Chef Biography
Andre Poirot was born, raised and trained in a small eastern French village near the Swiss and German border. He attended LEp Gerardmer from 1975-1978, then apprenticed as a commis at the Ets Blanche Restaurant in Remiremont, France and the Savoy Hotel in London. In 1980 he served as chief mess officer, then moved up the kitchen brigade to saucier, before moving back to London as saucier at Thomas de Quincey’s Restaurant in 1981. Later that year he took the position as chef at Le Caveau in Bordeaux, which he traded shortly thereafter for sous chef at Ets Cuny Traiteur, also in Bordeaux.
In 1983, he moved to Bermuda to work for the Princess Hotel as chef de cuisine of Harley’s Restaurant and gourmet chef at their Tiara Restaurant, eventually working his way up to executive chef of the entire hotel.
In 1989, he joined the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans as executive sous chef and later was named executive chef. In 1992, the Great Chefs television crew showed up at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street to tape Chef Poirot for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs – the Louisiana New Garde television series (episodes 2, 9, 15 & 21).
In 2004, Chef Poirot left New Orleans for the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, Arkansas as executive chef for the next nine years and then in 2013, to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Little Rock, where he remains today in 2016, as executive chef.