The event was co-founded by former Channel 4 news director/assistant general manager and editorialist Phil Johnson and legendary chef Warren Leruth.

Warren Leruth During a 50-year foodservice career Warren Leruth has done many things. Indeed, he has developed products, fostered innovation, operated a restaurant, written cookbooks, consulted for food organizations and been a taste specialist. But that is not all he's done; he also has given generously to charity and come to the aid of friends. Now he's been tapped by Nation's Restaurant News as the first inductee into the MenuMasters Hall of Fame. "I love R&D and always have," Leruth says. "It's creative and involves a lot of calculations and numbers, which I enjoy." Throughout his varied career the 69-year-old Leruth has been first and foremost a food product developer. "Research is a much calmer field than running a restaurant," he says, recalling his years as owner-operator of the famed LeRuth's Restaurant in Gretna on New Orleans' West Bank. "With R&D you have your hand in food all the time but at a different level." The new Hall of Famer continues to set a brisk pace through life. From his well-equipped home kitchen in Pass Christian, Miss., he develops and consults on products for Outback Steakhouse, Boston Chicken, Brinker International, Burger King and many other restaurant chains. Always outspoken, Leruth says: "One of the toughest challenges in foodservice today is the American hamburger. There's light years of work to be done with the quality and grind of meat and the overall fat." Leruth's philosophy is that "whatever you eat must have a happy ending. Back home, Leruth worked in the research kitchens of Proctor & Gamble; Chas. Dennery & Co., a well-known Deep South bakery; and the Texas firm of Anderson-Clayton. While at Anderson-Clayton, he developed something that's taken for granted today -- a pourable, non-separating dressing, which eventually became the Seven Seas line of salad dressings. Today he looks back on that breakthrough as one of his top career accomplishments. He also credits Carter Harrer, Anderson-Clayton's director of R&D, for teaching him how to formulate recipes. In 1963 Leruth became the youngest member of the national chef fraternity, the Order of the Golden Toque. Three years later he opened LeRuth's Restaurant. With little advertising or fanfare the place soon was packed night after night. For five consecutive years LeRuth's was honored with the prestigious Travel/Holiday Award. His dream realized, Leruth sold the restaurant to his sons in 1982 and retired. "But I got bored," he says. He was spurred by a remarkable initiative, and the projects quickly mounted up. He started the LeRuth Extract Co., making and marketing his Vanilla Bean Marinade and pure vanilla extract. And as if that weren't enough, he developed Chelsey's Frozen Custard, a soft ice-cream emporium. He has written two cookbooks and today continues his work with the Chefs' Charity for Children, a foundation he established two decades ago to benefit the St. Michael's Special School. The charity has raised more than $1.2 million, and Leruth says, "I'm very proud of the New Orleans chefs who contribute their time and products each year to our fund-raising event. Anthony Athanas, the famed Boston restaurateur and owner of Anthony's Pier 4 restaurant, recalls a time when Leruth was there for him. In 1978, when a blizzard sank the antique riverboat that Athanas had anchored alongside Pier 4 as a cocktail lounge, Leruth was quick to help. Making the journey with Leruth for 43 years has been his wife, the former Marie Rizzuto, a New Orleans native, like her husband. Leruth says she's the cook in the family, and he still enjoys the traditional New Orleans food that he grew up on. "You know, red beans and rice on Mondays," he says, chuckling. The birth of their children is the first thing that comes to Leruth's mind when he is asked to review his life and career.

Founded in 1965 by Warren Leruth, an award-winning chef, the restaurant was the first to make its own bread and ice cream.

Statue of Chef Warren Leruth unveiled at St. Michael Special School

School unveils statue of chef Warren Leruth The new statue of chef Warren Leruth. The new statue of chef Warren Leruth. Though Warren Leruth died a decade ago, the legacy of this New Orleans chef, food scientist and restaurant consultant is still palpable. You can taste it in such local staples as oyster and artichoke soup, one of the original standards at his renowned restaurant LeRuth's; in Green Goddess salad dressing, which he developed in the early 1960s; and even in the recipes for biscuits, red beans and dirty rice from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, which he created for that company when it was based in Louisiana. But Leruth's legacy also lives on in the success of the many other restaurateurs who count him as a mentor and in those touched by the philanthropic generosity for which he was known. To honor that spirit, St. Michael's Special Schooltoday unveiled a new seven-foot statue of Leruth at its Uptown campus before a gathering of local chefs, Leruth family members and the St. Michael's student body. The school, which serves developmentally-disabled children, has for more then 30 years been the beneficiary of the Chefs' Charity for Children. This culinary fundraiser was created in 1978 by Leruth and his longtime friend, the late journalist Phil Johnson of WWL-TV, and has since raised more than $1 million.