In many places, the cocktail hour is an honored – even sacred – tradition. And in few places is that more true than New Orleans. On this week's show, we explore the fascinating evolution of cocktail culture in the Big Easy – its past, present and future.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we meet New Orleans chefs who have stepped into the spotlight. We begin with Anh Luu. In January, the whole country got to know Chef Anh when she was featured on the eighth season of the Emmy Award-winning Netflix series, Queer Eye. We also have an extended conversation with New Orleans chef and YouTube star Toya Boudy, whose first cookbook is Cooking for the Culture: Recipes and Stories from the Streets of New Orleans to the Table.
Read MoreWho taught you how to cook? Perhaps it was a favorite family member or Julia Child on public television. Maybe you devour cookbooks on the weekend just for fun. The education of a professional chef can be just varied – be it a formal degree or on-the-job training. On this week's show, we explore culinary learning.
Read MoreA recipe can be more than a guide to making food. On this week's show, we meet culinary detectives who are using recipes to unlock the past. We begin with the inspiring story of humanity preserved through recipes from the time of the Holocaust. Chef Alon Shaya joins us to share the story of a family cookbook he encountered while visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and how it led to a collaboration and friendship with Steven Fenves, a man who survived the horrors of that time. Through their Rescued Recipes project, Alon and Steven have raised over $500,000 to benefit the same museum that brought them together.
Read MoreTo write a cookbook, a good author will go to great lengths to perfect a recipe or understand a cuisine. On this week's show, we meet four food writers who are driven by a deep culinary curiosity. You may know Melissa Clark from her weekly column in the New York Times food section or from one of her 45-odd published cookbooks. We join Melissa in the studio to discuss the art of recipe-making to find out what led the prolific author to a life in food.
Read MoreThere's a mouthful of memories in every family – especially if your family is in the food biz! On this week's show, we hear from New Orleanians whose parents and grandparents gave them a passion for food and a love for their community.
Read MoreMany chefs spend their entire careers content to run a single restaurant. But others have a different vision – one that encompasses multiple locations or even various kinds of eateries. This week, we take a look at three such New Orleans restaurateurs and find out how they've gone about building their culinary empires.
Read MoreAlcohol in almost any form is one of the oldest medicines known to man. On this week's show, we explore the world of high proof healing. We start with Camper English, author of Doctors and Distillers: The Remarkable Medicinal History of Beer, Wine, Spirits, and Cocktails. Camper covers everything from mystic botanicals and their monastic apothecary origins to the unusual relationship between syphilis and root beer.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we look at agriculture and innovation in our state and beyond. We begin with New Orleans' native son Richard McCarthy, founder of the Crescent City Farmers Market and former executive director of Slow Food USA. The activist recently published a book entitled, Kuni: A Japanese Vision and Practice for Urban-Rural Reconnection. Richard shares the revolutionary ideas and practices his co-author Tsuyoshi Sekihara is using to save rural areas that were abandoned in postwar Japan.
Read MoreNew Orleanians have always loved to cook and to share what they've made with others. So it makes sense that as soon as there was television, there was a Crescent City chef on the screen spreading the good news of New Orleans food. The first was an African American cooking star named Lena Richard, who made her TV debut on WDSU-TV in 1949. Fast forward to today, and it’s tough to tune in to any cooking show and not see a familiar face. This week, three local chefs walk us through the fun and the frenzy of their television encounters.
Read MoreSince 2021, June 19th – or Juneteenth as it's popularly known – has been a federal holiday commemorating the end of enslavement in the United States. On this week's show, we celebrate the day with a trio of African American chefs who discuss the inspiration they draw from their spiritual ancestors.
Read MoreWhether it's the most elegant wedding reception or a simple family birthday party, no celebration is complete without a cake. On this week's show, we explore this delicious dessert in all its glory.
Read MoreOn March 17th, 2023, the Dickie Brennan restaurant group purchased the 110-year-old Uptown landmark, Pascal's Manale Restaurant. This new chapter of Manale's guarantees that generations of beloved, delicious authentic traditions will continue to be honored there on Napoleon Avenue. On this week's show, we explore the generational ties that have long existed between Pascal's family – the Defelices – and the Brennan family.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we explore the ways culture and identity can collide at the table. We begin the hour with a conversation with Andrea Wang, author of the award-winning picture book, Watercress. With illustrations by Jason Chin, Andrea's book is an autobiographical tale of a child of Chinese immigrants discovering and connecting with her heritage.
Read MoreWhere are you from? While what we eat may reveal our origins, it can also reflect our life's travels from one home to another. Chef Anh Luu was born in New Orleans to parents who emigrated to the United States from Vietnam. She discovered her love of restaurants at the age of 15 when she first began working the line. When Katrina blew Anh and her family to Portland, Oregon, she became a pioneer of Viet-Cajun cuisine – an amalgamation of her Vietnamese and Louisiana heritage. She's now back in New Orleans, serving up her signature dishes at Bywater Brew Pub.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we continue our exploration of all things king cake. Throughout Carnival season, local bakers are hard at work creating their own spin on the treat – one that can make or break their year. When Steve Himelfarb and his wife Becky Retz opened Cake Café, they set out to develop their own signature cake – a delicious combo of apple and goat cheese that has outlasted the bakery itself. We catch up with Steve at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) where his king cake has become an annual fundraising tradition.
Read MoreFrom Twelfth Night though Mardi Gras Day, king cake becomes somewhat of a local obsession here in Louisiana. And over the last few years, it seems like the Carnival treat is simply on steroids! Across the state, bakers have expanded the design from the original brioche dough ring decorated with purple, green, and gold sugar to create cakes featuring every kind of filling – both sweet and savory. No one knows more about king cake than Matt Haines, author of "The Big Book of King Cake." Matt uncovered amazing historical facts and chronicled the lives and cakes of 75 bakers while writing his coffee table tome.
Read MoreA recipe can be more than a guide to making food. On this week's show, we meet culinary detectives who are using recipes to unlock the past. We begin with the inspiring story of humanity preserved through recipes from the time of the Holocaust. Chef Alon Shaya joins us to share the story of a family cookbook he encountered while visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and how it led to a collaboration and friendship with Steven Fenves, a man who survived the horrors of that time. Through their Rescued Recipes project, Alon and Steven have raised over $250,000 to benefit the same museum that brought them together.
Read MoreTo write a cookbook, a good author will go to great lengths to perfect a recipe or understand a cuisine. On this week's show, we meet four food writers who are driven by a deep culinary curiosity. You may know Melissa Clark from her weekly column in the New York Times food section or from one of her 45-odd published cookbooks. Melissa joins us, as does Vicky Bennison, the creator of the YouTube sensation, Pasta Grannies.
Read MoreOn this week’s show, we’re traveling through Acadiana to explore traditional and contemporary Cajun foodways. We begin with George Graham, who shares his obsession through stories of cooking in the region through his nationally recognized blog and book, Acadiana Table: Cajun and Creole Home Cooking from the heart of Louisiana.
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