Born in 1960, Dickie Brennan grew up in a restaurant family and lived a block away from Commander’s Palace, when his father Dick Sr. and his aunts (Adelaide, Ella, & Dottie) and his uncle John bought Commander’s Palace. As a teenager, he started working in the kitchen with Commander’s chef, Paul Prudhomme who used to admonish him “don’t take shortcuts”!

Dickie went to LSU (because all his friends went there) to study business administration. He graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with a degree in finance. He worked at Commander’s Palace from 1975 to 1983, he helped open Mr. B’s Bistro in the French Quarter in 1979 and was a chef apprentice in the summer of 1980 at Delmonico’s in Mexico City. In 1983 he apprenticed under Great Chef Larry Forgione at his American Place restauant in New York City. He then went to France as a chef apprentice at Au Quay d’Orsay, Gerard Besson, Chiberta, La Maree, Tour d’ Argent and with Great Chef Michel del Burgo at Taillevent. His ego survived the sometimes harsh French culinary tutelage with ease.

By 1986, he became general manager of the family’s “Brennan’s of Houston”. In 1990, he moved back to New Orleans to open “Palace Café on Canal Street. In 1992, Great Chefs began producing the Louisiana New Garde television series, featuring the next generation of New Orleans chefs. Chef Dickie prepared an appetizer Crawfish Cakes with Lemon Sauce (episode #119), a Catfish Pecan Meunière entrée (episode #105) and a White Chocolate Bread Pudding dessert (episode #116). His cooking philosophy is “we’ll take an idea — and we’ll make it us”.

Following “Palace Café”, Chef Dick Brennan Jr went on to open 3 additional restaurants in the New Orleans French Quarter area: “Dickie Brennan’s Steak House”, where he premiered in mid-September 2014, the first-ever Louisiana Prime Steaks; “New Orleans Bourbon House” on Bourbon Street and earlier in 2014, “Tableau” on Jackson Square at Le Petit Theatre.