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It’s just days before Thanksgiving in New Orleans, Tory, a native of the State of Washington, arrived in 1 Year-round New Orleans and instead of heading to the , Tory New Orleans as a 19-year-old kitchen hand, drawn to RED BEANS AND markets sell Creole . McPhail takes to his private library. America’s 46th-largest city by Mardi Gras, jazz and the all- IMAGE: 123RF.COM The 43-year-old is Executive Chef of Commander’s pervasive urge to Creole . With the exception RICE – A MONDAY 2 Gumbo, a key of Palace, one of the city’s oldest set in an of a few years at top restaurants overseas, the culinary TRADITION Creole cuisine. unmistakable, turquoise-coloured Victorian mansion science graduate has been in ‘Crescent City’ ever since. IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK. THE COM within the leafy Garden District. “I come back to these antique time and time In her book New Orleans, A Food Biography, author 3 Going to the library to dust off an antique again,” he says. “For me, it’s important to capture the Liz Williams says that red beans and rice is a dish Gingernut beignet, Commander’s Palace. that forms one of the mainstays of the Creole canon, is part ritual, part inspiration for the multiple-award- intent of the early home cooks – to get the feeling of the IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON winning chef. It’s his way of coming up with new dishes they made. originating from the African tradition of beans or peas 4 KINGS OF dishes for an ever-evolving fine-dining and a “I look at the ingredients. I see how they prepared a and rice. “Here in New Orleans, red beans and rice is Turtle soup and shrimp, Arnaud’s Remoulade Café. discerning clientele. dish. I’ll still blow the apart and make something still eaten on Mondays – the traditional wash day. In IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON This morning he lifts two old favourites down from modern. But my goal is to create something new from the old days, the person attending the washtub and 5 French Quarter, New the bookshelf. They are The Compendium of Cookery and something much loved and familiar from the past.” heating hot water all day was expected to tend a pot Orleans. Reliable Recipes published in 1890 and the intriguing- In the culinary vernacular of the US, Creole cuisine of red beans too. Today, all over the city – in schools, IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK. CREOLE sounding How to Cook a Wolf, a collector’s item first means dishes such as gumbo, red beans and rice, turtle homes and restaurants – you’ll find the first day of COM the week often starts with red beans and rice.” published in 1942. soup, po’ boy, shrimp remoulade and the delicious icing- 6 Commander’s Palace, The fabric cover of the former almost comes away sugar-coated pastry, the beignet. Garden District. WORDS: JACQUI GIBSON in Tory’s hand: its spine broken, the book’s leaves are In truth, it’s the only authentic cuisine developed in IMAGE: 123RF.COM

loosely attached to the cover by a few worn threads. the US – a culinary taonga of sorts that’s taken three 7 Tujague’s , Even so, after all those years and all that handling, centuries to evolve. And while it is rooted in French ambivalent about their unique food culture. It’s a cuisine French Quarter. Hurricane Katrina posed the greatest threat Tory believes a book like this still has plenty to say , Creole cuisine combines ingredients and that’s evolved and lasted because everyone in New IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON about America’s culinary traditions and Creole cuisine, methods from the Spanish, African and West Indian Orleans, regardless of class, religion or race, eats it. It’s a 8 Oysters on the half shell ever faced by New Orleans’ culinary scene. the unique food of New Orleans. slaves, plus the Native Americans and the city’s Italian, truly shared experience, she says. are a popular bar . He explains: “Coming here, I quickly worked out German and Irish immigrants. “To call us food obsessed is an understatement. In IMAGE: 123RF.COM But determined foodies are ensuring that the that I needed to understand the philosophy of the food. Poppy Tooker, New Orleans food writer, cook, this city, everything revolves around food – our food. 9 Red jambalaya is a classic Big Easy’s distinctive food heritage is preserved I had to respect it and pay it homage before I could broadcaster and food advocate, says that New Orleans’ We’re different from all other US cities in this respect of New Orleans cookery. reinterpret it and create something new.” cuisine wouldn’t exist today if her fellow citizens were and it’s always been this way.” IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

