Preparation
Growing up in St. Lucia, Nina Compton, the chef and owner of Compère Lapin and Bywater American Bistro in New Orleans, adored playing sous-chef to her grandmother—picking parsley, chopping onions, and cooking rice. Her late father, the island’s former prime minister, came home every day for an elaborate lunch. One Christmas when she was 16, she made hors d’oeuvres for her family. “I saw how happy they were, eating, laughing, talking,” recalls the James Beard Award winner. “I knew right then I wanted to be a chef.”
Compton got a five-star education, graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York; doing a stint at Daniel in New York City; and achieving the honored role of chef de cuisine at Scott Conant’s Scarpetta, in Miami Beach. In 2013, she also won fans’ hearts on Top Chef: New Orleans, and opened Compère Lapin there two years later. “I wanted to showcase the diversity of Caribbean food,” she says of her deeply personal dishes, like goat curry with green cardamom, fresh curry leaves, and turmeric, served with pillowy sweet-potato gnocchi and crunchy cashews. She opened her latest venture, Bywater American Bistro, “to feed our neighbors” simple hits like jerk chicken and handmade spaghetti in silky pomodoro sauce. Compton zips between these spots on her Vespa so she doesn’t miss a minute of the action: “I get such a thrill when I’m in the kitchen.” Here, the chef shares a few of her everyday essentials that bring her joy and get her from one restaurant to the next.
Black, White, and The Grey by Mashama Bailey and John O. MorisanoImperia Pasta MachineBaron West Indian Hot SauceMartha Stewart Collection Percale Sheet Set in Tide BlueApple AirPods Pro
