Leaning Into His Roots

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: March 2025 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro

Chef Ken Naron

Laissez les bon temps rouler – Mardi Gras is coming to High Country Wine & Provisions on March 1, and this isn’t just dinner. This is a full-on sensory celebration of Louisiana’s most iconic flavors, a five-course feast from Chef Ken Naron with wine pairing from winemaker Guy Davis of Davis Family Wines.

Naron, a Louisiana native, is leaning into his roots for the occasion, crafting a menu that pays homage to the food he loves—rich, soulful, and steeped in tradition. “I wrote this menu as my ode to home,” says Naron, who spent four years as executive chef at Canyon Kitchen before launching Envie Eats in Dillard, Georgia. “I wanted to bring to everyone here what I love about Louisiana food and culture.”

That taste? It channels New Orleans in all the rights ways beginning with a “Bienvenue” plate – a triple punch of shrimp and andouille arancini, roasted oysters dripping in Rockefeller sauce, and crawfish boudin rangoon with Creole mustard. Then comes a Louisiana ramen, packed with crawfish andouille, and a red bean and rice miso broth that’s savory and complex. Deviled crab-stuffed redfish is next, perched on a bed of pepper jack grits and bathed in sauce Creole, before the showstopper arrives – boudin-stuffed Joyce Farms duck with a cane syrup glaze, sweet potato hash, and crispy duck cracklins that bring the crunch.

And because it wouldn’t be Mardi Gras without a proper finale, the meal wraps with king cake bread pudding, rich with cream cheese frosting and Meyer lemon curd.

But this isn’t just about the food. High Country Wine & Provisions is going full French Quarter – where the music swings, the decor drips with festive energy, and the wine flows like a second line through the streets of the Vieux Carré.

“We want people to feel transported to Bourbon Street,” says Harrison Renfro, High Country’s business manager. “This is an experience, not just a wine dinner.”

And then there’s the wine – because what’s a feast without the perfect pour? Guy Davis, the Sonoma winemaker known for his French-inspired artistry, has hand-selected bottles that don’t just match Naron’s flavors but amplify them. He and Naron go way back, having collaborated on wine dinners through the years. When Davis started dreaming up a Mardi Gras celebration, there was only one chef who could bring it to life.

Tickets are $150 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Visit highcountrywineprovisions.com for more information.