Leon Rene Galatoire, who for decades was the chef and public face of the famed Bourbon St. institution, died Friday, NOLA.com reports. He was 68.
Galatoire ran the kitchen and dining rooms of the grande dame eatery from 1976 to 1996. A descendent of Galatoire's founder Jean Galatoire, Leon Galatoire began his culinary career waiting tables at Pique's Wharf, a West End restaurant.
Not long after, he joined his family's flagship restaurant where his father, Gabriel Galatoire, ran the dining room, and his uncle Rene Galatoire was restaurant manager.
Galatoire wrote in 1996 that visits to fishing camps and trips to fish offshore near Louisiana oil rigs inspired his love of cooking seafood.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa Pique Galatoire, his two step-sons David and Michael Doherty, his sister Michele Marie Galatoire, and his half-sister Rene Hotard Bennett.
