20th
Anniversary
Celebration
Le Ruth's 20/20 Vision
A Look at the Past and a Look at the Future
Most people, when confronted with their 20th anniversary, find it a time to pause, to
take stock, to look back, to see what has evolved from that gray beginning of so many
years ago.
Leruth, as usual, had to be different.
This Fall of 1983, Le Ruth's celebrates its 20th year as New Orleans' premier restaurant.
Yes. Le Ruth's is 20 years old. Yes, time does fly.
But instead of looking back. instead oftaking stock, Leruth already has his eye t0 the
future .. . to the next 20 years, to what is to come. He has neither the time nor the
inclination to bother with the past. Always, it is the future.
And for him, it is easy. Because the Mure is already in place at Le Ruth's.
His sons. Larry, 26. and Lee. 24, have taken over. The kitchen is theirs, the. tall, white
toques blanche fit easily, even nattily, on their heads. They are the patrons, they are les
proprietaires. Yet, as the man on television says, they came by their good fortune the old
fashioned way-they earned it ... spending morethan halfofthepast20yearssideby
side with their father in the kitchen, learning, doing, creating.
Already the changes are becoming obvious: they introduced the new a Ia carte
menu, bringing the enormous Le Ruth dinner to manageable proportions; they solved
the reseNations problem, eliminating that bothersome two-week wait; and they
created new dishes that even the old man never thought of .. .
-A black olive pate', succulent and spicy.
-Baby soft shell crabs caught at the first molt, and seNed with buerre blanc and buerre
rouge.
- Tournedos of lamb on artichoke bottoms, stuffed with creamed leeks, and sauced
with a reduction of port wine. poached sweet garlic and concentrated lamb demiglace.
636 Franklin Street - Gretna, Louisiana 70053 - (504) 362-4914
-Red Fish Serrier. stuffed with lump crab meat. sauteed in butter and napped with a
crawfish sauce.
-Boneless frog legs with diced potatoes sauteed in garlic butter.
- Paneed lobster with a sauce of shallots. mushrooms. bell peppers and fresh seeded
tomatoes.
-Veal and frog legs sauteed in butter and coated with an oyster sauce.
And. for dessert-
-Raspberry meringue. stuffed with strawberry sorbet and covered with fresh strawberries
and orange sauce.
Of course. they are not making too many changes. simply more like fine tuning. The
cuisine of their father. in the past 20 years. has changed the face of fine dining in New
Orleans and has won national and international renown. That is one tradition they
intend to maintain. night after night. And the famous potage Le Ruth. that luscious
artichoke and oyster soup. remains inviolate. along with the Crabmeat St. Francis. the
Crawfish Pies. the crusty. crunchy French bread. those magnificent dessert sorbets and
the incredible French Vanilla Ice Cream. heavy with butterfat and Le Ruth's own
marinated vanilla beans.
And as Le Ruth's enters its third decade. it really offers the best of both worlds-the
genius and the renowned cuisine of Warren Leruth. coupled with the youth and
imagination and the sheer joie de vivre of his sons.
But. in retrospect. it is not enough merely to look to the future. The past 20 years have
been marvelously rewarding and fulfilling. Leruth has seen his children grow to capable.
creative chefs. He has seen his restaurant grow from a small1 0-table bistro in Sherman.
Texas. to become. in New Orleans. one of the major milestones of American culinary
history.
So lets look at those 20 years. lets go back in time to the very beginning. because it
is only by knowing the past that we can have goals for the future.
19 8 3 -The firstfull year under the new proprietors is a banner one. Lee and Larry win the
Cartier Award for fine dining. the Travel/ Holiday Award for the 14th time. And the New
York Times. in an article on New Orleans restaurants. pronounces Le Ruth's "flawless." Le
Ruth's is also awarded a 5 Star rating by Fisher Travel Guide.
1982- Yul Brynner. starring in "The King and 1." is the Leruth brothers'firstcelebrityguest.
He comes for the stuffed trout. returns again and again throughout his stay, ranking the
Leruths among America's finest chefs. The Serrier Room. for private dinners. is opened.
named after the famed French artist.
1981 - Walter Cronkite comes to Le Ruth's after hearing about it in London. He flips
over fettucini with fresh truffles and oysters. returns for second visit.
1980- Andy Rooney of "60 Minutes", following up his famous "Dining Out in America"
documentary. has one night to spend in New Orleans. He comes toLe Ruth's for dinner.
captivated by the new dish the brothers have introduced. roast duckling, stuffed with
oysters. napped with a green peppercorn sauce.
19 79 - Leruth makes "Golden 25," the richest ice cream in America . .. a French
Vanilla with 25 percent butterfat. To do so he had to go to New York and have a special
freezer made. He also begins importing fresh truffles. black from France and white from
Italy. He makes New Orleans' very first truffle ice cream and truffle pecan pie.
19 78 - Leruth recruits eight other New Orleans chefs and begins the "Chefs' Charity for
Children," to raise money for St. Michael's School for retarded children in New Orleans.
Louis Szathmary of "The Bakery'' restaurant in Chicago is the first guest chef. In the next
six years these chefs- grown to an even dozen- will raise almost $300,000.00 for the
school.
