esther ellis

South Louisiana and food go together like peas and carrots. Well ... you get the idea. The truth is that we like to eat, and we like to eat the good stuff. Whether it’s a fresh grilled shrimp salad or a fried shrimp po’boy, our grumbling tummies stay full and happy. We may enjoy the meals on our plates, but the real question is: Who’s serving you?

That question inspired us to seek out servers and chefs who make dining out an experience to remember. Sure, that po’boy might be the best thing that’s ever passed over your taste buds, but who made it? Or that waitress might put a smile on your face, but who is she? We’d like you to meet Rhonda Prosperie, Jackie Clay and Misty Farkas. These women have served you at local restaurants for a combined 69 years with their uplifting personalities and TLC behind the stove.

PoV now invites you to go behind the scenes to find out why these three women love what they do, and what they’re up to when the tables are clean and the dishes are put away.

Devoted to Roux

For Jacquelyn “Jackie” Clay, cooking has always been a family affair. She grew up watching her mother work magic at the stove, where she gained all the skills that have made her the cherished cook she is today.

“My mother was one of the best cooks I knew,” Jackie says. “I come from a big family, and my mother was cooking three times a day—always was cooking. I just watched her, and it was sort of automatic.”

Now the head cook at The Lion’s Share, Jackie has been at the restaurant for 29 years. And her efforts in the kitchen are a major contributing factor to the well-known consistency of the food there. When she began at The Lion’s Share, she had just left a produce company, where she had spent her time packaging shredded lettuce. Starting out, she began as the fry cook and eventually took over as kitchen manager in 1985. Now as head cook, she adds her personal touch to most of the main dishes, soups and gumbos.

“I like to see people enjoy what I make,” Jackie says. “If they enjoy it, I’m happy.”

Jackie cooks every day for her customers, so when she gets home, she tries to keep out of the kitchen. Being a mother of two, she says there was a time when she was constantly cooking for her family. But since the two have grown up and moved out, cooking at home is one thing that’s changed in her household.

“I try not to cook at home, maybe just once or twice a week,” she says. “It wasn’t always like that, but it’s only because I cook all the time at work. When I had kids, I was cooking every day; now that it’s just me and my husband, we eat and go.”

The cook says she enjoys greeting and talking to the customers as often as she can, but recently she hasn’t been as free to do so since the restaurant moved from Southland Mall to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in March. At the mall, she had more time to speak to patrons; the move has brought an influx of new customers, making her busier in the kitchen and short of time to visit in the dining room.

“Since the move, we’ve been busier than we were in the mall,” Jackie says. “I’ve been cooking more, moving, working a little harder and stirring a lot of roux. In the mall, I got to interact with [customers] more. Now we’re busier and I can’t talk as much, but some come by and they call me to come out and visit them.”

Jackie works the lunch shift five days a week, taking Sunday and Tuesday off to enjoy herself. She’s been married to her husband, Herbert, for 37 years, and the couple relishes time with their five grandchildren.

When first starting out after graduating from Terrebonne High School, Jackie enrolled in the nursing program at Fletcher Technical Community College. The stress and responsibility of a family caused her to change direction. That’s when she started cooking, something she says she naturally knew how to do.

After working so many years at The Lion’s Share, Jackie feels that some of the employees there are like her family.

Despite her somewhat quiet nature, Jackie has a presence in the kitchen, and people love her food. After cooking the same recipes so often, she likes to change it up once in a while. That’s why customers can sometimes go with “Jackie’s Choice,” which allows her to create a special menu. The selection is often baked chicken with macaroni and cheese. Though she cooks a lot of roux, she claims her specialty is beans, and she’ll often get calls for help from her friends and family.

Having cooked for so long, Jackie rarely uses a recipe and doesn’t even taste the food anymore. She’s made a career out of her natural talent, and customers of The Lion’s Share frequently enjoy her skills as well. Though Jackie admits that constant standing has taken a toll on her body over the years, she still enjoys what she does and is happy to be behind the stove.

“We all respect Jackie so much,” says David Walker, general manager of the restaurant. “She’s such a good person and one heck of a cook. There’s nothing she doesn’t know how to cook and she does it to perfection. She’s a great person with a great personality, and is a pleasure to work with.”

Service With a Smile

Misty Farkas makes her way through the Louisiana-themed restaurant and gift shop at TARC. She’s carrying a tray stacked with food that blends right in with the appetizing smells of home-cooked entrées and specially created desserts.

Working against the public’s notions of the capabilities of individuals with intellectual disabilities, Misty has proven herself a very capable waitress, and continues to serve her customers every weekday, just as she has done for the past nine years. Her life is full of joy and prosperity as she has risen above the adversity of her challenges and continues to participate as a contributing member of the Houma community.

With Misty, there is more than meets the eye. Though she may seem shy, it takes her just a fleeting moment to open up and take part in the conversation. She arrives to work every day at 8 a.m. prepared to serve—working the breakfast and lunch shifts, traveling back home at 2 p.m., and preparing to do it again the next day.

“I love it,” Misty says. “I like meeting good people. I just like everybody.”

After the Schriever native graduated from South Terrebonne High School, she spent four years at home before going to work at the restaurant. She started out busing tables before earning the head waitress position. She is now in charge of about 13 tables and also assists in answering the telephone, along with other tasks.

What once was difficult for Misty has now become routine. She knows the menu through and through and has memorized her regular customers’ preferred drinks, as well as most of her customers’ names. She can help cook, assists in the laundry and keeps tables clean. Though she says it can be hard to hold her tongue at times when dealing with difficult people, she has learned a lot about social interaction and says the job has helped her to become more outgoing and gives her a sense of independence.