48 Autumn 2018 Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Autumn 2018 49 INTERNATIONAL 3 MAKE YOUR Despite all this, says Poppy, New Orleans faces the (visit natfab.org/southern-food-and-beverage for same pressures on its food traditions as anywhere more information). OWN RED else. Fewer people are cooking at home and the Poppy stepped up to champion the comeback of BEANS AND convenience of fast and highly processed makes lost Creole dishes such as Creole cream cheese (a RICE those foods a common choice. People’s tastes are dish lost because of the commercialisation of farming, changing, particularly when it comes to dining out. not the hurricane). And she redoubled her efforts to Ingredients Younger people want less formality; they want to book document the city’s food heritage, writing award- online; and they want a changing menu. winning books such as Tujague’s Cookbook: Creole • 450 grams dried red beans The biggest threat to the city’s food heritage in Recipes and Lore in the New Orleans Grand Tradition, (red kidney beans, preferably Camellia brand) recent years, however, arrived out of the Gulf of published in 2015. in August 2005: Hurricane Katrina, the She explains: “I think Katrina reminded us of what • 3 tablespoons oil (can devastating storm that put 80 percent of the city we had to lose. We came face to face with the reality be bacon fat or butter or other oil) 2 under water. and it motivated many of us to do something about it.” And while low-lying regions of the city, such as the Mark Latter, fourth-generation owner of Tujague’s, • 2 onions, diced Lower Ninth Ward, were hardest hit, the Category 3 says he’ll be forever grateful to Poppy for the role she • 3 stalks celery (including storm severely damaged many heritage buildings in played in helping the restaurant to capture its history leaves), diced the French Quarter. and move past the devastation of the storm. • 1 seeded green capsicum, At Antoine’s, the storm destroyed the dining “She was able to take the time, do the research and diced room ceiling, collapsed walls and floors and cost the get the stories and recipes down on paper,” says Mark. • Bunch flat-leaf parsley, owners US$16 million in repairs. Chief Executive “To me, the history of our food is the history of our city. chopped Rick Blount reportedly contemplated tearing down It’s our identity. And it’s something we want to hold on • 3 bay leaves the 175-year-old building. to as we modernise and head into the future.” • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme or a Commander’s Palace, open continuously since it was New Zealand food historian André Taber says teaspoon of dried thyme founded in 1893, was forced to stop trading and close there’s undoubtedly a lesson in the New Orleans’ • 450–900 grams sliced smoked for 13 months of renovations. experience for New Zealand. sausage or ham hocks or a Looking back, chef Tory says: “I can’t begin to “Overall,” says André, “I’d say their passion for food, combination of the two tell you how emotional it was during that first week cooking and is pretty outstanding. And they’ve • 10 cups chicken stock or water of opening. Our customers, so many regulars, were done an impressive job of documenting their food 1 4 5 • 1 teaspoon cayenne, more or delighted to be back. I remember being on the front ways to ensure they’re passed on to future generations. less to taste door, embracing people, people breaking down “See, no one has ever done a proper survey here • Salt and pepper to taste [while] talking about their stories of the storm. And in New Zealand. So we’ve no real idea of how we’re then we sat down and ate together. It was a very eating today, compared with 30 or 40 or 100 years ago. • 4 cups cooked white rice “Katrina reminded us of what we had to lose. We came face to face with moving experience.” “The question is, do New Zealanders care and is • ¼ cup chopped spring onions As well as destroying built heritage, Katrina there any food culture here to document in the first for . the reality and it motivated many of us to do something about it” washed away centuries-old – precious place? In my research, I’ve found very little evidence keepsakes handed down through generations – and of a unique Kiwi cuisine or a shared identity expressed Method caused a mass exodus of dispossessed cooks, waiting through food. Allow the beans to soak in water If history is anything to go by, Poppy is right. 1 Chef Tory McPhail of staff and food producers. The upshot was a heritage “Definitely in Māori cookery there are some overnight. Heat the preferred fat Just four years after the French colonised New Orleans Commander’s Palace. food scene near collapse. authentic dishes. And if I had to settle on a single in a large pot. Add the onions, in 1718, the city opened its first cooking school. IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON Liz Williams, author of New Orleans, A Food food that does, in some way, tie us together as a celery and capsicum and allow By 1791 New Orleans’ first open-air farmers’ market, 2 The corridor of Antoine’s Biography, and founder of the city’s Southern Food and nation, I would probably pick kumara. It’s the one to sauté at medium heat for French Market, was in full swing. Restaurant, the city’s Beverage Museum, says people realised what was at native ingredient that’s appreciated by the Pākehā about five minutes, stirring to Antoine’s, the city’s first restaurant, followed in 1840, oldest fine-dining stake and rallied. mainstream and Māori, as well as newcomers from distribute the vegetables. Add restaurant. the parsley, bay leaves, thyme with many more eateries hot on its heels – the likes of IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON “Restaurants slowly rebuilt and began looking at Asia and South America.” Commander’s Palace, Arnaud’s and Tujague’s. ways to modernise their and broaden their The idea that food can unite people and express and ham bone. Stir. Add the 3 The city was also quick to commit the ingredients and Arnaud’s main dining clientele to recoup costs and guarantee their long-term a shared identity is one that appeals enormously to meat and brown it. Add the room. liquid and the beans. Heat to a methods of its emerging cuisine to the page, publishing IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON survival,” she says. chef Tory. cookbooks such as The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book People returned to the city to live and work. A “For us, at Commander’s, we have customers – boil and simmer for two hours. 4 The streets of New With a large spoon, mash in 1901, which detailed more than 800 Creole recipes Orleans, America’s long-standing recipe-sharing column in the local born-and-bred locals – who’ve been coming here about a quarter of the beans gathered from home cooks throughout the city. 46th-largest city. paper, The Times-Picayne, became a place where home for a very long time. These days it’s impossible to tally the many cultural IMAGE: 123RF.COM cooks could go to find lost recipes and was eventually “They’re part of the Commander’s family and we’re against the side of the pot. Stir this creamy part of the beans references to New Orleans’ distinct cuisine – from odes 5 Arnaud’s Mardi Gras published as a book. part of theirs. When they come here, they’re excited back into the liquid. Stir in the like Elvis Presley’s 1958 classic Crawfish (from the movie museum. New oral histories, films, podcasts and books on to try something new, but they want to be reminded King Creole) to the innumerable cooking shows of recent IMAGE: JACQUI GIBSON the food of New Orleans were commissioned by of that time they came here with Grandma and what cayenne and salt and pepper. Cook for another 30 minutes. times explaining how to whip up the perfect roux for 6 Poppy Tooker, New organisations such as the Southern Foodways Alliance. they ate together. your seafood gumbo. Orleans food writer, cook, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum “Or they want to come here and try a new take on a Remove from the heat. Discard At Tujague’s, a 160-year-old restaurant in the French broadcaster and food opened its doors in 2008 as “a non-profit living favourite dish their Grandma used to make. It’s about the bay leaves. Serve over rice Quarter, they still serve the very same beef brisket and advocate. history organization dedicated to the discovery, making food memories together. That’s New Orleans and garnish with spring onions. IMAGE: SUPPLIED horseradish that tantalised diners’ tastebuds back in understanding and celebration of the food, to me. It’s a city where the people and the food are New Orleans, A Food Biography 1856 when their doors opened for the first time. 6 and the related culture of the South” intertwined. They’re part of the same story.” by Elizabeth M Williams.

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