The Dooky Chase Cookbook

"While reading the cookbook, I could not only 'hear' Leah talking to me about her food, heritage and family, but I could smell and taste the flavor from the great recipes and the great food that has made Dooky Chase's my favorite restaurant." -Joe Cahn, executive director, New Orleans School of Cooking "I can't mention my favorite books without adding this cookbook to the list. The Queen of Creole Cuisine still has the spirit of a woman who has run of the kitchen at New Orleans' Dooky Chase for over fifty years. I love Leah and her cookbook is a keeper." -Marcus Samuelsson, chef, author, and restaurateur From the inception of Dooky Chase's Restaurant in 1941, the establishment has functioned as a gathering place for the black political community of New Orleans, with the incomparable Leah Chase at the center of it all. As life for blacks gradually began to change, the restaurant became a hub of political activity during the Civil Rights movement of the '60s. Chase attributes the initial popularity of the new Dooky Chase to a change in her gumbo recipe, insisting, "It wasn't until I changed the whole menu to Creole that I really got acceptance from everybody." She originally tried to gain patrons by serving dishes such as jambalaya, fried chicken, shrimp, and oysters-foods that blacks wouldn't normally eat at home-but eventually changed the entire menu. Inventive as well as traditional Creole dishes are the mainstay of Chase's repertoire. B.L.T. Soup, Bushalini, Stewed Tripe with Pigs' Feet, Grillades, Squirrel Pie, Low-Sodium Creole Red Kidney Beans, Stuffed Onions, and Old-Fashioned Bread Pudding have all graced the tables of Dooky Chase.

"Outstanding biography . . . If you never read it, you should. It's an amazing story." --Louisiana Cookin' Leah Lange Chase was raised in a small, country town across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. With the values instilled in her by devoted parents--hard work, faith, and family--she soon grew into a woman to be reckoned with. In her roles as chef of the most popular Creole restaurant in New Orleans, nationally respected patron of the arts, and civic leader, she has influenced the world around her in important ways. Reading her story makes one think, "If she can do it, maybe I can too." After rejecting the usual occupations for respectable Creole girls to work in a restaurant in the French Quarter, Leah married Edgar "Dooky" Chase II and began running the kitchen for her mother-in-law. After her mother-in-law's death, Leah nurtured the former po' boy shop and numbers business into a world-class restaurant. Dooky Chase's was one of a handful of restaurants in the country where African Americans could sit down to a nice meal in well-appointed surroundings. The restaurant was and still is frequented by prominent African American actors, athletes, artists, writers, and musicians. It has also always been a gathering place for local politicians and activists. Leah Chase has become a living legend for popularizing Creole cuisine, for her political activism, for her tireless work for numerous organizations, and for her extensive art collection. Through it all, she raised four children and survived the sudden loss of the daughter with whom she worked closely and a bombing during the Civil Rights era. What has borne her through it all is perhaps the most compelling aspect of this amazing woman: her faith and her family.

Gathers winter recipes for soups, salads, meat, poultry, seafood, vegetables, breads, and desserts

Hundreds of enticing recipes: soups and gumbos, seafoods, meats, rice dishes and jambalayas, cakes and pastries, fruit drinks, French breads, many other delectable dishes. Explanations of traditional French manner of preparations.

"An outstanding cornucopia of enthusiastically recommended home-style recipes offering a very special touch of taste-tested, appetite-satisfying charm." -Midwest Book Review "Anyone wanting to try Creole cooking must get this book. It's just one interesting dish after another."-Lebanon (MO) Daily Record "Delight in the recipes and 50 years of reflections from Leah Chase and her New Orleans restaurant, Dooky Chase, a benchmark for Creole cooking." -Desert Leaf magazine This second cookbook from Leah Chase - now in paperback - contains reflections on life, business, family, and friends, with the recipes that bring them all together. There are special menus from organizations that have gathered at the Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans for years, "off the menu" specials prepared for customers with special needs or a craving for something different, and a number of classic Creole and gourmet recipes, with every recipe guaranteed to warm the heart and nourish the soul. Recipes include her famous Gumbo z'Herbs and Shrimp Clemenceau; new recipes, like the delicious Veggie Jambalaya and Rice Pancakes with Ham and Tomato-Basil Sauce; and old favorites, like Oxtail Stew and Sweet Potato Soup.

