Reyes leaves Nottoway Plantation

Nottoway Plantation’s Ramsay’s Mansion Restaurant, which opened last summer, has undergone a major shakeup with the firing of Executive Chef David Reyes. Reyes, who was recruited last year to set and execute a vision and identity for the upscale dining establishment, was let go two weeks ago. Nottoway is implementing a major overhaul of the menu, wanting to focus more on “classic” Louisiana dishes, and General Manager Neil Castaldi says that Reyes was simply “no longer a good fit” with the restaurant’s new direction. “We feel David would be better served in a big-city restaurant,” Castaldi says. Reyes disagrees, saying he is “deeply disappointed” and would have preferred to stay. “I put a lot of myself into that menu.” Reyes says the reason he was let go was not so much cuisine-related as it was business-related: The restaurant had been losing money in recent months, and the chef admits that his insistence on buying high-quality ingredients from local sources did not help the restaurant stay in the black. Reyes returned to Chicago last week, and is trying to determine his next career move. In the meantime, replacement executive chef and native of Lafayette, Chris Wadsworth, is tasked with determining the future menu and vision for Ramsay’s. To read 225 Dine and find out more about what’s changing on Baton Rouge’s dining landscape, click here.