Continental Magazine, February 2007

Native Son Chef Donald Link just won’t leave his beloved city of New Orleans - It takes more than a devastating hurricane to get Donald Link to abandon his dedication to New Orleans. The Louisiana native’s commitment runs long and deep - grown from the memory of the honest cooking he knew as a child and from the farms from which he now sources ingredients for his two restaurants.  The chef’s "buy local" ethos also underlies his other restaurant, Herbsaint (701 St. Charles Ave., 504.524.4114), a beacon of exquisite cuisine in an exquisitely foodie city. Link opened Herbsaint with famed New Orleans chef Susan Spicer in 2000 and has been running the show for the past few years, since Spicer decided to concentrate on her flagship, Bayona. Herbsaint is celebrated for its innovative, flavor-packed dishes, which could hold their own in the best restaurants in the country but have a decided Louisiana accent (think gumbo, dirty rice, and beignets, expertly prepared and elegantly presented). Even more remarkable than Herbsaint’s cuisine, though, is the tenacity of its dedicated staff.

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