More than half a decade since Hurricane Katrina, our restaurant industry has made a remarkable recovery.  In fact, it's not just where it used to be, it's now bigger and many say, better than ever.

There are signs of recovery across New Orleans- a new home in the Lower 9th Ward, the renovated student center at UNO, the refurbished pumping station in Central City.  It's a drastic change from those first few days, weeks and months after the storm.  Chef John Besh shares his impression.

The best way to describe the feeling that I had when I came back to the city just a few days after the storm is that it was in more chaos than Kuwait City after my time in the Marines when we went and liberated Kuwait.

It was a war zone, a battle to save our city, but there was a lot more to rebuilding lives than just fixing our streets, businesses and homes.  Food critic Tom Fitzmorris says we needed to be convinced that somehow, someway things could just go back to normal.  "They would be able to have all the pleasures they had before and that it was a whole city and not just a bunch of crippled people in a crippled economy with a crippled infrastructure.  We could actually live like we always did."

Of course, in New Orleans you're not living if you're not eating and our restaurant industry was one of the quickest to bounce back.

Fitzmorris explains, "At the beginning everybody was putting out comfort food, because they thought that's what people wanted- meatloaf.  Well, as it turned out, what people wanted was to go back to Restaurant August and Galatoires and get exactly what they used to get before then, before the storm."

Today we're living and eating better than ever!  Our cuisine is gaining national attention, with 3 New Orleans chefs and 2 local restaurants nominated for James Beard Awards.

Besh describes the renaissance.  "It's much more vibrant, it's much younger, it's much more diverse.  I think you have people now that have really staked their claim here in New Orleans and they've wanted to make a difference and they're making their difference through food."

These chefs are making that difference relying on what they know best- traditional methods, artisanal ingredients and the passion you'll only find in New Orleans.

Fitzmorris says, "We know in advance that anything we're going to accept as being worthwhile to talk or even think about is going to be delicious and lustily so.  It gets you in your heart."

"Though we're moving and we're progressing and the food isn't just staying stagnant, I think there are a number of us that do pay homage to where we came from and recognize that if it were not for New Orleans and these great traditions we have, we would not be where we are today," says Besh.

So, here's to our nominated chefs in 2011 and many more to come.