Happy Birthday, Leah Chase

Join us this week as we celebrate the 96th birthday of a New Orleans icon, our dear friend, Leah Chase. We'll spend the hour honoring Leah's talent and achievements as the undisputed Queen of Creole Cooking.

 We begin on a special day we spent with Leah in 2012, when then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office kicked off Carnival season at Gallier Hall with king cake and a lovely surprise for Leah.

From there, we look back on Leah’s early life in Madisonville, Louisiana. Leah describes what it was like to grow up on a strawberry farm as the eldest of eleven children.

We continue with a piece from NOLA Life Stories, in which Leah recounts her first experiences working in a café in the French Quarter, as told to Mark Cave of the Historic New Orleans Collection.

Next, we arrive at a turning point in Leah’s life—the moment she met big-band leader Edgar “Dooky” Chase, Jr. Following their marriage, Leah went to work at Dooky’s, her in-laws’ simple sandwich shop in the Treme. As she began to serve Creole classics like gumbo and Chicken Clemenceau on fine linen, Leah elevated the dining culture for everyone.

We also chronicle how Leah rebuilt Dooky Chase’s after Hurricane Katrina. Eleven years after the storm, Leah experienced two other monumental life events—the first was her 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the James Beard Foundation. Months later, Leah’s husband and partner Edgar “Dooky” Chase—the man who played a key role in her success--passed away at the age of 88. In this final segment, Leah reflects on their relationship and her hopes for the future.