1977 - Le Ruth's receives the Mobil Guide 5-Star Award, given only to 12 other
restaurants in America. His restaurant is placed in the Hall of Fame of Hospitality
Magazine and he gets the cherished Ivy Award from Institution Magazine.
19 76 - Leruth is host to over 300 of America's finest restaurateurs who come to New
Orleans for the Travel/Holiday Awards reunion. He receives United Airlines "Mainline('
Award. Always striving for something new, he creates for Kolb's, New Orleans' German
Restaurant, the first pickled pork sausage in the city's history.
19 75- Larry Leruth, 18, studies at the Culinary Institute of America. Lee, 16, goes to Paris
and works in the kitchens of La Moree and Prunie(s. The Gallery dining room is added.
And Le Ruth's is a triple winner in the Times-Picayune's restaurant contest, winning for
Best Restaurant, Best Chef and Best Maitre D' (Perry Fusilier.)
19 7 4 - David Brinkley dines at Le Ruth's, and is seen to smile, wryly. Bill Rice, food editor
of the Washington Post, is another visitor. The Chef removes several tables from the
restaurant, to give diners more room. And is awarded the Mobil 4-Star Award.
1973- The Underground Gourmet pronounces Le Ruth's the best restaurant in New
Orleans. Melon ice is introduced, a sorbet with the taste of fresh cantaloupe. And a new
entree is whole roasted baby chicken with swiss morille mushrooms. And prayers of
thanksgiving are offered as the Vietnam war ends.
19 72 - Leruth brings back an old New Orleans favorite-cap bread. By research in
Paris, he learns original recipe, finds it came from bakers who emigrated to New Orleans
from Brittany. Time Magazine, then Southern Living, acclaim Le Ruth's as one of
America's finest.
19 71 -Vice-President Spiro Agnew dines at Le Ruth's and three fuses blow, plunging
his private dining room into darkness and scaring several Secret SeNice men into early
retirement. Leruth introduces leather foot cushions for ladies and becomes the first New
Orleans restaurant to carbon filter its water.
1970- Life and Playboy discover Le Ruth's. And he gets his first Holiday Fine Dining
Award. The Underground Gourmet calls him a "genius with sauces." He introduces his
first souffle dessert, a light lemon froth drenched with a tart raspberry sauce. And the
government of Portugal awards him its Medal of Merit.
1969 - Gourmand Sebastian Cabot dines, on pate', crabmeat St. Francis, oyster and
artichoke soup, baby chicken with oyster stuffing, mandarine ice, rack of veal with
demi-glace and morilles, brie and emmenthaler cheeses, a chocolate souffle with
cream Anglais, coffee, cognac, petit fours and champagne.
1968 - Leruth builds not a wine cellar, but his unique wine attic, with 12 inches of cork
insulation and a refrigeration unit designed to keep his thousands of great bottles at an
even 55 degrees. He invests heavily in white burgundies and red bordeaux, laying down
the base for one of the great restaurant cellars in America. The Renoir Room is added,
doubling the restaurants size.
196 7- Leruth imports the first food processor to America, the Robot Coupe, which later
became the Cuisinart. He gives up franchise to concentrate on his restaurant. He closes
for a month, visits the great restaurants and chefs of France: Bocuse, Madame Point.
Oliver, Paul Blanc. He eats and takes notes at Laserre, LaTour d'Argent. Taillevant. La
Coquille. Returning through New York, he samples a new young chef at a new
restaurant-Andre Soltner at Lutece. And Lee Leruth, age 8, begins working in the
kitchen.
1966- The Grand Opening of Le Ruth's in Gretna, Louisiana, the only restaurant in the
New Orleans area to bake its own French bread daily and make its own ice cream. He
introduces Potage Le Ruth, his magnificent artichoke and oyster soup which in weeks
becomes the talk of New Orleans and makes Le Ruth's a sell-out within three months of
opening. Larry, age 9, begins working in the kitchen.
1965 - Leruth returns to New Orleans and buys an old Victorian shotgun cottage in
Gretna for his restaurant. an unlikely location that will prove. a wise choice. He designs a
uniquely new menu for the city, totally "table d'hote" and featuring fresh seafoods and
the finest "plume de veau" veal.
1964 - Leruth resigns as research chef and sells his successful restaurant in Texas to
follow his dream-to open a fine French-Creole restaurant in New Orleans.
1963 - A successful research chef by day (he developed the Seven Seas Salad
dressing), Leruth moonlights by night in Sherman, Texas, opening his very first restaurant
with $4800 and a lot of courage. Crabmeat St. Francis is born here, and his famous
French Vanilla ice cream. The restaurant is an instant success, introducing New Orleans
cooking to Northeast Texas for the very first time.
Indeed, it has been a momentous 20 years.
And the next 20?
WelL Lee Leruth and his wife Torey are expecting their first child early in 1984. And by
1993 he should be starting work in the kitchen . ..
And by the turn of the century, in the year 2000 . ..
Yes, the future is bright.
Lets hope we're all around to enjoy it.
Bon Apetit!
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© 1983 Le Ruth's Inc.
