The other day I was reading about Ruth Fertel and her contribution to food history. We all know that one person who cooks a mean steak. Today we are going to talk all about Ruth Fertel and how she earned the nickname, “Empress of Steak.”

Let’s take a trip to New Orleans in 1965. Chris Matulich had a restaurant for sale. This was his baby. He opened the original Chris Steak House in 1927. This was a small restaurant located near the Fair Grounds Race Course. It seated 60 people and had no parking lot to speak of. 

Chris was a savvy entrepreneur. During his ownership spanning 1927-1965 he sold the restaurant 6 times. Each time the restaurant sold it failed. Chris then would buy the restaurant back cheap. After another failed owner the restaurant was again on the market. This is where Ruth Fertel came on the scene.

To understand Ruth, I have to spend a minute on her early life. Ruth was born on February 5, 1927. Her father sold insurance and her mother taught kindergarten. She was a smart girl and skipped several grades in elementary school. She graduated from high school when she was 15 years old. Her family used her brother’s WWII G.I. benefits to put Ruth through college. She attended Lousiana State University where she graduated in honors in chemistry and physics at the age of 19. That’s incredible!

Ruth’s Marriage and Divorce

In 1946 she had a brief stint teaching at McNeese State University. She lasted 2 semesters before moving on to other things. In October 1948 she married Rodney Fertel. They lived in Baton Rouge and had two sons, Jerry and Randy. Rodney and Ruth shared a deep love for horses and opened a racing stable in Baton Rouge. Ruth earned a thoroughbred trainer’s license, making her the first female horse trainer in Louisiana. 

In 1958 Ruth and Rodney divorced. Ruth was unable to support herself and her sons on her alimony payments. She supplemented that income by making drapes at home. The critically tight budget led her to take a job at the Tulane University School of Medicine as a lab tech. She was earning $4,800 a year. Things were slightly better financially, but as a single mom of two boys she realized she was going to need more money. College for her boys was going to come fast and it wasn’t going to be cheap. She started looking around for opportunities and stumbled across a classified ad in the paper offering a restaurant for sale. 

Ruth Purchases Chris Steakhouse

As I researched Ruth and learned more about her story I’m blown away. Ruth was a small woman. She was five-foot-two and 110-pounds. However, she had seemingly endless grit and determination packed into her small frame. She wasn’t someone who was content to sit back and let life come to her. She knew that she had to get out there and make the magic happen. 

As she contemplated this newspaper ad she did a little more digging into Chris Steak House. She realized that it opened for business on February 5, 1927. This was the exact same day that she was born. Ruth Fertel took this as a sign that it was meant to be. She ignored the advice of her banker, lawyer, friends and family and took the plunge. She mortgaged her house and purchased the restaurant. People must have thought that she had lost her mind. Even though the restaurant had failed 6 times previously, she was confident she could turn things around. The seventh time’s the charm right? 

Ruth knew nothing about the restaurant business. She planned to borrow only $18,000 to cover the purchase of the business. However, it was quickly pointed out that she’d need an additional $4,000 to cover the cost of renovations and food.