Louisiana Eats

Nick Asprodites didn’t originally intend to open one restaurant much less two. When he spotted an empty Lakeshore Drive lot for sale, his first thought was to build a fuel dock there, but once he ran the numbers, he realized he’d need the support of a food and beverage operation to make it viable. When the Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar opened in 2013, Nick revived the tradition of lakefront...

In August 1971, a food revolution was quietly launched in California with the opening of a small Berkeley bistro called Chez Panisse. At a time when pre-packaged fast food was all the rage in the U.S., Chez Panisse created dishes using locally sourced meats and farm-to-table produce. The fabled restaurant became an incubator for the Slow Food movement and sparked a change in attitudes toward food...

The life of a chef is often regarded as glamorous and exciting, but in reality, it’s a hard life – exemplified by long hours and frequent financial challenges. For many, it’s the only life imaginable. Nathanial Zimet, the ambitious chef behind Boucherie and Bourrée in New Orleans, falls directly into that category. Drawn to the restaurant business at the age of 15, the North Carolina native soon l...

On this week's show, we’re joined by seasoned spice experts who want to shake up the way you think about spices. We begin with Linda Shiue, a doctor and chef who guides her patients to cook healthier meals by harnessing the power of spices. Linda was just starting to spread the word about spices when we first met her in 2016. Now she's back in our studio on the heels of publishing her new book, Sp...

There’s a lot more to a successful wine business than just growing grapes! Monica Bourgeois and Neal Gernon are experts on that topic. The two wine lovers met while working in the New Orleans hospitality industry. They gained retail experience managing bottle shops before transitioning to wholesale wine distribution, making great California vineyard friends along the way. Together, Monica and Neal...

New Orleans is well known for its legacy restaurant families. And now, just across the Mississippi River in Gretna, the Mandina clan is poised to claim its own place in our culinary pantheon. On this week's show, we meet three generations of family who have made Tony Mandina’s a Westbank culinary institution. We begin with the restaurant’s namesake founder and his wife Grace Blanchard Mandina. Hav...

You can’t always get what you want. That’s been especially true during these unpredictable times. Now more than ever, there’s something comforting about the familiar – like a restaurant where you can order exactly what you want off the menu and are greeted with a smile whenever you walk through the door. That’s the experience of anyone who walks into Liz’s Where Y’at Diner – one of the happiest pl...

The summer of 2022 is looking like a perfect time for a vacation. After enduring a lot of stay-at-home time over the last two years, there's plenty to explore in one of America's favorite playgrounds – New Orleans. On this week's show, we learn about Vue Orleans – the 20 million dollar multimedia experience that opened earlier this year at the foot of Canal Street. Then we travel to Egypt with the...

How does a recipe become a retail offering? On this week's show, we track the path of great dishes and drinks from restaurant to retail. We begin with the Bayou State's spiciest new business, Louisiana Pepper Exchange. Founder and CEO Chris White tells the story of how a particular engineering feat of his led him to launch the new company. Then, we visit with research and development chef Ross Rob...

It’s Week Two of the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and after a two-year hiatus, that’s something to celebrate! On this week's show, Louisiana Eats is back at the track with more stories of the food, fun, and feasting that's been going on there for half a century. We begin with Louis Broussard, master electrician at Jazz Fest, who has been hanging around the grounds since childhood w...

It's been a long time since May 5, 2019 – when the high temperature that beautiful sunny Sunday barely hit 72 degrees at the New Orleans Fairgrounds and Jazz Fest 2019 called it a wrap. The following year, the festival went silent, one of the earliest high-profile events forced to cancel due to the unfolding global pandemic. Plans for a 2021 edition of the fest were also scrapped. With the festiva...

Between the levee and the Mississippi River is the batture – a lively slip of wilderness that a tiny community calls home. There's batture land right here in the midst of metropolitan New Orleans – but unless you're lucky enough to know a batture dweller, there's a good chance you weren't aware of one of the city’s most unconventional neighborhoods. That was certainly true of Macon Fry when he arr...

Since 1960 the Rouses family has specialized in making customers feel right at home when shopping in their stores - which now number 64 groceries stretching across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. One of the ways Rouses ensures that feeling of home is through their employees. There are few better examples of that than Marc Ardoin, manager of the Rouses Market on Freret Street. Marc has been wit...

