Growing up in Madagascar, Serge Razafindrakoto was determined to go to college in America. Beginning at age seven he studied English in Zambia. When college rolled around, he began the snail mail process of applying to American colleges just as he’d planned. LSU was the first to answer and a 30+ year partnership was forged. He earned multiple degrees and worked his way up in the university’s telecommunications department.

Serge has never met a stranger and loves gathering friends for crawfish boils or jambalaya feasts in his backyard. I landed in the bullseye when I moved into a great neighborhood across the street from Serge. When our neighbor Tabby was being filmed for a Nova program, Serge suggested we celebrate her with a parade. And so we did, along with a little gumbo-fueled block party.

At the beginning of the year, Serge left LSU in for a new job with Texas A&M. Lucky them! We miss him already.

What’s your 20 minute recipe? I have tons of recipes. Whatever’s in the fridge and I improvise. Ninja stuff! I like making those really simple things that taste really good and you can make it really fast with standard ingredients you can keep on hand. I make a red lentil soup like that! (snaps his fingers). You can make it with broth or water, it’s really flexible. Add some bread if you have it and you have a great flexible meal.

What’s your favorite city? Any city in Europe. Summer in Europe is always fabulous! Long days, everybody’s outside. The mix of the locals and tourists, it’s just happy. I love the little pubs and bars you can go to and the street food and cafes.

What’s your favorite restaurant in your current city? Zorba’s is my favorite in Baton Rouge. I love the souvlaki plate.

Treasured find in the back of your fridge (or freezer or pantry)? Oh it’s gotta be vanilla, vanilla beans from Madagascar stashed away somewhere.

Who taught you to cook? My mom taught me the fundamentals. When I was 12, my grandpa passed away and my mom left for a month. At the time I could only boil a hotdog or fry an egg. When she came back I told her ‘this is not acceptable! I must learn to cook.’ My brother and I would cook on Sundays. We invited our friends over and mom would buy tons of meat. T-bones! And that began my love for the grill. My love for eating and traveling led me to pick up new tips and ideas everywhere I go. Then I moved to Louisiana and learned a whole new set of foods, techniques and ingredients! As part of my hiring package at Texas A&M I wanted to ask for tuition at Brisket University.

Surf? or Turf? It’s gonna be turf. It’s crazy, there was a time in my life when I didn’t care for fish. Now I love everything!

What’s on your cooking playlist? Latin music.

Coffee, tea, or Kombucha? Coffee! Cafe au lait, mostly at home.

Date night—at home? or out? Both

Most stained cookbook? A Louisiana cookbook that a friend gave me in college. I’m a non-recipe follower, I really use them as a reference and tweak accordingly. My brownie bottom cheesecake is my most stained recipe. I had it in college when a woman who made it photocopied the recipe and I’ve shared it around all these years. People ask me to make it for them. It’s become my signature, highly requested thing. I LOVE to cook!

Indispensable kitchen tool? A Japanese knife that I bought at a garage sale. It has a thin 8-inch blade with a bent tip and a worn wooden handle. It’s very versatile.

Staple childhood comfort food? Beef with garlic and ginger. Mom always makes it. It’s a standard, made with beef that has a lot of fat, it becomes the gravy with the garlic and ginger. It cooks long and slow. You serve it with long grain white rice and tomato salsa. You peel and seed the tomato, chop and mix with green onions and salt. In Malagasy we make a chili paste on the side and you can add it to your taste.

What’s your go-to dish for company? It depends! I have Muslim friends and vegetarian friends. An easy thing to do is a roast chicken and the sides are endless. Depending on the season, then there’s something for everyone. And I use butter of course.

Go-to olive oil? Extra virgin olive oil from Puglia. I used to like the Tuscan ones, now I like the more southern ones, Puglian or Sicilian.

Who would you most like to share a meal with? past, present or fictional? Anybody who enjoys eating! If you enjoy eating, you will enjoy the person’s company. That’s what I love about Louisiana. I went to a boucherie at John and Betty Chenier’s farm in Opelousas. If you’ve never been to a boucherie, it’s a real experience, the whole hog. They asked me to make my mom’s hog’s head cheese which is different than the way they make it in Louisiana.

Ideal grilled cheese? Definitely an artisanal white bread with some good cheddar. In Zambia they have this Zam loaf. You cut big hunks of the bread and cheese from the farm. Butter the bread and layer on some cheese. Cook it open face under the broiler until it’s ooey, dark and dripping cheese.

How do you like your toast? Medium well, not charred. Just below the scraping point.

Favorite pizza topping? Oh anything meat!

Where would you want to take a cooking class? There are multiple. I really want to go to Argentina, do the whole carcass and fire cooking. That’s an experience I’d really like to have. I’d like to learn from anyone who wants to teach with the ingredients that they have.

What’s your Counter Intelligence cooking tip? I really think that fresh garlic and fresh ginger are ingredients that can’t be substituted with anything else. I like to crush them both with the mortar and pestle. I even keep a jar of 50-50 in the fridge.

Three things next to your stove? Salt, pepper, oil, maybe a little pot of ghee in my special ghee pot my friend’s mom brought back from India. And a spoon.

Best thing you’ve ever eaten in an airport? I was in Narita Airport in Tokyo for an 8 to 12 hour layover from Chicago to Beijing. Drank a lot of sake and ate these giant beef bowls with noodles. There was a bunch of us! It was memorable.

What’s your favorite sports team? Gotta be the Tigers! National Champs!!

Red Lentil Soup

I tested the recipe twice (it’s soooo good and soooo easy!) the second time, I quick soaked the lentils in a small bowl of hot tap water just to soften them a bit while I prepped the rest. It shaved a few minutes off the cooking time.

1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
2 small carrots, peeled and finely diced
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup red lentils
2 to 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
Salt to taste

HEAT the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

ADD the onion and cook a few minutes to soften, then add the garlic and carrot. Cook a few minutes then add the cumin and stir for a minute to toast.

ADD the lentils (drain them if you’ve soaked them) and 2 cups of your chosen liquid.

BRING to a boil, season with salt to taste. Reduce heat to medium low and let simmer vigorously until lentils fall apart. Serve with chili oil which you can make while the soup simmers.

Notes from Serge: look at the pot and see how thick it is. Add more liquid if needed. When it’s cooked, the lentils will break apart.

Quick Chili Oil

½ cup olive oil
½ to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

HEAT the olive oil in a skillet or small saucepan over medium high heat until it almost smokes. Add the red pepper flakes and cook for a few seconds while it sizzles and fills your kitchen with that spicy peppery crackle.

REMOVE from heat and drizzle a bit over each serving of soup.

STORE remaining oil in an airtight container in the fridge.