Chef Erik Niel: How a Cajun Kid Helped Build Chattanooga’s Culinary Identity

Chef Erik Niel talks about fishing the way most chefs talk about their mentors. Growing up in Mandeville, Louisiana, he spent his childhood waist-deep in the lakes north of New Orleans, chasing redfish and speckled trout with his dad and brother. “I was just having fun being outside,” he told me. “It ignited a desire to learn how to cook what I caught or killed.”

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