Ella Brennan (November 27, 1925 – May 31, 2018) was an American restaurateur and part of a family of restaurateurs specializing in

haute Haute may refer to: People * Nicholas Haute (1357 – c.1415), English knight, landowner and politician ** William Haute (MP) William Haute (1390–1462) of Bishopsbourne, Kent, was an English politician. Early life Haute was born 1390 in Wa ...

Louisiana Creole cuisine Louisiana Creole cuisine (, , ) is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends African cuisine, West African, French cuisine, French, Spanish cuisine, Spanish, and Native American cuisine, Native American influenc ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Louisiana.

Early life and education

Brennan was born in

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

on November 27, 1925. Her father was a shipyard superintendent and her mother, Nellie (Valentine) Brennan, was a homemaker and inventive home cook. Ella grew up in New Orleans and graduated from high school in 1943.

Career

Her brother Owen owned the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street, and Ella Brennan worked there as a teenager. He also opened the Vieux Carré Restaurant on Bourbon Street. Plans to move the restaurant to Royal Street were interrupted when Owen suddenly died and banks pulled out of the venture. Acquiring her own backing, Ella did open the new restaurant in 1956, the first Brennan's Restaurant. This tactic was very successful and Ella worked behind the scenes, as well as out front, to ensure the quality of the dishes. A family dispute dislodged her from the restaurant completely, and she countered by taking over a restaurant of her own with her siblings Adelaide Brennan, Dottie Brennan, John Brennan and Dick Brennan.

Commander's Palace Commander's Palace is a Louisiana Creole restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana. History Commander's Palace was established in 1893 in the Garden District of Uptown New Orleans at 1403 Washington Ave. Emile Commander established a small saloo ...

became one of the culinary destinations of the South, if not the entire nation. At Commander's Palace she worked with

Paul Prudhomme Paul Prudhomme (July 13, 1940 – October 8, 2015), also known as Gene Autry Prudhomme, was an American celebrity chef whose specialties were Creole and Cajun cuisines, which he was also credited with popularizing. He was the chef propriet ...

, beginning in 1975, and

Emeril Lagasse Emeril John Lagasse III ( ; born October 15, 1959) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author, and National Best Recipe award winner for his "Turkey and Hot Sausage Chili" recipe in 2003. He is a regional James ...

from 1983. Miss Ella (as she became known) went on to develop the careers of many chefs including

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

Award winners Jamie Shannon and Tory McPhail, who was the chef at

until the end of 2020 when he handed over the reins of the kitchen to Meg Bickford.

Death and legacy

She died on May 31, 2018, at the age of 92. Her daughter Ti Adelaide Martin is co-proprietor of

and SoBou restaurants, and her son Alex Brennan-Martin is proprietor of Brennan's of Houston. She was the subject of a 2017 documentary, ''Ella Brennan: Commanding the Table''.

Awards

In 2009, she received the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the

Southern Foodways Alliance Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stage ...

. Text via the Southern Foodways Alliance.

Early life and education

Career

Death and legacy

Awards

References

Further reading