What do Antoine’s in New Orleans, Sylvia’s in Harlem, The Mandarin in San Francisco, and the once powerful chain of Howard Johnson’s restaurants all have in common? According to Yale professor Paul Freedman, they are all part of an influential group of Ten Restaurants That Changed America. On this week’s show, we sit down with Paul to discuss his book by that name, which weaves together culinary a...

Just across the causeway in the sleepy little town of Covington lies a landmark hotel, The Southern Hotel. Originally built in 1905 the mission-style hotel has lived many lives over the years. Opened in 1907 the hotel boasted hot water electric lights AND carpeting. In 1912 it was bought by a physician and used for a while as a sanitarium/resort treating people with respiratory illnesses. Shuttere...

Spring is in bloom in the Bayou State, which means festivals, outdoor gatherings and, of course, Easter! If you grew up in the Gulf South, there's a good chance your Easter basket was filled with treats from Elmer Chocolate – our state's very own heritage candy company. On this week’s show, we hop over to Ponchatoula to tour the factory where Elmer’s prized Gold Bricks, Heavenly Hash, and Pecan Eg...

The beignet. That simple square of fried dough is undeniably one of the Crescent City’s most famous foods. Few visitors leave town without a ceremonial dusting of powdered sugar that occurs with every beignet bite. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the ubiquitous donut has been sold from French Market stands accompanied by steaming hot cups of café au lait. Twenty-first century chefs and restaurat...

On this week's show, we explore backyards, balconies, and rooftops where folks are cultivating their own food. We begin with Big Okra. That’s the name that gardener Jack Sweeney has given to his over 15-foot okra plant towering over his New Orleans backyard. We visit Jack and the Okra Stalk on site – but what made it grow so tall? Was it the seeds that spawned this Guinness World Records-worthy pl...

In today's fast-paced world, where virtually every recipe can be conjured up by doing a quick search online, do cookbooks really matter? After hearing this week's show, we think you'll join us in a resounding yes. Cookbooks teach us techniques and introduce us to new ingredients and cultures. They expand our palates and remind us of old-fashioned ways of doing things – ways that can evoke memories...

Down here in Louisiana we love any excuse for a party. Our very Catholic culture dictates that Ash Wednesday is supposed to usher in 40 days of fasting and abstaining, but thanks to a few saints whose feast days fall during that Lenten period, our party just continues. First comes St. Patrick’s Day, when everyone's Irish for the day. Then, just two days later, on St. Joseph’s Day, it's the Italian...

The old adage is that a woman's place is in the kitchen. Despite that well-worn saying, it wasn't until the second half of the 20th century that women began finding their place in the restaurant kitchen. For this week's show, we gather together a powerful group of females who are breaking barriers and setting new standards for excellence in their fields. We begin with Nina Compton of Compére Lapin...

John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces is internationally revered for having captured the essence and eccentricity of New Orleans — and for introducing readers to its larger-than-life protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly. On this week's show, we take a culinary look between the pages of the book that was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981. We begin with Spud McConne...

Mardi Gras 2022 may just be the year of the king cake – at least on Louisiana Eats it is! A few weeks back, we devoted an entire episode to the topic. This week, we're back for seconds! We begin with Patrick Bordnick. Like Pavlov’s dog before them, Patrick's three canine companions have been conditioned to salivate whenever they encounter king cake. Nearly every day from Twelfth Night to Mardi Gra...

Racism in many forms has played an outsized and unfortunate role in Louisiana history. But throughout that history there have been strong, brave leaders who have worked to right the wrongs of the past. On this week's show we introduce you to pioneers past and present who have made a difference. We begin with the newest crusader, Touré Folkes of Turning Tables. Touré is working tirelessly to bring...

There’s a lot brewing in Louisiana today. On this week’s show, meet the innovators, the brewers, and the mixologists who are making that magic happen. We begin with the newest – Wetlands Sake. That favorite drink of Japan is now being made right here in our state using Louisiana rice. Founders Nan Wallis and Lindsey Beard give us a tour of the first sake brewery in the Bayou State. Then we meet PJ...