CHEF BIOGRAPHIES

Kevin Belton

After a long and checkered football career that reached the heights of the NFL but included numerous injuries, Kevin Belton looked for a safer and more sane way to make a living.  It took the quick-learning Kevin less than a decade to realize that he'd rather beat around pots and pans than be beaten by 300-pound lineman.  Although he had no formal culinary training, his kitchen experience of watching his mother and grandparents prepare meals proved to be invaluable.
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Michael W. DeVidts

Born in Detroit to diverse parental backgrounds – a mom from Louisiana who cooked Cajun-Creole foods and a dad of Belgium heritage cooking European haute cuisine – Michael began cooking at age 10. He learned both styles and borrowed from both to create meals for family and friends. His grandparents owned restaurants in the area and it was assumed he would "take over the business". Not interested in owning a business that could control him, Michael was far more interested in teaching history.
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Anne Leonhard

Anne Leonhard is one of the featured Chefs from The New Orleans School of Cooking. As a native New Orleanian, Anne's culinary career began in her grandmother's kitchen. With her wedding day quickly approaching, she realized that she would not be able to prepare a good meal, much less any meal, for her new husband. She asked her grandmother to teach her all she could. And that she did, in one day. She is now a seasoned veteran in the kitchen.
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Tom Nagelin

Tom has been cooking just about as long as he's been eating, and that's nearly all of his life! Food has always been a major preoccupation for Tom and his culinary career probably began with that first, dripping peanut butter and jelly sandwich from his childhood. He learned in the kitchen while helping both of his parents put together delicious dishes from around the world. Also as a youth he learned his first lessons of nutrition while he worked as a cook's assistance, preparing and serving specialty diets for more than a hundred residents of a convalescent home.
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