Latest news with #BillyNungesser
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shreveport chef to compete in Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A popular Shreveport chef was announced as one of the participants in the Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off coming to south Louisiana in late June. Chef Blake Jackson, owner of Mae & Co. and Heron Seafood, is one of 12 chefs chosen by Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, who announced the participants in the 18th Annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off on Wednesday. 'One of the biggest parts of Louisiana's culture is the connection between good food, good friends, and family. In all corners of our state, you can find culinary creations from recipes passed down through generations. The outstanding chefs we have competing this year have taken those recipes and put their own spin on them and use Louisiana seafood to help create the culinary identity Louisiana has today,' said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. 'This event is the perfect opportunity to celebrate our diverse heritage, the great contributions of chefs around our state, and the hardworking people of the Louisiana seafood and restaurant industries that make Louisiana truly a place to Feed Your Soul.' Shreveport chef to appear on Food Network's 'Beat Bobby Flay' The cookoff will be held on Friday, June 27, 2025, at The Harbor Center in Slidell. The winner will represent Louisiana as they compete for the 'King or Queen of American Seafood' at the Great American Seafood Cook-Off in New Orleans on Saturday, August 2, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Get your tickets early to avoid the event selling out. Tickets are $65 and can be purchased by visiting Tammany Taste of Summer. Karlos Knott, Executive Chef, Cajun Saucer at Bayou Teche Brewery, Arnaudville, LA Kaleb Scott, Executive Chef, University Club of Baton Rouge; Baton Rouge, LA Willie Gaspard, Jr., Executive Chef, Cypress Bayou Casino & Hotel, Charenton, LA Michael Kelley, Executive Chef, Gallagher's Grill; Covington, LA Trenton Oliphant, Executive Chef/Owner, Benteaux Cajun-Asian Fusion; Hammond, LA Jaylen Cherry, Head Chef, The Depeaux; Independence, LA Alexis Indest, Executive Chef, Whiskey and Vine; Lafayette, LA Chase Raley, Chef de Cuisine, Parish Restaurant and Bar, Monroe, LA Farrell Harrison, Executive Chef, Plates Restaurant & Bar, New Orleans, LA Jared Heider, Chef de Cuisine, Juniors on Harrison; New Orleans, LA Blake Jackson, Executive Chef/Owner, Heron Seafood/Mae & Co., Shreveport, LA Joseph Fontenot, Executive Chef, Creole Bagelry & Café; Slidell, LA Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Baton Rouge honors fallen heroes with flags, ceremony, six-mile march
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The Baton Rouge community came together to honor the lives of Louisiana's fallen service members during Memorial Day weekend. The event, which included the placement of over 11,000 American flags, a six-mile commemorative march, and a ceremony at the Louisiana State Capitol, drew hundreds of families, veterans, and local leaders in a powerful display of patriotism and remembrance. The day began with the reading of names, one by one, of Louisiana service members who gave their lives from 9/11 to the present day. Each name was met with a respectful pause, the sound of a bell, and the unwavering attention of those in attendance. Memorial Day 2025: Events in, near Baton Rouge 'For them, it's their child being remembered — their brother, their father, their mother, their sister,' said Natalie Truax of the Blue Star Mothers of Louisiana. 'And that means the world to them, because their loved one died for our country. They died for our freedom, and people tend to forget that.' One Gold Star family member shared, 'I have a hole in my heart that won't be closed until the day I go to heaven.' At the top of the hill near the State Capitol, a sea of red, white, and blue stretched across the grounds, each flag symbolizing a life lost in service. 'Those 11,000 flags represent lives,' said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. 'We live our lives free every day because of the men and women that those flags represent.' The flags were carried to the State Capitol by military personnel, veterans, and families — a six-mile journey that served as a living tribute to the courage and sacrifice of those who served. 'We're just a heartbeat away, a breath away—where any military family could be in that same predicament,' Truax said. 'It's important to be there for our Gold Stars. To give them a sense of community, a sense of support.' As bagpipes played and tears were shed, the day served as a heartfelt reminder that Memorial Day is a day of reflection and gratitude for those who gave their all. The flag display will remain at the State Capitol through May 31. The public is invited to help respectfully remove the flags next Saturday at 9 a.m. What stores, restaurants are open for Memorial Day 2025? Storms across the country could upend Memorial Day travel Earthquake recorded 70 miles off the coast of Gulf Shores Got a 'Temu' job offer via text? Why people who replied are warning others Baton Rouge honors fallen heroes with flags, ceremony, six-mile march 'Enraged' Florida woman beats puppy, covers it in pickle juice, hot sauce: police Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Volunteers keep thousands of recyclables items out of Louisiana landfills
