A good idea never really goes out of style. In the food industry, that’s because the basics have remained pretty much the same since restaurants and commercial cooking were invented. Make something tasty and deliver it to your diners with good service: it’s a universal recipe for success. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

It’s like baking. All the ingredients can be there: the eggs, the flour, the cream. Do it right, you got a rich delicious custard. Do it wrong, you got a plate of scrambled eggs. 

Christiaan’s guests on this edition of  Out to Lunch Acadiana have both been cooking it right in different ends of the industry.

Brad Sonnier – owner of French bakery The Rolling Pin in Duson, La

Brad Sonnier, a baker by trade, is the chef and owner of The Rolling Pin Bakery. He’s a longtime pastry chef with a passion for French baking. And he’s brought that home, literally, to a commercial kitchen next to his house in Duson, just outside of Lafayette. The Rolling Pin delivers bite size morsels of French classics like mousse and macarons to catered events and to farmers markets. Brad thanks for joining me on Out to Lunch. 

Ted Kergan – Louisiana Sonic mogul

Ted Kergan is the owner of the largest franchisee of Sonic Drive-in’s in Louisiana. Ted is a native of Detroit — home of the American auto giants — and he’s got a pretty giant operation himself. Kergan Brothers Sonic employs 2,000 people in 60 Sonics all around the state, including drive-ins in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles New Orleans and more.

Photos by Jill Lafleur. Here’s more conversation with Ted Kergan. And here’s another Acadiana fast food success story.