James Beard Award-winning host Martin Yan. “My parents would take me to the Asian markets when I was younger and let me pick out stuff, and we’d get the ingredients and go home and cook together.”
Lauren Joffrion
Chef Lauren Joffrion's angel’s food cake, with strawberry preserves, strawberry fruit leather, meringue, strawberry ice cream, brown butter solids, and fresh strawberries
Though food has always been important to Joffrion, making a career of cooking was not her initial intent. After high school, she enrolled at Mississippi State University as an architecture major. She enjoyed it, but as she learned to draft floor plans, cooking continued to call her name. Halfway through her second year, she decided to leave college to answer that call to the kitchen. With three semesters of university tuition to pay off, Joffrion knew that attending culinary school wouldn’t be an option. She decided that to pursue a career as a chef, she would have to work her way up in restaurant kitchens from the bottom. “In the beginning [my parents] weren’t too thrilled with that,” Joffrion remembered. “They were kind of on the fence about it, but still very supportive. And my mom was like, ‘If you put your mind to it, I know you’ll make it happen. I trust you.’” Gaining trust—and proving herself trustworthy—is a bit of a theme weaving through Joffrion’s career.
So, Joffrion began to work her way up. She dish-washed, did prep, and eventually landed her first kitchen job at the fast-casual sandwich and salad chain Newk’s. After that she became a live-in private chef in Lafayette for a time, before returning to the Gulf Coast to work as a cook at Stalla, the Italian restaurant in the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino.
Eventually she was hired by David Dickensauge at now-closed 27th Avenue Bistro in downtown Gulfport, who wasn’t looking for a chef per say, but needed a pastry chef. “I kind of really needed a job, and I’d dabbled in pastry, but I wasn’t super familiar with it,” Joffrion said. “But I guess he trusted me.” As part of the hiring process, she was asked to make a dessert. “I’m panicked,” she said. “I go home, and I’m like: pana cotta! It’s like a blank canvas, I can do a lot of different stuff with that.” It clearly impressed: she landed the pastry chef job, and later became sous chef at 27th Avenue Bistro, as well. Joffrion’s unique spins on pana cotta continued to grace the dessert menu at Field’s; her titles there included pastry chef in addition to executive chef.
Lauren Joffrion
Chef Lauren Joffrion's Buffalo Oysters, with Hot Sauce Fluid Gel, Blue Cheese, Buttermilk Ranch, Celery Leaf, and Dill
It was during Joffrion’s time at 27th Avenue Bistro that her work piqued the admiration of Field Nicaud when he was opening Field’s Steak and Oyster Bar. After seeing the food photos on Joffrion’s Instagram, Nicaud and friends had a few meals at 27th Avenue Bistro to test Joffrion’s consistency, then reached out and offered her a sous chef position at Field’s.
Joffrion opened Field’s in April 2019. At first, Nicaud was relatively hands-on in the kitchen right beside her, but before long he stepped back and promoted her to executive chef. “He was like, ‘I’m stepping back and I’m trusting you with this place,” she said.
“A lot of times I’ll eat a dish somewhere and think of how I can make it completely different, but in my style. Or I’ll go to the Asian markets sometimes, and see something I’ve never seen before, and think ‘How can I cook with that?’ And I’ll try to make it work somehow.” —Chef Lauren Joffrion
After two years of proving her worth as executive chef at Field’s, this June, Joffrion accepted Jeffrey Hansell’s offer to lead the kitchen at The Thorny Oyster next door, which promises ample opportunity for her to flex her signature creativity.
“Lauren is one of the handful of young chefs in Coastal Mississippi who is striving to change the way people perceive a traditional Southern dish,” said Alex Perry, Executive Chef of Vestige in Ocean Springs (and 2020 Small Town Chef) who nominated Joffrion for this year’s Small Town Chefs Award. “She uses techniques that she learned through training, but also through her cultural surroundings (including Asian cuisine styles gleaned from the communities in the region), to offer her own seasonal and surprising twist on local, Southern fare. It is because of young chefs like Lauren, who choose to defy the ordinary and consistently push the boundaries in culinary offerings, that Coastal Mississippi is currently flourishing as a booming, progressive culinary scene.”
[Read our profile on 2020 Small Town Chefs Award winner Chef Alex Perry, here.]
Lauren Joffrion
Chef Lauren Joffrion's lemon meringue tart with lemon curd, brown butter solids, meringue puffs, and salted caramel.
At Field’s, Joffrion, twenty eight, led a kitchen staff entirely made of up of teenagers and twenty-somethings. Being self-taught, she said that she likes to foster a kitchen culture that allows everyone to learn as they go. “I just make sure when I’m learning, they’re learning as well. And when I explain why I do something, I also explain how I’ve messed it up before, and what not to do,” she said. “But I don’t take myself too seriously, and we pretty much just have a lot of fun and do what we do.”
Forever a student of her craft, Joffrion is eager to learn from her newest employer. “Jeffrey Hansell showcases the food he loves most, which goes all the way back to his roots. I’m excited to be a part of that, as well as helping with future menu development,” Joffrion said of this new chapter in her career. “I’m hoping to bring some Southern flare with a hint of modernity. I’m grateful for this opportunity, and I’m excited to begin this new journey.”
