Chef Melvin J. Bouie is more than just the Turkey Neck Man. His love for cooking started around eight years old while watching Saturday morning cooking shows with his father, Melvin Bouie, on PBS. They watched legends like Justin Wilson, Julia Child, and Yan Can Cook. One thing his father told him stuck with him for life. If a man knows how to cook, he does not have to worry about a woman cooking for him. That was all he needed to hear.

Chef Bouie later studied culinary arts at Delgado and began building his experience in kitchens across New Orleans. Along the way he worked at Winn-Dixie, Hooters, the banquet kitchen at the Loews New Orleans Hotel, Landry's Seafood, Café Adelaide, Heard Dat Kitchen, Dook’s Place in the old MSY airport, and Leah’s Kitchen in the new MSY airport.

All of that experience eventually led him to create Executive Palate, the culinary brand he built to bring his food concepts to life.

Under that umbrella, he launched Dem Necks, a concept built around doing turkey necks differently. Instead of boiling them the traditional way, Mr. Bouie seasons them, smokes them, and finishes them on the grill.

Never boiled. Grilled first. Smoked slow.