“Misty has improved so much over the years,” says Erica Null, director of marketing at TARC. “She’s a rockstar over there, and she’s great at her job. She makes sure she gets the order right and does so fast and efficiently. She’s an amazing multitasker, taking phone orders, meal orders and drinks.”

TARC provides opportunities for individuals with any sort of intellectual or developmental disability. The organization has 16 businesses that offer its members the opportunity to work, earn an income and learn valuable skills while fulfilling their desires to interact with the public and contribute through their efforts.

“Knowing Misty, she loves to be in the restaurant,” Erica says. “I don’t see her leaving anytime soon.”

Along with her duties at the restaurant, Misty finds joy in taking responsibility through tasks at home. She loves animals and is a dependable caretaker of her pets. She enjoys the company of her two dogs, Duke and Suzie, and her cat, Callie, and also enjoys gathering the eggs of her nine chickens. Gathering eggs is a task designated to Misty; if it doesn’t get done by her, it doesn’t get done at all.

When she’s not tending to her pets at home, she enjoys visiting her family’s camp in Mississippi, where she feeds deer, rides four-wheelers and spends time outdoors. Like most Louisiana natives, she, too, is an avid LSU and New Orleans Saints fan and loves to cheer the teams on.

She also enjoys bowling, doing so about once a week with friends, and even participates in the Special Olympics games from time to time. When she’s not bowling, she says she has fun shopping and appreciates when a personal care assistant takes her to the mall.

A member of the Let’s Get Together Club associated with TARC, Misty loves interacting with her friends outside of work. Together, they go out to eat and attend social events where they can listen to guest speakers.

With all the hard work she’s put into her job at the restaurant earning her the position as head waitress, Misty cannot see herself leaving anytime soon, nor does she want to try any other endeavor in the job field.

“I want to work here forever,” Misty says. “I love the job, the people and everything about it. I like it a lot.”

Meet Your New Best Friend

Inside the Best Ol’ Eatery, amid 14 tables, stands one waitress—Rhonda Prosperie. With a strong personality and a bigger heart, she knows people and the people love her. On any given day, you’ll see her regulars stop by to visit.

Rhonda has them because she goes above and beyond her title of waitress, becoming a friend who reserves tables, orders food and never forgets a name. She works every day during the week and rarely misses a shift; if she does, the customers aren’t happy.

“I wouldn’t do anything else,” Rhonda says. “It’s my friends that come in. I like making people feel good.”

Rhonda is responsible for many changes around B.O.E., which is nestled along Main Street in downtown Houma. When she first began, the bistro operated under a different name—Best of Everything—and her only job was to take food orders under a sign that read “Place Order Here.”

After a week had passed, Rhonda was set to quit; but her new boss was determined to keep her there, so he took down the sign and gave her free reign.

“I’m a waitress,” Rhonda says. “I want to know how customers are doing. I don’t want to hear what they want to eat; I want to talk to them.”

One of the biggest changes she has worked through is ownership. When Fern and Lynn Gautreaux visited the eatery and took a seat at Rhonda’s table, the waitress became a convincing factor in their decision to purchase B.O.E. After eating an entire meal and claiming they could not take another bite, Rhonda turned on her charm and convinced her new guests to try dessert.

“I had no idea what was going on, but I love saying that the bread pudding cost him the restaurant,” Rhonda says. It’s been four years since that pricey piece was had, and Rhonda is still greeting customers every day. She’s a lover of people and a woman who does not shy away from a challenge.

“There are so many great things about Rhonda,” Fern says. “She’s such a good waitress and a wonderful employee.”

Growing up with difficulty, Rhonda appreciates all of her opportunities. At age 16, she found herself with a child and left high school to tend to her personal life. She returned and graduated from Terrebonne High School and joined the real world as a waitress. Her sister and aunts share the occupation.

As she started at the Sea Breeze Restaurant and Lounge, Rhonda kept busy by simultaneously juggling four other jobs—tending bar, cleaning house and selling jewelry and cosmetics—for 10 years.

“No one actually gives you anything but an opportunity to prove yourself,” she says. “I got opportunities from good people that I didn’t want to let down, especially my child. Working all these jobs all these years has given me my character.”

In her 31 years of waitressing, Rhonda has only worked at three restaurants. She started her career at Sea Breeze, where she spent 10 years, leaving only because the restaurant closed. Her second endeavor took her to Savoie’s Louisiana Cooking. After nine years, the heavy trays began to take a toll on her. She made the decision to retire, but a friend called and told her about B.O.E. Rhonda has been at the eatery 11 years and doesn’t plan to leave anytime soon.

“I hope to God I’m there for a while,” she says. “As long as I can work and as long as they’ll have me, I’ll be there.”

Rhonda claims that every customer is her friend, and she gladly takes it upon herself to encourage her customers to become friends with one another. When a customer’s husband passed away, the customer told Rhonda that she was amazed by all of the support she received from other customers—customers that the waitress introduced to her.

She’ll even sit two of her customers together, knowing their personalities and, in turn, sparking long-lasting friendships.

With 14 tables all to herself, the job can be overwhelming at times, but it’s nothing Rhonda can’t handle.

“There are no complications I can’t handle myself,” she says. “If anything arouses that I can’t handle, that’s when you dial 911. I have all 14 tables. When it gets hectic, I let them know, ‘I’m saving the best for last.’ I want to know who they are. I say, ‘I want to know your name so when you leave I know who I’m talking about.’ They think that’s funny.”

There’s no doubt Rhonda is a key factor in the popularity of B.O.E. She’s the reason a lot of guests make the trip downtown to frequent the eatery—one try and you’ve already got a friend who knows your name.

“I don’t want to give people any opportunities to say anything negative about me,” Rhonda says. “That’s the legacy I’m going to leave—knowing them by their names. I don’t know how I do it; I just do.” PoV