Our Story & Our Chef
Since opening in 2018, Gris-Gris has been named New Orleans’ best new neighborhood restaurant by featuring refined, Southern cuisine, and local favorites in a casual and comfortable atmosphere. Gris-Gris has been named Eater New Orleans’ Reader’s Choice for both 2018 Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year, New Orleans City Business’ 2018 Restaurant of the Year, New Orleans Magazine Best Restaurants of 2019 and TimeOut.com Best New Orleans Restaurants 2019 as well as Gambit and New Orleans Magazine's "Best Balcony", "Best Happy Hour", and "Best Brunch".
The restaurant's first floor features a dining counter wrapped around the kitchen for an intimate experience with the chef and kitchen staff. The second floor has a chic bar plus indoor/outdoor balcony seating. Open for lunch and dinner, Gris-Gris serves classic Southern dishes and New Orleans favorites such as shrimp and grits, chicken and dumplings, oyster and caviar poboys, and a classic redfish court-bouillon. Chef's signature dish is the "Oyster BLT" which features fried gulf oysters, smoked pork belly, tomato jam and arugula. A full New Orleans-style brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays.
Executive Chef & Owner, Eric Cook is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a combat veteran who served six years in the United States Marine Corps. With training from the John Folse Culinary Institute, he began his culinary career at Brennan’s in the French Quarter where he studied under Chef Mike Roussel. Cook joined the team at Commander’s Palace as Sous Chef and Chef de Partie. Cook has also worked as a private chef, executive banquet chef, and research and development consultant for several national restaurants. His career has taken him through some of the finest restaurants in New Orleans and he has served as Executive Chef for National WWII Museum’s American Sector, Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House, Tommy’s Cuisine, and N.O.S.H.
Cook has worked on television shows such as Top Chef New Orleans and Off the Menu, After Hours with Daniel Boulud. Most recently he was featured on Gordon Ramsay's: Uncharted on the Discovery Channel. He has been featured in magazines such as Saveur, Flavor & The Menu, St. Charles Avenue, Plate Magazine, Inkspired, and Louisiana Cookin’. He represented New Orleans at the James Beard House “Wild About Wild American Shrimp” event in 2007, and at the grand opening of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB). Cook also participates in the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience and Tales of the Cocktail. He has been honored to cook for the NFL Hall of Fame, the U.S. Marine Corps Ball and U.S. Navy Ball, private dinners the Sergeant Major of the United States Marine Corps and Vice Admiral of the Navy Reserve, and well as a special dinner for President George W. Bush, the President of Mexico, and the Prime Minister of Canada.
In 2016 Cook won the National Chef’s Taste Challenge, 1st place in the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Seafood Competition, and his barbecue team "Born to Grill" won Whole Hog Champion of Hogs for the Cause. He has also participated in the Great American Seafood Cookoff, the Louisiana Seafood Cookoff, New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, New Orleans Oyster Festival, and Euphoria Greenville. In 2019 he was named a culinary legend at the ACF Best Chefs of Louisiana.
An advocate for the United States military and his hometown, Cook is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and is a founder and President of the First to Fight Foundation. He stayed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina to help feed troops and first responders. Cook is an active volunteer for organizations such as Wounded Warriors, The Legacy Foundation, Disposable Heroes Project, We Heart Veterans, and The American Red Cross. He also volunteers for events such as the Steel Beach Picnic, Café Hope Mentor Program, Edible School Yard New Orleans, St. Michael’s Chef’s Charity, Better Than Ezra Foundation, New Orleans Local Fire Dept., Stanley Brock's Black & Gold Foundation, and many schools and charitable organizations in the New Orleans area.
In October 2021 Cook opened his second restaurant, Saint John, on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Saint John specializes in Cook’s take on ‘haute creole cuisine,’ showcasing the evolution of true Creole cuisine in New Orleans, dating back to the 18th century, presenting these flavors in an elevated, yet approachable way. Drawing inspiration from traditional Sunday dinners in New Orleans and old times of celebration - when French Quarter neighbors would go house to house, offering dishes made solely from the season’s crops and catches, and sharing in the celebration of community and good food. The menu reflects influences from the melting pot of cultures that lent traditions, flavors, ingredients and cooking styles to the city - Italian, French, Spanish, African, German, Caribbean.
Click HERE to find out more about Saint John!
