CHEF JOHN FOLSE BREAKS GROUND
FOR NEW FOOD MANUFACTURING PLANT

Chef John Folse broke ground today for his new USDA food manufacturing plant. Chef John Folse & Company Manufacturing will relocate from New Orleans to Donaldsonville at the corner of Hwy. 70 and Hwy. 3089, two miles southeast of Donaldsonville near the Sunshine Bridge. This facility, which is scheduled to open Sept. 1, will anchor Donaldsonville’s developing industrial park.
Located on 12 acres, the 30,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is designed for quick expansion. Currently, the division produces more than 100 products for more than 60 foodservice, retail and chain account customers such as T.G.I. Friday’s® among many others.
The manufacturing company began in 1990 when Chef John Folse received a phone call at his restaurant from a customer requesting a weekly order of 300 gallons of gumbo. This simple request resulted in the kitchen of Lafitte’s Landing Restaurant being turned into a mini-manufacturing operation. From this humble beginning, Chef John Folse & Company Manufacturing was born.
The manufacturing division has grown to national prominence with a customer base extending from the Gulf Coast to Canada and from California to Maine. The product line includes soups, sauces, vegetables, entrees, desserts and dry mixes, both fresh and frozen.
While the New Orleans facility produces approximately 75 tons of cooked products per week on a single shift, the Donaldsonville operation will be capable of producing more than 150 tons in the same period, or more than 17 million pounds of cooked food annually. Interestingly, in the past 12 months the plant consumed 2 million pounds of Louisiana brown sugar, 60 tons of okra, 350 tons of diced onions, 250 tons of vinegar, 7 tons of peeled crawfish tails and 18,000 gallons of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey®.
Burch Corporation of Birmingham, Ala., which specializes in USDA plant construction, has been hired as the general contractor. However, Folse has specified that, when possible, all sub-contractors and materials will originate in Louisiana. Burch has built other Louisiana food facilities including Diversified Foods & Seasonings, Foremost Dairy, Scariano Brothers Meat Packers, Manda Fine Meats and Southern Cold Storage Company among others.
Most of the 40 New Orleans employees will move to the new facility, though Folse anticipates hiring an additional 75 employees from the Ascension Parish area over a three-year period. Plant labor ranges from food scientists and microbiologists to cooks and case packers.
“Though we are moving the plant from New Orleans, we are not abandoning the New Orleans facility,” Folse said. “Currently, I’m entertaining several possibilities for that location.”
This project was spearheaded through the cooperative efforts of the Donaldsonville Industrial Board headed by Carl Capone; Mayor Raymond Jacobs and the Donaldsonville City Council; former Mayor Harold Capello; real estate developer Calvin Casteigne; AmSouth Bank; Sterne, Agee & Leach, Inc.; and commercial loan specialist Gary Anderson III. Representing Chef John Folse & Company was Malcolm Dugas of Dugas, LeBlanc & Sotile, L.L.C. of Donaldsonville.
Chef John Folse is the owner and executive chef of his Louisiana-based corporations including Lafitte's Landing Restaurant at Bittersweet Plantation, White Oak Plantation, Exceptional Endings, Chef John Folse & Company Manufacturing, Bittersweet Plantation Dairy and Digi-Tek Productions. He is the author of numerous cookbooks and hosts a nationally-syndicated television cooking show, "A Taste of Louisiana," and a radio cooking talk show, "Stirrin' It Up With Chef John Folse." Additionally, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University is named in his honor.

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