Over thirty years ago, J.P.Uzee put on an apron and hasn’t taken it off since. His passion for great food and hospitality was influenced heavily by the south Louisiana culture he was raised in.  After attending Nicholls State University, he began his professional restaurant career at the newly established Copeland’s of New Orleans.  That experience gave him exposure to the mentoring of some of the best chefs and business minds in the industry at the time. He was able to learn the industry from the bottom all the way to the top.  His acquaintances there led him to his next venture with Outback Steakhouse.  This new experience helped fill in the gaps not previously cultivated. His heavy kitchen regimen was reinforced and refined as was his front of the house expertise. He was the opening manager for three of the top producing restaurants in the chain and served as Managing Partner at the Jackson Mississippi restaurant.     After riding the Outback wave he yearned to learn more and tried his hand at BBQ, heading up the opening of several Sonny’s BBQ in Louisiana.   The food aspect was interesting to him, but he needed more.  He went on to become a multi-unit supervisor for a Louisiana concept known as Semolina’s. This was his first taste of the need to build something special.   Feeling that there was still more to learn he accepted the General Manager/ Executive chef position at the Blue Dog Café in Lafayette LA.  His love for art, music and food made him very at home.  Still, he knew there was more to see and do.

On January 1, 2007, Jean Paul Uzee teamed up with the Moody family, which he had met as franchisees of the Outback Steakhouse, to take Coyote Blues to the next level. He spent over a year and a half to take a “mom and pop” operation with great mood and food to a level that could be able to grow on a large scale. He used all of his past experience with some of the best cultures to put together a comprehensive package for Coyote Blues that allows the flawless duplication of the operation , that includes detailed ordering for food and small wares, a P&L reporting format, inventory lists and procedures, a comprehensive training program , and very unique “virtual” operations manual that allows for any changes to be easily addressed and accessed by authorized individuals in the organization via the Internet.  Designing and developing new restaurant buildings has also become Jean’s area of responsibility.  This task has been enabled by his endless knowledge of the restaurant industry.

In 2018 JP “walked on”, to one of the hottest restaurant concepts, Walk-Ons, and got to work with a dynamic organization to build over eighty restaurants in six years. This was a great experience to be able to pull from all of the life experiences to help contribute to a winning culture.

Being a family man married to a surgery nurse/pastry chef and having a twenty-five year old son and a 22 year old daughter that are all members of Holy Family Catholic Church , avid sportsmen, and lovers of food help keep all of his energy positive.