Octavio Mantilla landed in the restaurant business the way many young people do, on the ground floor, earning extra money for college.  Born in Nicaragua, he moved to New Orleans as a child, and readily embraced the city’s rich gastronomic culture.  At sixteen, he got his first job as a dishwasher, and worked his way up the ladder as a bus-person, server, maitre d’, and on through all the managerial levels.  Along the way, he earned a degree in computer science at Tulane University; upon graduation, his hard-won computer job kept him behind a desk and away from other people, and he found that he much preferred his evening job as manager of a restaurant.  Nevertheless, he went back to school and earned an MBA from the University of New Orleans.   

His first big job with a finance company was no better; Octavio is a social creature and a problem solver, whose chief pleasure comes from making other people happy.  He finally realized that his studies did not begin to match his passion for food, wine, and fine dining, and he decided to stop fighting what felt like his true calling.  As he puts it, “I get to live in an industry that people pay lots of money just to visit on occasion – how lucky is that?”  Octavio’s own culinary tastes are well rounded, and he enjoys a wide range of cuisines.  These days, he is especially fond of Vietnamese food.  “I love their cold coffees,” he says, “and their whole fish dishes remind me of the way we ate fish when I was younger – the Nicaraguan way.”  

After a brief but intense period of working together at one of New Orleans’ top restaurants, a young John Besh predicted to Octavio Mantilla, “one day we are going to be in business together.” The two had overlapped only three months, John in the kitchen and Octavio at the front of the house as general manager, but they had recognized in each other a common passion for restaurant excellence, and become fast friends.     

With his business skills and extensive restaurant management experience, Octavio was moving on to the world of casino hospitality.  At Harrah’s Casino & Hotel, he was first part of the team that opened the company’s casino in New Orleans; then he moved on to St. Louis as Harrah’s Director of Food Operations, in charge of seven restaurants on the casino property.  He also opened numerous fine dining restaurants for Harrah’s nationwide, and when he heard that the company was going to launch its first high-profile restaurant showcasing a celebrity chef, he was interested.  Even better, it would be at the New Orleans casino, and Octavio was ready to return home.  He called the president of Harrah’s and presented himself as the best man for the job. Imagine his surprise when he learned that none other than his old friend John Besh was to be the celebrity chef in question!  As Octavio had been moving ahead in his own career, indeed so had John, rising to celebrity status as a chef.  “Sure enough, John was just the star they were looking for,” Octavio says, “but because ‘I knew him when,’ it was a shock to hear that my old buddy was their big celebrity!”  

And so Octavio went home to New Orleans to be reunited with his old friend at Besh Steak, a critical and popular success all around.  In early 2005, when Besh had the opportunity to buy Restaurant August from its owner, his first instinct was to turn to Octavio.  Twelve long years ago, when John Besh predicted that they would be in business together, he may not have imagined the full measure of his words. “We get along like brothers,” says Octavio, who can’t believe his good fortune.  Octavio joins John as a partner in The Besh Restaurant Group, running Restaurant August; Besh Steak; the legendary La Provence in Lacombe, which they bought from John’s mentor; and their latest venture, Lüke, a revival of the great New Orleans brasserie tradition.  Not only are the two professionally entwined now, Octavio is also godfather to John’s youngest son, who is the same age as his own daughter.  They still share the same passion, John in the kitchen and Octavio out among the diners, and between the two of them, they are one dynamic dining duo.  Together again, they appear to have fulfilled their professional destiny.