Jeffrey Harris: How Hurricane Katrina and a Greyhound bus led acclaimed chef to Cincinnati

Jeffrey Harris was working in the kitchen at Emeril's in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit, destroying his home and much of the city he loved.

It was clear he couldn't stay in New Orleans, where he grew up learning how to cook from his great-grandmother, Jimmie Lou.

Harris got on a Greyhound bus. It could have been going anywhere. He didn't know where the bus was going.

It took him to Cincinnati, where he got a job at Orchids at Palm Court, just before Orchids' famed chef Todd Kelly took over.

Eighteen years and many Cincinnati kitchens later, Harris is chef of his own restaurant − Nolia Kitchen in Over-the-Rhine – where he serves his take on the food he grew up with in New Orleans.

So was it fate that brought him to Cincinnati?

"Yeah, there's no telling what my life would have been if I went to Houston or Tennessee or Florida, Oklahoma, wherever other people landed," Harris said. "I think if I went to Houston I would have been in the same mix as being in New Orleans. It's almost like my aspirations wouldn't have been as high for me to want to be my own chef. I probably would have been somebody else's chef."

Nolia, short for the southern flower magnolia, celebrates its second anniversary in April.

Harris was telling his story on The Enquirer's "That's So Cincinnati" podcast Wednesday when he learned he was nominated as a semifinalist for the 2024 James Beard Award by the James Beard Foundation in the category of Best Chef/Great Lakes. It's his second James Beard Award nomination. Last year Harris was nominated for best new restaurant.

It was an emotional moment.

Texts flooded in to Harris's cell phone. Some were from fellow nominee Jose Salazar, his friend and chef of a restaurant, whose kitchen Harris once worked in. The podcast paused. Harris called his wife and then his mother to tell them the news.

Harris told his mother he had been nominated.

"I just want to be the best," he told her.

She fretted about the wait until June to find out the winner. It was hard to wait last year, she said.

"Tell grandma she has something to smile about it," Harris said.

"Oh Lord, Oh Lord, that's a blessing," she said.

Harris said his goal was always to create a restaurant that drew people to Cincinnati. Last year's nomination as Best New Restaurant and word of mouth made that true.

"So, when travelers come in − because sometimes we get customers that come in straight from the plane − and they say, 'This is the spot where people say we should eat,' it means a lot," Harris said. "The more exposure we have for culinary, the better it is for this city."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Nolia Kitchen chef learned he was a James Beard Award semifinalist