Story by Sharon McDonnell | Photography Courtesy of Denny Culbert

It’s not the easiest place to find, but then, it is a Secret Supper. A long-standing dinner series starring James Beard Award-winning and -nominated chefs from around the country, not just Louisiana, that draws guests from Los Angeles, Miami, New York, even Canada, France, and Brazil, it’s tucked away at Maison Madeleine, a bed-and-breakfast on the shore of Lake Martin, a bald cypress swamp that’s one of the biggest nesting places for blue herons, roseate spoonbills, and snowy egrets in Louisiana. Guests buy tickets months in advance, sometimes up to a year, for dinners at the B&B, a 15-minute drive from downtown Breaux Bridge or a 25-minute drive from Lafayette. About 12 to 14 Secret Suppers are held each year (though not during the summer months), each for about 40 people, in the series, which has earned flattering mentions in the New York Times and even Le Figaro (France’s oldest, largest daily newspaper).

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Oysters in shells grilling on a round charcoal grate over open flames, with a spoon sprinkling seasoning above.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Two men playing violins together outdoors on a wooden bench in a sunlit garden setting

Grammy-winning musicians serenading diners.

Local Grammy-winning musicians, including the likes of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Kelli Jones of Feufollet, and accordionist Cedric Watson, serenade diners on the lush grounds, shaded by Spanish moss-draped oaks and palmettos dotted with tiny fairy lights that appear as the sun starts to set. Generous hors d’oeuvres and wine are served before dinner, and during the four-course extravaganza, there’s also a carefully curated wine pairing put on by Wild Child, a wine bar and shop in Lafayette, whose staff acts as sommeliers during the event.

The bed-and-breakfast features a circa-1840 Creole cottage built with bousillage (clay mixed with Spanish moss) that’s on the National Register of Historic Places and a newer similarly styled cottage connected to it. Dinner is served in three rooms, two with long communal tables in the newer cottage. The upstairs single two-bedroom suite where the chef stays during the Secret Supper weekend is furnished in French Provincial antiques from 1835–1850. Another Creole cottage, decked with pale-green shutters, contains a bar adorned with religious imagery, called the Jesus Bar, and the catering kitchen where meals are prepared is 100 yards away.

But you don’t need to be here at “magic hour” to fall under its spell and feel a hushed sense of serenity seep into your bones. Any hour will do. Nina Compton, chef/owner of Compère Lapin in New Orleans and recipient of the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South in 2018, cooked Tuna with Coconut & Jerk Peanuts and Brown Stew Snapper here. James Beard Award nominees who have cooked at Secret Suppers range from Michael Stoltzfus of Coquette and Isaac Toups of Toups’ Meatery, both in New Orleans; Madonna Broussard of Laura’s Cafe Two in Lafayette; and Steve McHugh of Cured (closed in late 2025) in San Antonio, Texas, to Sohail Zandi of Brushland Eating House in Bovina, New York, a Best Chef: New York State nominee for his restaurant in the Catskills.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Guests mingle on a gravel path outside a rustic cottage with string lights, while a couple dances in the foreground.Guests enjoying the grounds before dinner.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Round dining table set for a meal with salads, bowls, candles, and wine glasses on a white tableclothGuests enjoying one of the dinner courses.

 

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Person holding a bottle of wine and a glass by a warm, sunlit window.Wild Child wine bar bringing out a wine pairing. 

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Woman in a black dress pours wine from a bottle into a glass at an outdoor wooden bar; a man in a light shirt stands nearby, watching.Wild Child staff serving wine to guests.

Interestingly, the chefs for the $375 dinner (wine included) aren’t announced until about a week before the dinner. “People book us based on reputation, not because they know who the chef or musicians are. They come for the experience and know the food is going to be very good and so is the music,” explains Walt Adams, who owns the bed-and-breakfast with his wife, Madeleine Cerac, a former interior designer and the B&B’s namesake. The decision to delay the announcement is rooted in sheer practicality—notable chefs are offered multiple opportunities, so canceling due to a TV show or book signing is eternally possible—and has ended up being a brilliant (but unintentional) marketing move. “As it turns out, it gets everyone’s antennae up. The words ‘secret’ and ‘supper’ intrigue epicureans. For many people, it’s the centerpiece of their trip to Louisiana,” Walt says with a chuckle. Repeat customers for the ultra-refined experience are common. At the Secret Supper this past February, 39 of the 45 guests were repeats. Some seats are set aside for long-time clients.
One such repeat guest is Katharine Carmichael of Beaumont, Texas, who’s attended about six times. “You go on blind faith but know it’s going to be a great experience,” says Katharine, owner of the restaurant Katharine & Company, who is understandably fussy about where she eats. “I like the owners, who are friendly, warm, and inviting—it feels sympatico. Walt greets everyone, introduces the chef, talks to us during dinner, and at the end, we go to the Jesus Bar,” she says.

