Season 2, Episode 5: "Well Read" : Hitachi

In this season's "Well-Read" special episode—in which contributors and local personalities read some of our favorite stories from recent issues—Managing Editor Jordan LaHaye Fontenot reads aloud her story on Hitachi rice cookers from our July 2023 Cuisine issue. In the article, which has been shared far and wide across social media by Louisiana residents who have memories of the rice cooker, she explores the history of the Japanese appliance's rise to prominence in the rural towns of Acadiana. 

Reading List

Here, find articles and videos that we either mentioned in the episode, or that we think might enrich and/or further the conversations we had. 

Hitachi: How the rice cooker became a staple of Acadiana food culture

Read the original piece, published in our July 2023 Cuisine issue. 

The Kitchen Culture of Evangeline : Understanding the complicated culinary landscape of the Smoked Meat Capital  

Read more about the idiosyncrasies of Evangeline Parish food culture, here. 

Meet Your Co-Hosts 

James Fox-Smith is the Publisher of Country Roads magazine, and has been on the masthead since 1995 when he followed a Louisiana girl (Country Roads' Associate Publisher Ashley Fox-Smith) to her hometown of St. Francisville to take over her mother's magazine. The past two decades have made this Aussie into a true Louisianan, as passionate and knowledgable about the intricacies of this region's culture as any bayou-born Cajun. Overseeing the company for much of its forty-year history, he's worn almost every hat the magazine has to offer, from sales to editorial to marketing—and writes a monthly publisher's column, titled "Reflections" which you can peruse, here. You also might catch him hosting the Louisiana Public Broadcasting's weekly series Art Rocks!—which spotlights artists, performance, culture, literature, history and the impact of art in our world.

Jordan LaHaye Fontenot is the Managing Editor of Country Roads magazine, and has been a part of the editorial team since 2018. Born and raised in the heart of Acadiana, she came to Country Roads with a passion for Louisiana storytelling. She holds a degree in English from Louisiana State University, where she received the 2018 Sarah Sue Goldsmith Award for Nonfiction. In addition to her work at Country Roads, she has published stories in regional and international publications including inRegister, Atlas Obscura, and the Oxford American. Her first book Home of the Happy: A murder on the Cajun Prairie, will be  published by Mariner Books in 2025.  

Alexandra Kennon is the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Country Roads since 2020, and has been writing and photographing stories about Southern culture, cuisine, history, and art for the magazine since 2016. She holds degrees in Journalism and Theatre Arts from Loyola University New Orleans, where she was Managing Editor of Pacemaker-winning university newspaper The Maroon, and could typically be found flitting between the newsroom and black box theatre. She has acted in productions ranging from independent festival films to Tennessee Williams world-premiere stage productions, and previously led historical, culinary, and cultural tours of New Orleans. Her book Classic Restaurants of New Orleans, published by Arcadia/The History Press with a foreword by Walter Isaacson, is available most places one finds books.