Tre Veillon Alumni Spotlight: A Passionate Career as a Chef

When you spend three years in Hawaii, you learn a lot about food; different types of food, different ways to prepare it, and more. This was the case for Tre Veillon, Louisiana Culinary Institute alumnus and Chef de Cuisine at The Gregory at the Watermark Hotel in Baton Rouge. “My Dad was in the military, and we were stationed in Hawaii. I learned and saw a lot about food. They do inground barbeques. They had food that I had never even seen before, like poi. That’s where my curiosity about food came from,” remembers Tre.

Being from Louisiana and moving around the country showed Tre a variety of flavors, ingredients, cooking techniques, and experiences. The Metairie native ventured to Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, and Hawaii with his family, but his passion for cooking came from his Mom. “She was always the one cooking for any family gathering, along with my Grandma. My Grandpa would cook the gumbos and turkeys, all the big stuff. I loved how the food is what brought everyone together.”

Ironically, Tre famously said (amongst his family) that he would never work in a kitchen. However, through the ProStart program in high school, he soon changed his mind. “I wanted to take a class where I could eat during school. I never really helped out that much at home cooking meals. But these classes drove the passion into me. We had some competitions through ProStart, and that’s when I truly knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

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While at LCI, Tre was putting in the hours at school before heading to work. “Finding that balance between work, life, and school can be challenging. I would recommend that anyone considering culinary school focus on that balance.” As a full-time cook, since he was 16, Tre quickly realized the importance of time management. “It can be easy to get discouraged, overworked, and burnt out. Focusing on balancing my time and achieving my goals gave me the motivation to continue doing what I love.”

Close to his graduation from LCI, Tre transitioned to Kalurah Street Grill in Baton Rouge while he was still working at a restaurant in Vacherie. “This was only the second restaurant I had worked in, it was a big change for me. But my first job after graduating was at City Pork, which was a huge jump in volume,” remembers Tre. After City Pork, he was approached by Zea’s. “I started cooking on their wood-burning grill, and that changed how I thought about things. You have to control a lot more things.”

After Zea’s Tre returned to Kalurah Street Grill. “The passion that every chef there showed blew me away. Seeing how they felt about their food and what they were serving kept me going through the whole process.” It was this experience that led Tre to his current position where he can control things, control the mood, and do the things that he wants to do so that people can enjoy what he does as much as he enjoys doing it.

Tre is currently the Chef de Cuisine at the Watermark Hotel in Baton Rouge. “I really love the Watermark and everything they have to offer. I’d love to retire here.” Another goal of Tre’s is to win awards. “I’d love to go to the James Beard Awards. It’s cliché to say that you want things that every other chef wants, and they aren’t things that you need, but they are really cool to have. The notoriety goes back to people feeling the passion that I want to give them.”