The New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute, or NOCHI for short, offers a course of study for aspiring chefs in a 93,000 square-foot downtown facility.
Culinary Arts Instructor Allison Vines-Rushing grew up in West Monroe, in northern Louisiana, and trained in New York City at the Institute of Culinary Education. After graduation she headed to New Orleans, working in the kitchens of Brennan’s and Gerard’s Downtown, where she met her husband, Slade Rushing. The couple set off for New York and Chef Allison became executive chef of Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar, earning a James Beard Rising Star award for her French-inspired Southern cuisine. Returning to New Orleans, the duo established restaurant MiLa, named for their respective home states, Mississippi and Louisiana.