By Todd A. Price

The new Ace Hotel in New Orleans looked to Memphis for their restaurant. They brought in the James Beard-nominated chefs Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman. The pair, friends since high school, cook Italian food with flavors from the American South at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.

For a chef to run the new restaurant in New Orleans, called Josephine Estelle after each chef's daughter, Ticer and Hudman hired a local: New Orlenas native and Domenica chef de cuisine Phillip Mariano. "It's an exciting project for us," Hudman said. "We wanted to work with someone who wants to make a name for himself.

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Source: http://www.nola.com/