Down homeÓ recipes show how we can enjoy foods that are lower in fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, & sodium; higher in fiber; & promote good health. Gorgeous color photos. Publications list.

One of New Orleans’s brightest culinary stars, Susan Spicer has been indulging Crescent City diners at her highly acclaimed restaurants, Bayona and Herbsaint, for years. Now, in her long-awaited cookbook, Spicer—an expert at knocking cuisine off its pedestal with a healthy dash of hot sauce, and at elevating comfort food to the level of the sublime—brings her signature dishes to the home cook’s table. Crescent City Cooking includes all the recipes that have made Susan Spicer, and her restaurants, famous. Spicer marries traditional Southern cooking with culinary influences from around the world, and the result is New Orleans cooking with gusto and flair. Each of her familiar yet unique recipes is easy to make and wonderfully memorable. Inside you’ll find : • More than 170 recipes, ranging from traditional New Orleans dishes (Cornmeal-Crusted Crayfish Pies and Cajun-Spiced Pecans) to Susan’s very own twists on down-home cuisine (Smoked Duck Hash in Puff Pastry with Apple Cider Sauce; Grilled Shrimp with Black Bean Cakes and Coriander Sauce) and, of course, a recipe for the best gumbo you’ve ever tasted • Over 90 photographs by Times-Picayune photographer Chris Granger, which display the vibrant city of New Orleans as much as Spicer’s wonderfully offbeat yet classy way of presenting her dishes • Instructions that make Spicer’s down-to-earth but extraordinarily creative recipes easy to prepare. Spicer, who cooks for two picky preteens and packs lunch every day for her husband, knows how precious time can be and understands just how much is enough There is something else of New Orleans—its spirit—that imbues this book’s every useful tip and anecdote. The strong culinary traditions of New Orleans are revived in Crescent City Cooking, with recipes that are guaranteed to comfort and surprise. This is some of the best food you’ll ever taste, in what is certain to become the essential New Orleans cookbook.

A modern instructional with 120 recipes for classic New Orleans cooking, from James Beard Award-winning chef and restaurateur Justin Devillier. IACP AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW With its uniquely multicultural, multigenerational, and unapologetically obsessive food culture, New Orleans has always ranked among the world's favorite cities for people who love to eat and cook. But classic New Orleans cooking is neither easily learned nor mastered. More than thirty years ago, beloved Paul Prudhomme taught the ways of Crescent City cooking but, even in tradition-steeped New Orleans, classic recipes have evolved and fans of what is arguably the most popular regional cuisine in America are ready for an updated approach. With step-by-step photos and straightforward instructions, James Beard Award-winner Justin Devillier details the fundamentals of the New Orleans cooking canon—from proper roux-making to time-honored recipes, such as Duck and Andouille Gumbo and the more casual Abita Root Beer-Braised Short Ribs. Locals, Southerners, and food tourists alike will relish Devillier's modern-day approach to classic New Orleans cooking.

Before there were celebrity gourmands, Creole Feast brought together the stories and knowledge of New Orleans top chefs when it was first presented in 1978. These masters of modern Creole cuisine share the recipes, tips, and tricks from the kitchens of New Orleans' most famous restaurants, including Dooky Chase, Commander's Palace, Broussard's, and Galatoire's. Today, Creole Feast still stands as the most comprehensive collection of Creole recipes assembled in one volume. The recipes include classic dishes synonymous with New Orleans, such as gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice, and also luxurious Creole dishes like Lobster Armorican and Oysters Bienville, plus tempting desserts like Creole bread pudding with whiskey sauce and the famous old Hotel Pontchantrain's Mile High Pie. With this classic now back in print, home cooks will turn their kitchens into some of New Orleans premiere restaurants, helped along by fifteen master chefs.