Extract from an article written by Food Editor, Tommy Simmons of The Advocate

Michael Jetty, executive chef at Maison Lacour, was trained in the classic French culinary tradition, where discipline is the key to learning how to cook. His favorite knives are custom-made by a skilled craftsman, Robert Kramer, in Seattle. They are knives that Jetty feels serve as a symbol of his having reached a certain level of achievement in his culinary career.
Jetty started working in restaurants when he was a stu­dent at LSU. His first breakthrough came, he says, when Mama at Gino’s, the owner’s mother who ran the kitchen, didn’t kick him out of the kitchen. He was a waiter there and wanted to learn more about the food and started hanging around in the kitchen to see how the sauces were cooked.
Later, Jetty went to the back door of John and Jacqueline Gréaud’s classic French restaurant, Maison Lacour, on North Harrell’s Ferry Road, and asked if he could apprentice under Cordon Bleu-trained Jacqueline Gréaud to learn French cooking. The Cordon Bleu method, he says, is based on discipline, discipline, disci­pline.
“I learned profound respect for knives. How you treat your knives is important. It’s considered to be a reflection of the soul and personality of a chef,” Jetty notes.
The importance of the knives was reinforced when he worked stages (various preparation stations on the line) at restaurants in New York. Chefs in New York believe that you must keep your knives clean and sharp, that it’s a basic laziness if you don’t and that this lack of care will transfer to your cooking, Jetty says.
Jetty’s personal knives are the handmade carbon steel knives fashioned by Robert Kramer. “I started with Henckels and after a decade in this business, working hard and having good things happen, I decided I wanted better knives. I read about the Kramer knives and con­tacted him. There is a two-year waiting list. On one of my jobs in New York, a chef let me hold one of his Kramer knives. The chef had a reverence for the knife, and I could understand why,” Jetty says.
Two years later, Kramer contacted him to talk about his knives. The knives that Kramer made for him are per­fectly weighted to his hand, Jetty says. The handles are made of polished hardwoods, such as thuya burr, ebony, curly maple and cocobolo.
“I ordered the knives I use most, a boning knife, Oriental vegetable knife called a usuba knife, a chef’s knife and a paring knife. My favorite is the usuba,” he says.
The Kramer knives cost about $400 each. The knives are full tang construction, which means the handle wraps around the blade, which extends the full length of the knife.
“You wouldn’t start with a knife like this,” Jetty says. “You have to earn it by working at your profession, improving your technique and skill.”
Jetty began his apprenticeship at Maison Lacour in 1991. He has been executive chef at the restaurant, which was founded in 1986, since 1997. In a small restaurant, the chef does everything, Jetty says. “Nothing is made until the order comes in. You have to be very organized. You have to care about the food. You have to respect your knives because they are helping you. I keep the knives clean, sharpened and polished. If I slice a lemon, I pause long enough to wipe off the knife because I know the acid­ity can discolor the knife. It’s a matter of respecting your tools,” he explains.
Jetty stores the knives in the cardboard sleeves they came in, but is in the process of making poplar wood cov­ers for each knife. “My wife, Eva, who works with me in the restaurant and happens to be John and Jacqueline’s daughter, says I treat the knives like jewelry or eggs, and I do,” Jetty admits.