Though an enthusiastic cook and appreciative of the slight reprieve from the summer temperatures, I remain unconvinced that Gumbo Weather is upon us. I am still avoiding heat belching ovens, roiling liquids in a hot pots, and, for the most…
The temperature seems to be giving us a little break, and there are some exciting things to celebrate on the culinary scene. Check it out. When she died last year at age 96, Chef Leah Chase, the embodiment of…
We missed the snow. In fact, we missed a breeze or even a drop in temperature this week as a great, big heave of Arctic air blasted down and took Denver from 93 degrees and hot (for them) to…
Long story short, I ended up in Greenville, Mississippi at the home of Frankie Keating for an extended stay after Katrina. She and her then recently departed husband, Bern, were a brilliant, elegant, worldly couple, who were still going…
A couple of weeks ago my suggestions for dining out – or at least acquiring food from somewhere other than your own kitchen – on the cheap were received with enough enthusiasm as to warrant additional exploration of the…
With potential atmospheric calamities threatening to enter the Gulf, record-breaking temperatures, nowhere to go and nothing to do, continuing record high unemployment, a barbaric election cycle, and COVID – a most unwelcome guest now bearing the stench of nearly…
Whether you have a hole in your pocket the size of 1. The job you used to have before COVID; 2. The federally enhanced unemployment check you used to get before the system went off of the rails; 3.…
I love to go tubing. A simple creature, plopping my butt in an inner tube then floating down a river with a group of friends while alternating between eating fried chicken and drinking beer (this is the only time…
I have enjoyed many fine meals at kin(sic), Hieu Than's diminutive yellow powerhouse of a restaurant overlooking a charmless drainage ditch in Gertown across from Xavier University. It is on my regular "route" around town and a tug of…
In some very exciting news for New Orleans the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience (NOWFE) has been nominated for "Best Wine Festival" by USA Today newspaper. As the final award recipient will be decided via people's choice, you…
Soooo, Saturday is my birthday. I was super excited about going to check out Big Freedia's new live cooking show in the Kitchen Garden at City Park tonight with my gal pal Jennifer. Every Thursday evening in July and…
My sister, Beth, has been going through a really rough time lately, dealing with even more uncertainty and upset than the rest of us while also dealing with the same uncertainty and upset the rest of us continue to…
I usually spend the Fourth of July at my brother's compound near the Louisiana/Mississippi border hanging out in the woods around a massive swimming pool, slurping frosty beverages and arguing politics while my sister-in-law's many siblings, their children and…
Western St. Tammany Parish was first settled by Choctaw, Tchefuncte, Acolapissa and Houma Indian tribes, which were drawn to the northern shores of Lake Pontchartrain for the area's dense oxygen-rich pine forests, abundant natural beauty, and "curative" spring waters.…
Happy Fathers' Day to all of the fathers and grandfathers, both biological and chosen, in our extended community. I would like to issue a particularly heartfelt shout out to my husband, Andrew Martin Fox, for the crucial role he…
City Park was established in the mid -1800s on land fronting what is now City Park Avenue along the remains of Bayou Metairie, a former distributary of the Mississippi River that once ran from present day River Ridge to Bayou St.…
I am going to go out on a limb and assume everyone reading this is OVER IT. Over feeling anxious, over the terms "socially distant" and "social distancing," over feeling guilty about mail carriers and delivery drivers, over your…
Though this is hardly an ideal time to launch a new restaurant concept in New Orleans this is exactly what Chef Serigne Mbaye— one of the hardest working, most ambitious people I have ever known— did last week when…
On so many occasions throughout this lockdown I have felt immense gratitude for the home and garden I love, in a neighborhood I love, in a city I love. Things could be so much worse for me. Despite my…
My maternal grandmother, Cecilia Fletchinger, born in 1908, hailed from a large German-Irish Catholic family that lived in the building that now houses Camellia Grill on Carrollton Avenue in the Riverbend area. She attended Matter Dolorosa School and she…
"Shower the people you love with love. Show them the way that you feel." James Taylor, Shower the People Every year around Mother's Day I try to spend one-on-one time with each of the women who have served as…
A home health nurse, Beth Bayer has long had a side hustle making colorful custom aprons in cotton prints featuring from sports or holiday themes, political figures, botanical or culinary prints, sexy pinups, you name it. On March 10…
This particularly glorious Spring continues to roll along while we continue to be required to avoid those places where we might best enjoy it, places like the Botanical Garden at City Park. Last year the Botanical Garden became ever…
I am weeks behind the rest of the country in zealously cleaning out and organizing my pantry, closets and cupboards and scrubbing down every surface with sanitizer until it gleams but that is pretty much where I am this…
Every day my gratitude for what I have deepens as I continue to lose things I used to take for granted. Today I took a solitary one mile walk down Magazine Street from my home to Audubon Park, so…
Disaster can illuminate how we are connected and how we rely on one another. This is what is happening in my life, my relationships, and in my Uptown neighborhood near Magazine Street and Jefferson Avenue. By day the streets…
Until two weeks ago this weekly column/blog was largely dedicated to a combination of dining specials and fun things, usually free, to do in New Orleans in your free time. Now that most of us have nothing but either…
Today is St. Joseph's Day, a big deal here in New Orleans, but my advice to you is quite different this week then it was last. Last week I was encouraging you to visit St. Joseph altars and restaurants:…
With corona virus cases ticking up in New Orleans and mass public gatherings, such as the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day parade, cancelled for this weekend, some will choose to hunker down while others will want to take precautions…
For Catholics, the practice of forgoing the consumption of meat during Lent (Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday) has its roots in the early days of the church and the Black Fast, when the righteous were expected to partake of…
Perhaps the only child in Louisiana history to be born to a mother with absolutely no culinary skills at all, Jyl Benson began cooking in self defense at the age of six. She is 13 years younger than her closest sibling so her parents were tired and paid little attention as she use the household kitchen as per personal laboratory, sometimes with disastrous outcomes. Her skills have improved greatly over the years and kitchen fires are a thing of the past.
She began her editorial career in 1990 with The Times Picayune and served as a regional reporter covering the southeastern United States for both The New York Times and Time magazine. She wrote "Galatoire's Cookbook: Recipes & Family History from the Time-Honored New Orleans Restaurant" (Random House 2005) as well as several cultural, historical, and architectural guides to New Orleans. She served as editor-in-chief of Louisiana Cookin’ magazine from 2009 to 2011 and founded Louisiana Kitchen & Culture magazine in 2012. In addition to serving as the Director of Culinary Programming for the Southern Food & Beverage Museum/National Food & Beverage Foundation she is a dining columnist for St. Charles Avenue, Acadiana Profile and Louisiana Life magazines, a frequent contributor to New Orleans Magazine, and the author of "Fun Funky, Fabulous: New Orleans Casual Restaurant Recipes" (2015, Pelican Publishing andLouisiana's Tables (2017, Savory House Press).
