Chef gives grandmother’s Cajun recipes a new life at Georgetown restaurant

One Georgetown chef is using the Cajun and Creole recipes learned from his grandmother during summer visits to Louisiana throughout his childhood as the foundation of his restaurant’s menu.

Broussard’s Delta Kitchen, 135 E Main Street, was opened by chef Greg Scott in May 2019. Its menu features concoctions from his grandmother Broussard, the restaurant’s namesake, alongside items like fried turkey pot pies and bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin for Southern and Kentucky flavor.

However, the heart and soul of Broussard’s menu are the Delta-fueled delights from Scott’s grandmother.

Among these recipes are meatloaf (served as sliders, a full-sized sandwich or a loaf), jambalaya and most side dishes. According to Scott, he also learned many cooking techniques from her that he utilizes in the restaurant as well.

“She even taught me how to clean a fish and how to cook it to where it’s not rough like the soul of your shoes,” says Scott.

Broussard’s favorites, buffet and seasonal menu

Despite his grandmother’s strong influence throughout the menu, Scott says that two dishes stand out in popularity. Fan favorites from day one have been Broussard’s crawfish etouffee and seafood diablo, the latter of which Scott describes as “seafood pasta with a kick” thanks to a homemade sauce that was at the center of much of his grandmother’s cooking.

“She used to make this champagne sauce with wine, cream and a whole lot of garlic,” says Scott. “She’d use it as her base sauce for chicken, steak, shrimp and just about everything else. I use that same sauce on almost everything here including the seafood diablo. It’s simply that cream sauce with seafood over fettuccine.”

The restaurant also offers brunch on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. with breakfast favorites like scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, bacon, hashbrown casserole and French toast alongside a rotation of Grandmother Broussard’s Delta and Creole-infused entrees.

“With us being closed Monday and Tuesday, the Sunday buffet is a great way for us to sell leftover products so that we’re starting off all fresh when we return on Wednesday,” says Scott. “Regulars have learned to arrive at varying times in order to try different entrees as they come out, because aside from the regular breakfast items you never know what you’re gonna get.”

Culinary background of Broussard’s chef

In addition to learning to cook from his grandmother, Scott is also a well-traveled chef and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York and Rice University in Texas. He’s worked everywhere from the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia to the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida and all over the country and Caribbean with Ritz Carlton International. After retiring from Ritz Carlton he went on to open a country inn in Virginia before selling it and relocating to Lexington.

Back in Kentucky, his first food venture in the area was the now defunct Sims’ Pizzeria and Ice Cream Parlor in Wilmore, which he closed in 2019 to focus on launching Broussard’s. When it came to locating Broussard’s in Georgetown, Scott says that he noticed a gap in the market in addition to loving the area’s small town feel.

“Most everyone here has a decent paying job thanks to the (Toyota) plant just up the road,” says Scott. “The restaurant industry is also a lot less competitive here than in Lexington, plus I love the Victorian-style Main Street that the town has been fixing up.”

Broussard’s Delta Kitchen

Where: 135 E Main St, Georgetown

Hours: 4-8:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 4-9 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday-Tuesday

Online: BroussardsDelta.com

This story was originally published September 12, 2022 at 6:00 AM.