Cuisine & Passion is run by a husband and wife team who, before settling in Orleans, were in charge of some of the best hotel kitchens in the world, like the Four Seasons in the West Indies. The shelves are filled with fine kitchen tools and gadgets you can linger over while waiting for your order. And the refrigerators and freezers offer everything from panna cotta to cookie dough to meat pies.

I had a hard time choosing from the array of meals in the glass case. I settled on a gourmet sandwich of chicken and pesto that was grilled on the Panini until perfectly golden. The pesto had just the right amount of garlic and basil and the chicken was moist and fresh. It was a delightful taste combination.

The chocolate cupcake was good but had a slight day-old taste. Yet it was impossible not to eat every crumb.
It’s a bright, happy place that could become one of my regular haunts for gourmet cuisine.