The Times-Picayune 2006 Fall Dining Guide
TOP TEN

Rock bands are like restaurants in that few are at their best once their leaders start playing other gigs. Herbsaint's Donald Link threw a wrench in this thinking after opening Cochon, his second restaurant, last spring. Instead of usurping the chef's energies, the casual Cajun restaurant reinforced the James Beard nominee's reputation as one of the region's most soulful chefs while casting Herbsaint in fresh light. The place locals love for its erudition and Swiss-like reliability is now also the showcase restaurant of an independent thinker. What else to call a chef who imbeds parmesan beignets in spinach salads, drops fried poached eggs atop piles of homemade spaghetti and otherwise views straight but stellar versions of grilled hanger steak, dirty rice, eggplant dressing and oyster-andouille gumbo to be worthy vehicles for his considerable talent and ambition? The result is a great restaurant disguised as a modest one, propelled by a chef who evidence suggests is driven by a simple desire: to cook for people who know good food when they taste it.

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