Dear Friends Menus from the SOFAB Menu Project are part of the exhibit that opened this past weekend at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp Street, New Orleans. The exhibit is entitled Missing New Orleans and celebrates a book by that name recently published by the Ogden. The menus in the exhibit illustrate restaurant menus before Hurricane Katrina and, by contrast, the abbreviated menus that some restaurants have had to resort to in post-Katrina New Orleans. It is a silent, but poignant representation of destruction and resurrection. Details are available on the Ogden website. Please continue to send us menus, old and new, because they form a wonderful research tool, as well as document the events of the day.
If you haven’t visited our website recently, please take a minute to revisit us. Although it is still a work in progress, you will see that we have updated our site and added new information. We continue working to improve the site, so if you have ideas and suggestions, please let us know.
Also, please send us your holiday and New Year food stories. We would love to include those memories in future newsletters.
| Hurricane Katrina Information |  | Many people are trying to keep up with what restaurants in New Orleans are reopening. Although the New York Times has been trying to provide this service, a complete list is available on Tom Fitzmorris’ website. The site includes the Greater New Orleans area.
Meanwhile, SOFAB curator Elizabeth Pearce has begun collecting oral histories, photographs, artifacts and other information and artifacts for a multimedia exhibit called the Gulf Coast Foodways Renaissance Project.
If you have a story or photographs, or are interested in collecting oral histories, please call 1-888-926-1999 or email us at info@southernfood.org.
Forms, checklists, interview tips and other information is available on our website. Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath claimed another culinary victim. Last month we honored Chef Austin Leslie. This month we honor Clifton Lachney, 71, the longtime maitre d’ at Antoine’s Restaurant in New Orleans. Lachney was found in his home in September with his disabled son. Lachney had worked at Antoine’s for 43 years. He was a familiar face to those who entered the restaurant and part of what made the restaurant a New Orleans experience. |
| Brine, Beer and Holiday Cheer | | Although we want to talk SoFAB business, we are trying to preserve and promote New Orleans and its culinary heritage. In that vein, one of the New Orleans businesses that is part of the city's rebuilding Big EZ Food. This company produces a seasoning mix for a brine to season and keep roasted meat moist. For those who wish to create a Louisiana-flavored turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas, it provides a prepackaged seasoning mix that takes all the guesswork out of things. If you are trying to help the impacted area by buying Louisiana products, this one is out of the ordinary. Rebuilding, one beer at a time
Abita Brewing Company in Abita Springs, Louisiana has created a Fleur-de-Lis golden Restoration Ale to "help rebuild the Big Easy, one beer at a time." One dollar from every six-pack sold will go to the Disaster Recovery Foundation. Look for the beer at your local beverage store. |
| Point. Click and Shop for SOFAB Gear | | Every food lover needs a great canvas tote for all their goodies. If not, consider a coffee mug, apron, baby bib or T-shirt. You can now support SOFAB by buying some gear, and being on the cutting edge of food fashion! SOFAB has teamed up with Cafe Press to offer SOFAB merchandise via the web. It's easy -- browse, buy, and have everything mailed to you at home. All proceeds benefit the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. You can find the site at www.cafepress.com/sofab. Bookmark it, and think about doing a little shopping. |
| Cookbook Review | | By Melvin Rodrigue and Jyl Benson
This is a beautiful cookbook! The layout, the pictures, the look of this book and the way it feels in your hand make it a great addition to the collection of anyone who collects cookbooks just to read them. Somehow the pictures really evoke the sense of having the food on the table in front of you at Galatoire’s, an old line restaurant in New Orleans' French Quarter. That is a terrific bonus that comes with this book.
Of course in any cookbook the quality of the recipes is the key element of review. This book does not disappoint in this area. The recipes are well chosen for the home kitchen from Galatoire’s extensive menu. It isn’t necessary to create demi-glace on Saturday to cook the dish on Sunday. The recipes are straightforward and ease of preparation appears to be an accomplished goal. As many of the dishes can be served cold or at room temperature, they seem well selected for entertaining.
The book is a vicarious trip to Galatoire’s. The historical section of the book is glossy and somewhat self-promotional, but that can be forgiven, considering the the authors are trying to put Galatoire’s best foot forward. But insights into the shaping of the restaurant into what it has become, i.e., the reason that the restaurant developed its playful party atmosphere and reputation for a good time, won’t be found in the narrative. Perhaps it is better not to attempt to delve into this analysis. There probably isn’t an explanation that will satisfy. And many changes made in the operation of the restaurant have angered stalwart customers, including the opening of a new Galatoire’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
It would not be responsible to omit the fact that today Galatoire’s remains dark in the French Quarter in post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. The book was designed to be part of the celebration of the restaurant’s 100th year anniversary celebration. Right now it stands as a memento of that history.
Reviewed by Liz Williams, president of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Get the Galatoire's Cookbook |
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