Recipe Testing
Dear Friends,
Each season, we gather around the table a little earlier than most, not to dine, but to deliberate.
Testing new recipes and expanding our offerings is one of the quiet rituals we look forward to most at the Pelican Inn. It's a process equal parts intuition and intention, shaped by what's fresh, what feels right, and what we believe our guests will carry with them long after their plates are cleared.
Our kitchen conversations are honest ones. Dishes are tried, adjusted, argued over, and tried again. We take our time. Some ideas make the menu on the first tasting; others earn their place after weeks of small refinements.
And through it all, we rely on our most trusted critic, whose palate, enthusiasm, and unflinching honesty have shaped more than a few of our best-loved offerings. Find out who that is below!
the How & the Why
The research never really stops — and honestly, we wouldn't have it any other way.
Dog-eared issues of Southern Living, Garden & Gun, and Louisiana Cooking stack up alongside favorite food shows and a daily wander through trusted corners of the internet. Bruce keeps faithful watch over New York Times Cooking. If something looks good and feels approachable, it finds its way to our kitchen before long.
Most recipes get two chances. The first attempt tells you what you're working with; the second is where a dish either earns its place or gets quietly let go.
Bruce has a genuine gift for tasting something and knowing (almost immediately) what it needs or what's standing in its way.
When a recipe proves stubborn, we turn to America's Test Kitchen to pull it apart and find where things went sideways. Corinne does possess formal culinary training and her family has sat patiently through more than a few rounds of the same dish while she gets it exactly right. The foolproof éclairs are, years on, still teaching her things.
Old cookbooks are a particular love. Corinne reads them the way other people read novels - slowly, with real pleasure.
There's something deeply satisfying about bringing a forgotten dish back to the table and watching guests encounter it for the first time.
Not everyone arrives ready for the adventure, of course. The tomato aspic incident remains a cherished family legend. It was, for the record, dang delicious.
A dish earns its place on the Pelican menu when it's simply, honestly good, and rooted in Southern tradition but never confined by it. Paella, jambalaya, pilaf, and bog are all cousins, as far as we're concerned.
The table here has always been a generous one, and we hope you feel it every time you sit down with us.