Cuisine... with a Shelf Life

Learning what's timeless about local food

Sifting through our cuisine archives can be disorienting—this restaurant closed, that chef embezzled—but thirty-five years of ardent food coverage has a way of revealing that which is timeless about good feasts in Louisiana.

Crawfish Étouffée: The Good, The Bad, and The Serendipitous": Anne Craven, November 2009

When you’re craving Louisiana classics, don’t settle for something convenient.

“There’s no Cajun blood running through these veins, but I do feel somewhat qualified to chime in on the quest for outstanding etouffée. Why? Because I live to daydream about, talk about, and inhale food. This is how the editorial department’s discussion went: ‘Anne, how would you like to drive around and taste–’  ‘Yes.’ And who are you going to believe? James the Australian, Dale the Midwesterner, or me—the one born and bred in south Louisiana? I figured the best crawfish etouffée would probably be off the beaten track, so with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm did I drive over to the Atchafalaya environs accompanied by my equally excited mom, from whom I inherited a love of day trips.” Read the full article here.

"Huckleberries": Dorcas Brown, Summer 1985 

Take a look in nature’s pantry.

"I somehow lived in West Feliciana Parish for 35 years without discovering that the woods were literally filled with huckleberry bushes. It took my dear friend Peggy Perkins to point them out to me one cold winter day as we walked along a small dirt country road. ... I'm still amazed that my father must not have known about huckleberry bushes. I always thought he knew everything. But he would surely have shared that secret with me, for I know he'd have loved eating them right off the bush, just like I do.” Read the full article here.

"The Taming of the 'Shroom": Chris Turner-Neal, May 2018

But remember: pride goeth before the ipecac.

“It should go without saying, but we are the country who came up with America’s Funniest Home Videos, so here goes: don’t go mushroom hunting unless you really, really know what you’re doing or have an experienced guide. To take a dramatic example, Amanita caesarea, the Caesar’s mushroom, is a tasty delight that was savored by the emperor Claudius; the similar-looking and related Amanita phalloides, the death cap, was beloved by the emperor Nero—for getting rid of Claudius. Even the distinctive and delicious chanterelle has an imitator in the jack-o-lantern mushroom, which is unlikely to kill you but may make you long for death.” Read the full article here.

"Chef Leah Chase": Interview by Lucie Monk Carter, July 2016

In the South, culinary heritage takes many forms.

I  got criticized for that one time. I’ll never forget. [A tour guide] sent some people here. The people went back, and one lady said she didn’t like it. So he couldn’t understand: ‘Well, why didn’t you like it? So she said, ‘She’s trying to be what she isn’t.’ He asked her to explain. It’s because I didn’t have collard greens or cornbread. I was black and I should have collard greens and cornbread.” Read the full article here.

"The United Nations of Coursey Boulevard" Jamie White, March 2009

A Louisiana cook still has a world to explore.

“If you strolled into your fluorescent-lit grocery store and pulled out your grocery list and it read:

  • Arepas
  • Bixi bele bhaath
  • Baharat
  • Mitha
  • Masala…

you might be mystified. But then again you might discover that what you’ve got on your hands is rather more interesting than a simple grocery list. It’s a potential adventure, an exploration of exotic culinary experiences to be found … where? In a series of strip malls along Baton Rouge’s Coursey Boulevard.” Read the full article here.

"Food Flight!": Lucie Monk Carter, March 2015

“A to Z International Fine Foods has joined my grocery retinue too; the store specializes mostly in Indian and Pakistani products, but ingredients native to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean are well stocked too. Lumpy bulks of rice and low-priced vats of olive oil render one visit enough for several months; I make excuses to return much more frequently than that, snatching up pomegranate molasses, dried ginger and chiles, and other intriguing spices for my pantry—dreaming up star-making roles for each.”  

[Good news for fans of galangal and halloumi, the Baton Rouge outlets we visited for the above  articles are all still open—with the exception of Montoya's Restaurante; make a grocery list and head for Fashion India and Groceries (11802 Coursey Boulevard). Olive Tree's International Food (12812 Coursey Boulevard), Vinh Phat Market (12351 Florida Boulevard), A to Z International Groceries (13461 Tiger Bend Road), and Kased's International Market (8129 Florida Boulevard).] Read the full article here.

We've also had the privilege of sharing quite a few recipes: our own, our friends', and those of some of the areas best chefs, cooks, and kitchen wizards. Two of our most popular (and which we recently recreated in the office kitchen) have been Tujague's Boiled Beef Brisket and Vegetable Soup and Carriage House Biscuits.

Eat Well. Raise a Glass. Make New Friends.

Each month we send tens of thousands of words off to be printed with a few fervent hopes attached: first, that we spelled everyone’s first and last names correctly; second, that a fair amount of the passion and creativity communicated to us by article subjects comes through in the storytelling; and finally, that you, the reader, will act on one or several of our recommendations to do, see, muse, or eat in the weeks ahead.

But it’s not enough to just imagine you riding off to Frog Fest or taking a stab at Prosciutto-Wrapped Quail in your own kitchen—in the past five years, we’ve established delicious opportunities for us all to have fun together, off the page and with great drinks to boot. With the annual Small Town Chefs Dinner, we bring magnificent chefs from towns under 25,000 to Baton Rouge to prepare one multi-course meal. The Art of Food, which just had its second iteration at the Ann Connelly Fine Art gallery on August 19, asks the featured chef—and it can’t just be any chef—to interpret works of art into a feast. (This year, Chef Michael Gulotta of New Orleans’ MoPho and Maypop took one look at a stormy Gulf Coast seascape by Billy Solitario and thought, “That’s a chilled crab salad with peaches, tomatoes, and coconut lime leaf clouds.” Having now eaten it, we have to agree.)

And Supper Club, which hasn’t even turned a year old yet, is our favorite playground as we travel South Louisiana and Mississippi with talented chefs, thoughtful themes, and over a hundred hungry people. The location has hopped from a deconsecrated chapel to a bird sanctuary to a state-of-the-art coastal science campus to the very foundation of Creole culture to the delectable destinations below.

• September 30: Baton Rouge Blues on the "Gold Coast" at the West Baton Rouge Museum in Port Allen, La.

• October 21: Sunset on the Bluffs in Natchez, Ms.

• November 11: Country Roads 35th Anniversary Festival at the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville.