The Chase And Brennan Family Legacies

Host Poppy Tooker with Edgar Dooky Chase IV

Image by: Reggie Morris Louisiana Eats.

It is an undisputed fact that Louisiana grows some of the best restaurant talent in the nation. On this week's show, we sit down with the best and the brightest of Louisiana's legacy restaurant families. We begin with the next generation running Dooky Chase's Restaurant in New Orleans.

Since the death of Leah Chase in 2019, the crew she always referred to as "the grands" have stepped up to nurture and grow the legacy Leah established with her husband, the late Edgar "Dooky" Chase Jr. We speak with her grandchildren Tracie Haydel Griffin, who runs the front of the house; bar manager Eve Marie Haydel; and Edgar "Dooky" Chase IV, who oversees the restaurant's kitchen. Also joining us is Dooky Chase's newest chef, Leah's great-granddaughter Zoe Chase.

The whole nation is about to meet the grands (and great-grands) when their new PBS series, The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy debuts in the spring of 2023.

And if you live in the Crescent City – you may know a Brennan of your own. The restaurant dynasty that began with patriarch Owen Brennan in 1943 has grown to include a fourth generation. We sit down with Ralph Brennan's kids Kathryn Brennan McLeod and her brother Patrick, Dickie Brennan's daughter Sarah and his nephew (Lauren Brennan's son) Geordie Brower, and the cousin who is guaranteed to spice things up, president of Baumer Foods, Inc., Pepper Baumer.

This crew of cousins behaves much more like siblings. They are all very close in age, share much of the same interests, and are now raising a fifth generation – with Sarah, Geordie, and Pepper all adding to that growing number in the last year.