One glance at a menu here and you know you're in Louisiana even if you aren't familiar with the dishes. Here's a brief Louisiana culinary dictionary to help you decipher local menus:

Andouille - This flavorful, spicy sausage is a favorite in chicken and sausage gumbo. (Pron. AHN-doo-ee)

Barbecued Shrimp - Forget shrimp on the Barbie or any images you might have of grilled shrimp with barbeque sauce. Here, barbecued shrimp means shrimp left in the shell and almost submerged in a garlickly, peppery butter sauce. It's messy. It's fattening. It's okay; live a little.

Beignets and Café' au lait - Before there was Starbucks, there was Café' Du Monde serving beignets, confectioner's sugar covered square puffs of fried dough, with café' au lait, strong French coffee tamed with heated milk. (Pron. BEN-yays and CAF-ay O lay)

Cochon de Lait - Suckling pig is a favorite at Cajun family celebrations. Moist and flavorful, it's tender and, at its best, redolent of garlic. The cochon de lait poboy is a favorite at the New Orleans Jazz Fest and rarely served in restaurants - but occasionally you get lucky. (Pron. Co-SHAWN-dee-lay)

Dressed - If you order your po-boy dressed, it means you want it with lettuce, tomato and pickle.

Gumbo - Though gumbo has popped up on menus across the U.S., you're not likely to get the real thing outside of south Louisiana unless it's cooked by a transplanted native. A dark flavorful soup, real gumbo takes a long time to cook and requires a little voodoo to do properly; most gumbos are variations on two themes - seafood or chicken and sausage. Served with rice, it can be light brown or dark as swamp water.

Muffuletta - Picture this: several layers of ham, salami and Provolone cheese topped with chopped olive salad served on a large, round, crusty Italian bread. Pronounced moof-a-lotta regardless of the spelling, this sandwich is a delicious handful and usually serves two or more people.

Paneed - Meaning coated with bread crumbs or dredged in flour and pan-fried in butter, as in paneed veal, chicken, frogs' legs or oysters. (Pron. PAN-aid)

Poboy - A long sandwich on crusty French bread, the poboy really isn't the same as a submarine or a hoagie, but it can be ordered with a variety of fillings. Among the favorites are fried oysters, fried shrimp and roast beef, featuring long-simmered beef, sliced and slathered in gravy.

Pralines - A simple candy that's nevertheless hard to make. Most often made with sugar, butter, vanilla and nuts. (Pron. PRAW-leens)

Red beans and rice - A Monday tradition, harking back to when the wash was done on Mondays and women needed something slow and easy to ignore on the stove. Red beans are kidney beans; they're slow-cooked with seasoning meat, usually ham hock or smoked sausage, served over rice, and make a ubiquitous Monday menu special.

Turtle Soup - A New Orleans classic, turtle soup these days often is made with chicken (so ask your server if it's the real thing), but usually is a dark flavorful soup enhanced by a dash of sherry added at the table.

You don't have to dress up or spend a lot of money to eat very, very well. The area is rich with family-run restaurants where soulful, and real, food reflects tradition, heritage and hearty appetites.

But that doesn't mean you won't find sophisticated, even innovative cuisine. Talented Northshore chefs showcase the best local and seasonal ingredients on menus inspired by Louisiana's bounty. Elegant dining rooms, elegant food - and exciting culinary experiences await-even the most discerning foodies.

Our good food starts with farmers, many of whom bring their picked-today produce to area farmers markets. It continues with the candy makers, the bakers, the cheese man, the brewers, the vineyard owner and the seafood shops.

Many talented chefs head kitchens in Louisiana's I-12 Retirement District, all offering their own spin on Louisiana ingredients and culinary tradition. Meet a few of them.

John Besh, Celebrity Chef, native son

He's a south Louisiana boy with sparkling blue eyes, a wicked sense of humor, and an angel's touch in the kitchen. John Besh is the best-known chef from these parts since Emeril became a household name and Paul Prudhomme taught the country to cook with a Cajun accent.

The affable Besh is everywhere these days, on The Food Network, on NBC's "Today Show." In Bon Appetit and Food and Wine and in the New York Times. He was featured with Branford Marsalis on the Sundance Channel's "Iconoclasts" program. After beating Mario Batali on "Iron Chef" he was tapped to compete on TFN's "Next Iron Chef" for a chance to join the cooking pantheon - and finished as runner-up to Cleveland's Michael Symon.

Besh, who owns three restaurants in New Orleans and one here on the Northshore, is a busy man these days. But for the James Beard Award-winning chef, home is always where his heart is: Slidell, Louisiana, the small city on the eastern edge of St. Tammany Parish. It's where Besh grew up and now, with wife Jenifer, is raising their four sons.

An avid hunter and fisherman, Besh spent much of his youth exploring the marshy areas around Slidell, the Honey Island Swamp and Pearl River Wildlife Management areas. He learned to cook what he caught, later taking these skills with him to the Culinary Institute of America and, after a tour of duty during the Persian Gulf War, to Europe where he honed his talents in France and Germany. Now he's known for combining contemporary French technique with indigenous Louisiana products.

Before opening his acclaimed Restaurant August in New Orleans (Zagat Guide rates August as that city's number one restaurant for both food and service), Besh built a reputation at two Northshore favorites, the now-lamented Artesia in Abita Springs, and the lovely La Provence in Lacombe.

Completing a circle of sorts, Besh in 2007 bought LaProvence from his one-time mentor, Chris Kerageorgiou.

Located on historic Highway 190, once a stagecoach route, LaProvence still is a favorite of Northshore residents and of New Orleanians who often make the drive across Lake Pontchartrain for a great dining experience, courtesy of Besh and his executive chef, Randy Lewis.

Kim Kringlie

As co-owner and executive chef at the lauded Dakota Restaurant, Kringlie presents sophisticated, contemporary Louisiana cuisine in an elegant setting. The chef worked his magic at The Inn at Jackson Hole in Wyoming and at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas before being named Executive Chef at Juban's in Baton Rouge. He and business partner Kenneth LaCour opened Dakota in 1990. The two also are partnered in Dakota's sister restaurant, the popular Cuvee in New Orleans.

Pete Kusiw

The owner/chef of Juniper Restaurant in old Mandeville, Kusiw received his culinary arts degree from Johnson & Wales University. His cooking talents first became appreciated locally at Mandeville's respected Bechac's and at English Turn and Money Hill country clubs before he opened Juniper, near the Mandeville lakefront, in 2003. After the original location was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, Kusiw moved Juniper to a century-old former bakery on Lafitte Street. His popular take on contemporary Creole makes Kusiw one of the Northshore's favorite chefs.

Marvin Tweedy

A Louisiana native, Tweedy grew up surrounded by the state's bounty still influencing his progressive southern cuisine. After graduating from the Culinary Arts Institute of Louisiana, he turned his talents to a number of respected restaurants, including Christians and Cuvee in New Orleans and Dakota, Etoile and Annadele's on the Northshore. Tweedy now serves as corporate chef for two Northshore restaurants, Friends Coastal in Madisonville and Restaurant Amis in Covington.