New Orleans Pastry Chef Lisa White Has Traded the Big Easy for Nashville

New Orleans’ loss looks to be Nashville’s gain as Lisa White, one of ‘The Crescent City’s’ best pastry chefs, has made the permanent move to town.

White, who made her first ever trip to Nashville last October to help open John Besh’s three new projects in the Thompson Nashville hotel, was recently named executive pastry chef for the property. Prior to that, she was a chef/partner along with Kelly Fields at Besh Restaurant Group’s acclaimed New Orleans’ restaurant and bakery Willa Jean, where she and Fields both received 2016 Chef of the Year honors in last year’s Eater Awards.

Having lived in New Orleans since 2009, White says that when she first came to Nashville, she just “fell in love with the people, everyone is just so nice!” And she essentially stayed put after that, heading back to New Orleans in late December to gather up her belongings and haul them up to her new home, with the move being kept relatively quite until recently.

As for what White has planned for Marsh House, L.A. Jackson and Killebrew, she says that Killebrew will basically stay the same in terms of the pastries, but she’ll now have much more input at Marsh House, with a new dessert menu launching just last week (see below). She’s also expanding the brunch menu, adding in new pastry items such as a pink box of four doughnuts and stuffed berry scones. And at rooftop bar L.A. Jackson, she’ll be adding several new desserts, along with some “playful” house-made ice creams.