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Volunteers prevented thousands of recyclable items from increasing landfill waste during Love the Boot Week 2025. Keep Louisiana Beautiful partnered with Coca-Cola to spearhead the event across 27 parishes. The event diverted 16,503 bottles and cans from landfills, an increase of 23 percent from last year. 'We are grateful to Coca-Cola for continuing to support recycling during Love the Boot Week,' said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. 'When the recycling loop is completed, cans and bottles stay out of the landfill and can be used to create new products. It's exciting to see this recycling effort take off, and we look forward to seeing it grow each year.' More Louisiana News A record 26,935 individuals volunteered for 81,852 hours and 1,408 events in all 64 parishes, collecting 514 tons of litter. In addition to litter abatement volunteers, they planted 1,204 trees, 3,672 plants, and refurbished 477 gardens during Love the Boot Week community beautification efforts. Caddo, Bossier, and DeSoto Parishes participated in the clean-up events with support from the Coca-Cola and Osprey Initiative, which facilitates recycling. 'We at Coca-Cola are proud to have been doing business and employing people in Louisiana for nearly 125 years. With over 2,300 employees from Shreveport to New Orleans, we are deeply committed to preserving our beloved Sportsman's Paradise,' said Scott McCallister, VP of Coca-Cola UNITED'S West Region. 'We are thrilled to see the strong interest and participation in the recycling efforts we support through Keep Louisiana Beautiful's Love the Boot Week. This initiative helps us to recover packaging to then produce new bottles and cans for the beverages our consumers love.' Recycling is not just a beautification measure, it has many community, environmental, and health benefits as well. According to the EPA, recycling also reduces waste sent to landfills and incinerators, conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals. It increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of material. Prevents pollution by reducing the need to mine raw materials. Recycling conserves energy, supports American manufacturing, and conserves valuable resources. It also creates jobs in the U.S. recycling and manufacturing sectors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Louisiana museum celebrates women's role in Mardi Gras
NEW ORLEANS, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Women who played an essential role in making Mardi Gras what it is are finally being honored for their contributions. Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana State Museum announce the opening of Pioneers of Women's Carnival. The exhibition at the Presbytère on Jackson Square celebrates the contributions of women who have helped shape Mardi Gras into the cultural experience it is today. While there are Mardi Gras celebrations worldwide, the most significant ones arguably take place in Louisiana. Mardi Gras terminology and what it means Historically, Mardi Gras is the culmination of carnival. Loosely translated as 'festival of flesh,' carnival is a season lasting up to two months and has roots as far back as the Roman Empire. Carnival was a time with fewer rules and lower inhibitions. For the duration, people could do things that were not typically socially acceptable. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, the concept of carnival was paired with Lent, a 40-day period of fasting and self-denial in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness. The carnival period, with its decreased rules, culminated with one last day of celebration, Mardi Gras, followed by a period of fasting, Lent. In Louisiana, the period of parades and celebrations that lead up to Mardi Gras still exists and was largely influenced by women. The first all-women's krewes were short-lived. The original, Les Mystérieuses, was formed in 1896 and disbanded after hosting two Carnival balls. The Butterflies, Mittens, and Empyreans all formed and dissolved before 1920. A featured part of the exhibition concentrates on Aminthe Laudumiey Nungesser, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser's great aunt, who pushed for women's inclusion and founded the Krew of Iris in 1917 and the Krew of Venus, the first parading women's organization, in 1940. Iris is the oldest women's Carnival Krewe today, and the largest of any New Orleans krewe, while Venus disbanded in 1992. The work of those early groups still resonates today, and there has been a resurgence of all-women's krewes in the past 25 years. The Krewe of Muses, Femme Fatale, Athena, and others were founded in the last quarter-century. The Pioneers of Women's Carnival will feature costumes and costume designs, photographs, parade throws, and ball favors. The exhibit opens to the public on Friday, May 9, at the Presbytère and will run through Summer 2026. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nungesser highlights ‘teamwork', Gulf shrimp, MICHELIN partnership in Louisiana
