Chefs Brigade Welcomes New Chef Educator

Chef Erik Nunley isn’t one to avoid challenges. He spent more than a decade as a hotel executive in the hospitality industry, before he decided to embrace his dream of becoming a chef. He enrolled at New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI), graduated, embarked on a new career as a private chef, and now owns two businesses:  Chef St. Erik Personal Private Chef Services and The Chefs Firm. 

‍

He accomplished all of that in less than three years.

‍

Now he’s venturing into new territory and this time it’s on the water as Chefs on Boat’s (CoB) new Chef Educator. Nunley will be leading these immersive educational expeditions that take chefs, line cooks, oyster shuckers and all manner of restaurant and food service workers into the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, exploring our regional fisheries, including the people, waterways, vessels and the environmental science that connects it all. 

‍

“So many times as chefs and staff, we only see the food when it’s delivered to the restaurant,” Nunley says. “This is about getting back to the natural alchemy of what makes us chefs. Seeing all the influences that determine what we eat and how it’s prepared. Things that may seem simple at first like water, land, and weather, but they get complicated when you take into account other factors such as coastal erosion, water salinity and turbidity, climate change, and, of course, humans.”

‍

Joining Nunley on the CoB tours will be Captain Richie Blink, who has been guiding the trips since CoB was first introduced in 2021. This time Blink will be at the helm of a new vessel, a 22-foot custom flatboat, that’s faster and allows for a few more passengers. Plus, there’s also the CoB science lab in Empire featuring a microscope, devices for measuring the Gulf’s turbidity and salinity, and numerous beakers and scales. 

‍

Nunley remains very much a student, because he’s constantly learning new things as a chef, and that now includes all of the lessons he has acquired from being on the water with Chefs on Boats. For the past year, he has been training this transition, and he’s confident that his partnership with Captain Richie will continue to evolve.  

‍

“I think it’s important to always be asking “why,” Nunley explains. “And what is great about Richie is he has so many answers, because he’s spent most of his life on Louisiana’s waterways. Being the Chef Educator means I get to keep being a student and growing.”

‍

Sounds like Nunley’s not only prepared but he’s also up for the challenge. 

‍