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Performance Beyond Par

Before becoming Executive Chef at Florida’s prestigious TPC Sawgrass in 2013, LJ Cousson spent 18 years with the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, DC. Chef LJ also worked as an Executive Chef at Kinkead’s in Washington and Jimmy Schmidt’s Rattlesnake Club in Detroit. More recently he served as Executive Chef at the University Club of Washington, DC for five years and consulted at the Hay-Adams Hotel and the Woodmore Country Club in Maryland. At TPC Sawgrass, Chef LJ oversees NINETEEN, their award winning restaurant, as well as catering to members on the club’s two championship courses.

“I’ve always liked grilling,” says Chef LJ Cousson. “I come from a family where birthday parties were always big, and my wife is Spanish and experienced the same thing. So when our kids were growing up, their birthday parties were huge. I would use our grill out back and put on a very nice spread. We’d have twenty children running around the house and a dozen extra parents and with me being a chef, it was always, ‘Oh, what’s LJ going to prepare?’ My food got talked about more than the party itself.”

When I first arrived at TPC Sawgrass, someone said ‘Bring out the Cadillacs.’ I didn’t know what they were talking about until they wheeled out two Crown Verity 48 inch grills.

I saw them and said, ‘Wow, these are nice.’ I hadn’t used one before but I quickly learned why they call them Cadillacs. They’re what you think of when you see the older Cadillacs of fifteen years ago. They’re classic big boys, strong and solid, impressive and well built.

We do a lot of grilling for the membership on course. The areas we set up can be anywhere from right outside on the back lawn to some distance away overlooking a pond. We usually position the grills near the 18th hole with the turnstands in the background near the terrace. Other times we have to get onto the golf course and slowly truck and bump the grills across the pavers to the number 9 hole. I can say these Crown Verity grills are really well built. They’re durable and dependable.

Our only limitation on course is what we can take with us. We’re working with an ice chest and cooler, and there’s only so long you want the product to be out there. That said, we’ve done everything from steaks and burgers to fish and even grilled oysters.

With the grills being as large as they are, you can accomplish everything you need to do. I can use the whole grill just like I would an indoor stovetop. The food doesn’t actually have to go on the grill itself; you can put a pan on the grill and sauté on the grilltop.

A lot of times you sit there and you say what’s my dish? Well, I have to grill a piece of fish, I’ve got some grilled vegetables and I’ve got some corn on the cob or whatever. So you don’t know. Let’s just put a pan here to get hot and start to sauté some mushrooms and some asparagus, over here it’s the same thing. You’ve got a pan over an open flame. So this is good, my scallops are grilling over here and my pan’s on the other side of the grill sautéing my ingredients. I can even put a little saucepot over there, with my sauce in it if I have to. That’s the nice thing about having a good sized grill.

It’s so nice to be outside. You’re out of the confines of the kitchen and at any second you can stop for a moment and have a look around. This course is just beautiful. It also gives you that chance to be more interactive with guests coming up to you. You get the chance to ask them how their game went and they ask what we’re serving. And that type of interaction is always great.

There’s line cooks here that volunteer for the on-course stuff because it’s so enjoyable.

Check out his recipe for Grilled Sea Scallops.