New Orleans Spotlight: Cochon Restaurant

Cochon Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a celebrated culinary destination known for its authentic and elevated Southern and Cajun cuisine, with a particular focus on pork and whole-hog cooking traditions.¹

What Makes Cochon Unique

• Focus on Cajun & Southern Cooking:² Cochon, which means “pig” in French, reconnected Chef Donald Link with the traditional Cajun Southern dishes he grew up with.³ The restaurant embraces the rustic, authentic flavors and techniques of Cajun country.⁴

   

• Whole-Hog & Boucherie Tradition: The restaurant draws heavily on the boucherie tradition, a communal event in Cajun culture focused on hog butchering and processing, resulting in house-made cured meats, sausages, and pork-centric dishes.⁵

   

• Farm-to-Table Ethos: Chef Link and Chef/Co-owner Stephen Stryjewski emphasize sourcing ingredients from local farms and suppliers, ensuring fresh produce, seafood, and locally sourced pork.⁶

   

• Atmosphere: It is set in a rustic, yet contemporary, renovated New Orleans Warehouse District building, offering a relaxed and inviting ambiance.⁷

   

• Cochon Butcher: The restaurant is connected to Cochon Butcher, a separate but related butcher shop and sandwich counter that provides cured meats and sausages for the restaurant and sells them to the public.⁸

   

History

Cochon was opened in 2006 by acclaimed Chef Donald Link and Chef/Co-owner Stephen Stryjewski.⁹ It was Link’s second restaurant, following his flagship Herbsaint, and its opening post-Katrina was considered a significant moment in the New Orleans dining scene.¹⁰ The restaurant’s embrace of rustic Cajun-Southern cooking, devoid of white-tablecloth pretension, garnered immense national respect and influenced other chefs to embrace Southern cuisine.¹¹

Highlight Menu Items

The menu features traditional dishes often with a modern refinement, emphasizing pork and wood-fired cooking.¹² Highlights often mentioned by customers and critics include:

• Louisiana Cochon: This is a signature dish, a traditional Louisiana patty made with fork-tender shredded pork, often served with cracklins and a bed of sautéed vegetables.¹³

   

• Fried Boudin: Homemade sausage and rice balls that are breaded and fried, typically served with homemade mustard.¹⁴

   

• Fried Alligator: Fried alligator with chili garlic mayonnaise is a highly noted appetizer.¹⁵

   

• Wood Fired Oysters: Oysters cooked in the wood-burning oven, often with chili garlic butter.¹⁶

   

• Rabbit & Dumplings: A comforting staple often on the menu since the restaurant’s opening.¹⁷

   

• Smoked Ham Hocks and Greens¹⁸

   

• Wood Fired Gulf Fish “Fisherman’s Style”¹⁹

   

Customer Feedback

Cochon consistently receives high praise and is often listed among the top restaurants in New Orleans.²⁰

• Critical Acclaim: Bon Appétit magazine named it one of the “20 most important restaurants in America,” crediting it with “raising the bar on rich culinary traditions of the Louisiana bayou.”²¹ The New York Times has also recognized it as a top restaurant.²²

   

• Focus on Flavor: Diners frequently praise the food for being intensely flavorful, rustic, and authentic.²³ The pork dishes, in particular, are often called “religious experiences.”

   

• Atmosphere and Service: The service is often described as friendly and knowledgeable, while the rustic, industrial setting is appreciated for being unpretentious.²⁴

   

Significant Events

• 2006 Opening: The opening was a watershed moment, marking a shift toward embracing rustic Southern cuisine without pretense in the post-Katrina New Orleans dining landscape.²⁵

   

• James Beard Nominations/Awards:
  • Cochon was nominated for the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in 2007.²⁶

     

  • Co-owner and Chef Stephen Stryjewski won the James Beard Award for Best Chef South in 2011.²⁷ (Donald Link won the same award in 2007 for his first restaurant, Herbsaint).²⁸

     

  • Link and Stryjewski’s work has led to multiple other James Beard nominations and awards for their Link Restaurant Group establishments.²⁹

     

• 2016 Expansion: Cochon underwent a capacity-doubling expansion, allowing it to serve more diners without compromising quality.³⁰

   

• Link Stryjewski Foundation: In 2015, Chefs Link and Stryjewski created the Link Stryjewski Foundation to address poverty, violence, and lack of opportunities for young people in New Orleans, connecting their success to community service.³¹

   

Location and Contact Information