Historically, when people consider the roots of classic Creole food, the French are given most of the credit. But lately there has been increasing focus on the African hand that stirred those pots. New Orleans has been blessed in recent years with an influx of young African chefs and restaurateurs who have been busy shedding new light on where our food really came from. On this week's show, we honor those ancestors with the help of New Orleans’ new African culinary guard.
Read MoreOn this week’s episode, we sit down with Loyola University history professor Justin Nystrom to explore the influence that Sicilian Americans have had on New Orleans foodways. Surprisingly, that influence didn’tbegin with the heavy influx of Sicilians who populated the city in great numbers during the late 1880’s. Those rural Sicilians made their mark on the French Market and created the sandwich we know as the muffalatta. Actually, the first wave of Italian immigrants were urban dwellers who arrived on our shores in the 1830’s and became wealthy importers and restaurateurs. Who knew that Commander’s Palace was actually founded by the son of an immigrant from Ustica whose father had Americanized his surname from Camarda to Commander? Or that those same Ustican immigrants were important members of the Southern Yacht Club – taking their leisure racing sloops on Lake Pontchartrain? Not exactly the image you might have in your mind of our Sicilian immigrants.
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