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Louisiana will join other southern states as MICHELIN unveils a regional guide highlighting popular eateries. Louisiana is celebrating the 'Year of Food,' which is being marked by an exciting partnership. Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Office of Tourism announced that Louisiana will participate in the MICHELIN Guide for the American South. The guide will highlight the state's 'diverse and authentic cuisine,' making it the first regional guide in North America. Nungesser said the guide is another significant step toward promoting everything Louisiana offers. 'Every year during the Louisiana Great Seafood Cookoff, we include chefs from all over the state. Many North Louisiana chefs and out west have won that title and went on to attract attention for their restaurant from people from all over the country in the world, both in North Louisiana and surely over in the Lake Charles area of Lafayette. So when Michelin came to the Southern states, after going to several Southern states, it was only fitting for us to reach out to our partners around the state,' Nungesser said. Testing reveals some Louisiana restaurants misrepresent imported shrimp as Gulf shrimp New Orleans is known for its famous restaurants, beloved by locals and visitors, but this is also true for other Louisiana cities, and the lieutenant governor says the MICHELIN partnership presents a great opportunity for other parts of the state without the reputation of the Crescent City. 'Hopefully, if we're lucky, they will receive several stars to restaurants all over the state because people will travel to visit restaurants on that list, and surely we want them to visit more than just New Orleans.' The lieutenant governor said restaurants across the state are being visited now in preparation for the complete release of the 2025 selected restaurants later in the year during the MICHELIN Guide Ceremony for the American South. Restaurants featured in the regional guide will receive one, two, or three stars. 'If you receive one star, that means you're a good restaurant. If you receive two stars, then it's worth detouring wherever you're going to make a trip to that restaurant. And if you receive three stars, it's worth planning your trip around going to that restaurant,' Nungesser explained. 'That will be international recognition for those people that are lucky enough to receive those stars.' The MICHELIN Guide started as a way for the tire company to give a little bonus to its customers by gathering notable stops for road trips, which also boosted tire sales. 'They had the idea to get people to travel and go visit other states to see the things worth seeing. So they really helped drive the tourism industry initially, early on with getting people to use their tires more,' Nungesser said. Louisiana is still in the national spotlight, as Lieutenant Governor Nungesser also announced that the state will be featured in the 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day, with the theme 'Teamwork.' More Louisiana News 'As a matter of fact, I'll tell, I'll say it here first on your program that we'll be highlighting, the great foods of Louisiana on the Rose Parade float. This year's theme is, teamwork,' the lieutenant governor said. 'And what better teamwork than to put great Louisiana, all those great ingredients produced here in Louisiana, and a great pot of gumbo. It takes a great team to put together a great pot of gumbo. So that's gonna be our teamwork and our theme this year.' He said his office will partner with Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain to bring together Louisiana's native products, produce, and seafood to ensure every ingredient that belongs in the gumbo pot also makes it to the representative float. Nungesser, whose father was a Louisiana shrimper, shared some of his favorite traditional foods. Anything with Gulf shrimp is a go-to, including Galatois shrimp remoulade and shrimp creole, but he also loves red beans and rice and, of course, gumbo. As the son of a shrimper, it's no surprise that the lieutenant governor is interested in protecting and bolstering the interests of the state's shrimp economy. His office is over the seafood promotion board, and now, through legislative action, the office will oversee the inspection of imported shrimp formerly overseen by the Louisiana Department of Health. He shared the steps his office is taking to protect Louisiana's shrimp industry and protect consumers from shrimp that is filled with antibiotics or farmed and processed in unsanitary conditions. 'So now that's gonna be our responsibility, along with the AG department. Mike Strain is gonna do the testing. So we can catch those bad actors that mislabel seafood. And then I'm, I'm here today in Rhode Island at the Lieutenant Governor's Conference,' Nungesser said. 'Several years ago, I got them all to support a resolution asking the federal government. To impose a 10-cent-per-pound inspection fee. We inspect less than 10% of the imported seafood. A lot of that is rejected, chock-full of antibiotics or full of bacteria. It's unhealthy.' He hopes that President Trump's tariffs on imported shrimp will provide some relief for Louisiana shrimpers and drive consumers to buy shrimp from a few hundred miles away in the Gulf rather than thousands of miles away in a foreign country. 'We hope they'll use some of those tariffs to hire more inspectors, so those people are, are caught that are bringing in unhealthy seafood we inspect less than 5% of it. So that's a great start, but we are making progress,' Nungesser 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
