There will be a definite New Orleans connection on the 18th Annual Artbeats Chefs Tour Monday.

One of the four chefs featured on this year's tour is Karea Anderson, chef at St. Peter's Hospital's Continental Cafe, who early in her career spent a year working as a chef with the Delta Queen Steamboat Company in New Orleans.

Anderson will prepare her food in the home of Andrea and Hugh Ambrose, New Orleans natives who moved to Helena after they were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

During her time as a riverboat chef, Anderson, a Montana native who grew up on a ranch in the Canyon Creek area, became fluent in the language of French, Cajun and Creole cooking.

It's a culinary language Ambrose also is fluent in.

The two recently got together to talk about the tour in Ambrose's kitchen, and the talk quickly turned to the pair's mutual love for the food of the region.

Mufalata sandwiches. Red beans and rice. Po' boy sandwiches. Boiled seafood.

"If there's gumbo on the menu, I'll order it," Anderson said.

After her time in the bayou, Anderson went on to hop around the country, with stops in Nashville, Missouri and around the South, along the way learning from chefs from around the world.

Last year, she decided to return home.

Wanting a job that offered benefits that don't often come with chef positions in this area, Anderson took the position with St. Peter's.

She said she didn't know what to expect working in a hospital kitchen.

"A lot of people think, 'Hospital food, ewww,' " Anderson said. "And I did the same thing."

But she said she's been pleasantly surprised with the flexibility she's had at St. Peter's to do her thing.

In addition to making many typical cafeteria items, she has a different theme on the menu every day -- she often revisits her New Orleans days by having a Creole- or Cajun-themed menu.

The job has also paid off with some national recognition for Anderson, who won a silver medal in the National Society for Healthcare Food Management Culinary Competition.

Anderson said the contest required chefs to create an original dish and submit the recipe and a photo of the dish. Anderson's creation was one of five chosen from hundreds of applications nationwide to compete in the contest last year in Tucson, Ariz.

For the Chefs Tour, Anderson will prepare the dish she created for the contest: Grilled Cilantro Lime Yogurt Chicken. The dish is served with Meditarranean Salsa in a pool of Tzatziki Sauce with Basil Oil Infusion and accompanied by Bulgur Wheat and Pine Nut Pilaf.

In addition to the obvious New Orleans connection, the pairing of Anderson's cooking and the Ambroses' kitchen has turned out to have a Mediterranean link as well, as Ambrose, who is also an interior designer, used a Mediterranean style for the home.

The Ambroses bought the home when they moved to Helena in 2005, but they had to completely gut and rebuild the main level of the house before they could move in.

It wasn't until June of last year that the remodel was completed and the Ambroses moved in.

Ambrose said when designing the kitchen, she wanted it to be nice, but not too big. She maintained the home's original footprint and kept all the plumbing in the same space to help keep the cost of the remodel in check.

"I wanted it to be nice, but just usable space," she said.

One of the centerpieces of the kitchen is a mural Andrea painted over her 36-inch commercial oven showing a map of the area of the Louisiana Purchase.

She decided to paint the Louisiana Purchase map because it includes both Louisiana and Helena -- the land she grew up in and the land she adopted as her new home.

It's also fitting because Hugh -- the son of legendary author and historian Stephen Ambrose -- is himself a Lewis and Clark historian.

The event is a fundraiser for Grandstreet Theatre, the Helena Symphony and Holter Museum of Art.

For the Chefs Tour, Anderson will prepare a dish that won her the silver medal last year in a national competition for health care food.

About the 18th annual Artbeats Chefs Tour

Artbeats is hosting its 18th annual Chefs Tour Monday, May 19, with four of Helena's top chefs preparing dinner in four of Helena's most beautiful kitchens. Proceeds from the event benefit Helena Symphony, Grandstreet Theatre and Holter Museum of Art.

In addition to Karea Anderson, this year's chefs are:

- Sandee Cardinal: Cardinal, of Wolf Creek, is a past tour chef and is back by popular demand. Cardinal has worked as a bread baker, pastry chef and restaurant chef at hotels, resorts and restaurants in Miami, California and Santa Fe, N.M.

- Melissa O'Hair: O'Hair studied under top chefs at Puerto Rico's El Conquistador. In February, she and her husband Todd opened Capella's Restaurant and Catering in the old Corner Bar in East Helena.

- Jeremy Mather: Mather has worked at New York's famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel and has been a personal chef for notables such as Paul Newman. He worked with Newman and Michael Nischan to open "The Dressing Room," an all-organic restaurant. He is head chef at Capella's Restaurant in East Helena.

This year's chefs will offer demonstrations in several of Helena's most exquisite kitchens:

- Andrea and Hugh Ambrose, 628 Mound, have gutted and completely rebuilt their home.

- Lisa Larsen and Ray Flaherty, 22 Jefferson, designed and built their home in the late 1990s. The home is situated where the original Kleinschmidt mansion was located.

- Cindy Lewis and Gary Davis, 816 Floweree, completely remodeled their kitchen two years ago, and Lewis, an accomplished chef herself, incorporated some environmentally friendly features.

- Sue Hanson, 1772 University, incorporated two floor plans to design a home with openness and a spectacular view.

Tickets to the Artbeats Chefs Tour are $60 and are available at the Pan Handler and Grand Junction Mercantile.