Susan Spicer's Bayona qualifies as a New Orleans culinary landmark. That happens when a restaurant lasts 25 years in the same French Quarter location, when the chef piles up critical kudos, launches new talents, expands on local traditions and pens a well-regarded cookbook.

Landmark status feels equally appropriate in Bayona's cozy dining rooms and courtyard patio. On Good Friday, for example, tables were filled with lunch regulars in no hurry to get back to work. They sipped wine and lingered over menus that emphasized locally sourced produce, gulf seafood, and some of Spicer's signature dishes: cream of garlic soup, veal sweetbreads with lemon caper butter, chile-rubbed Louisiana duck breast in house-made mole.

Bayona has spawned a host of such creative classics in the decades since Spicer and business partner Regina Keever opened their landmark in 1990. But talk of "landmarks" and "signature dishes" ends at the kitchen doors. Beyond them, in a cave-like, florescent-lit work space full of ovens, grills, prep cooks and rushing waiters, Spicer still crafts seasonal specials and daily improvisations, working closely with her chef de cuisine, Brett Duffee, a five-year Bayona veteran.

"Our older dishes aren't out-of-date: They are classics. But it's important for Bayona to keep evolving," Spicer said as the lunch rush waned. "The restaurant can't sit on its laurels -- that would be disappointing to customers and for our cooks, who thrive when they have a creative outlet."

Spicer stood at the center of a whirlwind: a lithe figure in chef whites who checked every plate, added finishing touches and called out directions above the clamor. If hundred-degree heat and tight quarters bothered Spicer, she didn't show it. This was Spicer in her element. This was the crazy, in-the-moment dream job she chose in 1979, when she began her apprenticeship in New Orleans kitchens -- and it's the job she still loves today at age 62.

"I put my blessing on each dish and every plate before it leaves the kitchen," Spicer said later. "It's a good job for a chef who is a control freak -- and that's how I am about my food. I have always been a hands-on chef, and if that's not the smartest approach to the business, I can live with it. My regulars want me here, in the kitchen."

Spicer divides her week between the kitchens of Bayona and of Mondo, the much-praised restaurant she opened in her Lakeview neighborhood in 2009.

"Cooking 12 or 15 hours a day takes a physical toll," Spicer said. "For years, I wore clogs in the kitchen, but now its totally nerd, orthopedic shoes for me."

Spicer's after-hours schedule also has changed.

"In the beginning, at Bayona, we'd lock the doors after customers left, and the whole staff would hang out in the courtyard until early in the morning. Now I need to pace myself. I'm happy to go home to my husband. That's important because good cooking requires a certain amount of mindfulness, of inner calm, especially in a crazy restaurant kitchen."

Because of her longevity, Spicer has been able to follow the decades-long evolution of New American Cooking -- her preferred name for the culinary approach forged by her generation of chefs and their successors.

"I started out in a classic French restaurant where the cooks hardly plated anything and the food was finished table-side by the waiters," Spicer said. "But New Orleans began to change in the early 1980s. There was an explosion of new restaurants -- places like Gautreau's and Upperline -- and that was exciting for chefs with their own ideas."

One of the big changes in New Orleans was the growing availability of quality ingredients.

"In the early days, I worked in good New Orleans kitchens where it was a pleasant surprise to get fresh button mushrooms instead of opening a can. I can remember, in the early '80s, rushing all over town to find fresh basil to make a simple Italian dish at home. When I finally found some, it was a revelation."

These days, Spicer grows exotic ingredients in her backyard garden -- Kaffir Lime leaves are a favorite -- and sometimes she shows up at farmers' markets. Mostly, however, she relies on deliveries from the vast array of urban gardens and area truck farms that bring produce directly to her restaurants.

"Local sourcing had already taken hold in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, but post-Katrina people went at it with a vengeance," Spicer said, "The ardor for rebuilding the city fed the ardor for rebuilding the local cuisine -- from the ingredients up. It's the biggest change since I started Bayona."

Bayona's 25th anniversary dinner

What: A multi-course dinner featuring favorite dishes from the past quarter century.

When: Wednesday (April 8), with seatings at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Cost: $85 per person, not including tax and gratuity

Where: Bayona, 430 Dauphine St., 504.525.4455.

