Horst Pfeifer and Middendorf’s – Manchac, LA

Born in Germany in 1964, Chef Horst Pfeifer realized that he enjoyed cooking at an early age, and when he was 15, he entered a three-year chefs apprenticeship program in a Hotel in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which was only a few kilometers from his hometown.  At 18, he worked in various resorts in Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

When Pfeifer was 21, he spent an obligatory 15 months in the German army, where he charmed the generals with his culinary expertise, and trained enlisted men how to cook over small gas burners out in the field.  On the weekends, he worked for no pay at a Michelin one-star restaurant in Blaufelden, to gain additional experience and connections.

Through a mutual friend, Chef Pfeifer learned that a fellow German chef, Gert Rausch in Austin, Texas was looking for help.  Great Chef Gert Rausch of Austin’s Courtyard Inn, finally convinced Pfeifer to pack up and come to Texas. Rausch helped Pfeifer and soon turned the Courtyard’s kitchen over to his young protege.

Within a few weeks, Pfeifer met his wife-to-be, Karen Barr, a University of Texas student, who was working at Rausch’s Southpoint Seafood restaurant.  After 6 months as executive chef, Pfeifer decided to return to Germany in the fall of 1986, to get his master chef’s degree.  Great Chefshad already committed to go to Austin to tape both Rausch and Pfeifer, for their Great Chefs of the West television series, but Pfeifer didn’t wait.  Karen went with him, and they were married in Germany, where he worked in Munich at the Michelin three-star “Tantris Restaurant”.  Great Chefs in the meantime, went to Austin and filmed only Chef Rausch.

At 24, Pfeifer was one of the youngest chefs ever to obtain his certificate as a European Master Chef.  He and his wife returned to Austin, worked briefly at the Courtyard, then as chef/manager of a Freeport McMoRan Corporation meeting facility and living in the former Texas Governor John Connally’s home. Later, Freeport asked him to take over a New Orleans restaurant they had invested in the French Quarter, “Bella Luna”.  It was there in 1992 that Great Chefs finally caught up with Chef Horst again, to tape him for their Louisiana New Garde series.  He prepared two dishes, a Shrimp Quesadilla appetizer, and a White Tuna entrée  for that television series.

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the restaurant was lost, but they maintained their catering operations at The Foundry, and in late 2009, he took advantage of the opportunity to take over the 80 year old (as of this writing in 2014) best catfish restaurant in the New Orleans area, Middendorf’s, located just off of I-55 at the western tip of Lake Pontchartrain.

Phone : 985-386-6666

Address : 30160 Hwy 51, Akers, LA 70421