Two-thirds of the chefs are also repeats, Walt shares. “I hook them by offering them a nice three-day weekend to stay here to escape the chaos and go out on the lake in a kayak. Their life is hard on their family and marriage. They don’t need to bring anything except their knife roll, and Friday night and Saturday morning, they’re hanging with their fam.” Word-of-mouth from satisfied chefs that a Secret Supper was a good gig spread, he says.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. People mingle in a sunlit garden with string lights, chatting beside a small wooden table and greenery.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Dessert in a wooden bowl with a chocolate centerpiece, white meringue mushrooms, and curling chocolate shavings on a green surface.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Chef grating or shredding coconut on a counter as steam rises, with bowls and plates in the background.

Chef Nina Compton, restaurateur and author of Kwéyòl/Creole, a cookbook of Caribbean-Creole cooking, who stayed on-site with her husband one weekend as the surprise chef, says, “It was really special—a beautiful Creole cottage deep in the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle; you can disconnect. It’s a very captivating space that makes you feel super-intimate. Our room was a princess’ room, a very soft bed and frilly curtains. The kitchen, which had copper pots and antique stove, was where breakfast was served.” Of its mystique, Nina notes, “People love the element of surprise and the space. There’s a lot of things a restaurant cannot provide.” The big metal cauldron in front of the house reminded her of St. Lucia, the island where she was born and raised, where they’re used to cook sugarcane.

Madeleine opened the bed-and-breakfast in 2005 and furnished it herself. Guests in the suite can take a cooking class and dine on the results, “so they have no need to leave our peaceful setting to drive to a town,” Madeleine says. “We offer concierge service, but since it’s just one suite, that’s easy,” says Walt. Art by Madeleine’s adult children from her first marriage (she and Walt wed in 2014) adorn the property. Abstract sculptures by her son are on the grounds, and paintings of swans and women by her daughter (a scenic painter for films such as Oscar-winning Sinners, who’s done live painting during New Orleans’ White Linen Night festival) fill the original house, where Madeleine and Walt live.

“[People come to our Secret Suppers] for the experience and know the food is going to be very good and so is the music.”
 
—WALT ADAMS

The idea for The Secret Supper Series was sparked by, of all people, Anthony Bourdain, who invited several chefs and musicians to a crawfish boil at the bed-and-breakfast to film a No Reservations episode in 2011. Everyone had such a wonderful time, the TV host tossed out the idea that such meals could be regular off-camera events. The owners agreed, and the wildly successful Secret Suppers were born in 2015. “He was a very affable fellow. If I’m gonna do it, I’ll build a kitchen, I said,” recalls Walt, a construction engineer who owned a management consulting firm in Atlanta, Georgia.

The first few years, Walt had a list of people who might want to attend, but soon, it started getting a lot of followers on social media and people asked to be invited. “Our list grew to about 6,000 from our original 200.” Since then, The Secret Supper Series has been wildly successful, always selling out. “Some places try to copy us, but we’re established,” Walt says with a smile. While others may try to re-create the concept behind it, the setting, guest list, and chefs create a magical, intimate gathering that’s hard to replicate anywhere else but at Maison Madeleine.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Oyster on a half shell topped with herbs and red accents, placed on a dark napkin beside a glass of pink wine on a light wooden table.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Three friends at a warmly lit dinner table; a bearded man gestures as a woman in a striped apron laughs beside him.

Magic on Lake Martin: Inside Louisiana’s Secret Supper Series - Louisiana Cookin' The guest list is small, the chefs are kept under wraps, and the meal is one to remember. Rustic wooden cabin porch with string lights, lush greenery, and a brick wall on the right; a gravel path nearby.

Colorful herb salad with pink radish slices, green herbs, and blue edible flowers atop a creamy base in a bowl

Tuna with Coconut & Jerk Peanuts

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