After watching his father work wonders in the kitchen, Louis Lyons started picking up a few tricks of the trade. “He loved to make your mouth water just by smelling the aroma,” Louis says about his dad. “He was a culinary artist.” It’s no surprise, then, that Louis’ dream job would be a professional chef like his father--specifically a chef that can match his father’s culinary quality and creativity.

Louis used both quality and creativity when designing his signature dish, Praline Salmon, which was featured in the January 2009 issue. The recipe fuses his love of salmon with the delicious praline candies he encountered in New Orleans.

His biggest kitchen success? Preparing dinner for a large group and receiving compliments from all the guests. (Since Louis is a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, large dinner parties aren’t hard to come by.) He says his children, marriage and profession are his greatest accomplishments.

Louis craves any kind of homemade pasta and has no problem experimenting with adventurous foods, like fresh eel. “It still moves around,” he says. When not in the kitchen or at work, Louis spends time tending his garden, which includes fruit trees, figs, tangerines, oranges, Key limes, flowers and vegetables.