In traditional Southern kitchens, red-eye gravy-country-ham drippings with a shot of black coffee-makes an eye-opening accompaniment to ham and biscuits. In the kitchen of Louis's Restaurant & Bar, creamy grits and red-eye gravy (nothing unusual yet) sidle up alongside an unexpected and seductively unctuous duck confit. The dish is typical of Louis Osteen, a champion of Low Country cuisine who doesn't hesitate to update and upscale the classics. In an Esquire feature on the best new restaurants of 1998, John Mariani called Osteen "the premier interpreter of New Southern Cuisine."

Mariani rhapsodized over Osteen's twist on grits 'n' gravy and his "knockout" Vidalia onion soup, writing that "Louis is cooking with his soul here." Osteen provoked a soul-stirring response from R. W. Apple, Jr. too, who exclaimed in Sky magazine, "Good Lord, can the man cook!" Osteen picked up a few rudimentary cooking skills watching Julia Child on TV, but his formal training came under François Declares, the archetypal French chef at Atlanta's tony Le Versailles. Osteen stayed there for six years, eventually working his way up to executive chef.

In 1979 Osteen and his wife, Marlene, opened Pawleys Island Inn, also in South Carolina, where he used the rich bounty of the region and its culinary traditions to both champion and redefine Low Country cuisine. "Ah, Osteen," Helen Schwab once sighed in a glowing review in The Charlotte Observer. "Known for resuscitation of Southern cuisine nationally, he enjoys mixing influence and ingredient, creatively, à la 'Crispy Fried Whole Snapper with Spicy Szechwan Peanut Sauce and Plantation Slaw.'"

In 1989 Osteen opened Louis's Charleston Grill in the Omni Hotel in Charleston. He moved the restaurant to its present location in the city's historic district last year. There, he continues to cook what National Geographic Traveler has characterized as "fresh, fun, and adventurous" food. Osteen has been twice nominated by The James Beard Foundation as American Express Best Chef: Southeast for a style Schwab described as "lush by reason of ingredient, not frill." Luscious Low Country fare as prepared by Louis Osteen awaits at the Beard House.