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.
Read MoreJust across Lake Pontchartrain, in the quaint little downtown of Covington there’s a charming yellow cottage filled with English tradition and taste. That’s the English Tea Room, established in 2002 by Jan and Tim Lantrip. Guests of the establishment experience one of the finest High Teas to be found anywhere on this side of the pond! When we sat down with Jan and Tim, we knew we were in for a spot of tea – but had no idea of the wealth of knowledge about to be served up with it!
Read MoreOn Thursday, Juneteenth was designated as a federal holiday to commemorate the effective end of slavery in the United States, just days before the June 19 anniversary. This week, to mark the occasion, we revisit our 2016 trip to the Whitney Plantation, the only plantation museum in Louisiana that focuses entirely on the lives of enslaved people.
Read MoreOne of the most popular forms of literature today is the memoir. These days, folks with barely three decades under their belt are writing their memoirs, but on this week's show, we hear from four wise women who relate a lifetime of memories along with valuable lessons learned in theirs.
Read MoreOver the last several years, the dining category of breakfast and brunch have simply exploded across the nation. On this week's show, we’re looking at the popular weekend ritual in New Orleans and beyond.
Read MoreThe 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 restaurateurs have taken that simple fried dough to new heights, filling them with ingredients both savory and sweet and featuring them on menus far from home.
Read MoreIt's graduation time in Louisiana and the horizons are wide for this year's culinary students. The New Orleans Career Center is celebrating the first graduating class of their Hospitality, Restaurant, and Tourism Academy – and Louisiana Eats is joining in.
Read MoreBuilding a cookbook is a lot of work. From recipe testing to photography sessions to finalized editing – the process can be grueling. On this week's show, we hear how it gets done from beginning to end and meet some authors who fell in love with cookbooks at an early age.
Read MoreCajun Nation is a Louisiana made seasoning blend that is catching fire in the world of flavor. Created by brothers, Alfonzo and Troy Bolden who grew up on a working plantation in the 1970’s, their voyage from sharecropper’s cabin to owning and operating a successful seasoning business makes for quite an amazing tale.
Read MoreIf you've ever had a New Orleans poor boy, then you know it's all about the bread. Real New Orleans French bread is something you can't get just anywhere, or at least that's what we thought. On this week's show, we get down to the dough of it and see what's happening with bread in the Big Easy.
Read MoreIt's full-on festival time in the state that knows how to fest better than most – except once again, due to pandemic restrictions, there are no fests right now. Though with vaccines widely available, and the recent easing of Covid-19 rules, a future with safe public gatherings suddenly doesn’t seem so implausible. Inspired by WWOZ and local restaurants whipping up everything from cheesy crawfish bread to high-proof strawberry lemonade, on this week's show, we look back at some of our favorite festival experiences as we gaze hopefully into the future.
Read MoreChildren's picture books often contain stories that grown ups can benefit from too. That's certainly true of Andrea Wang's new picture book, Watercress, an autobiographical tale of a child of immigrants discovering and connecting with her heritage. With illustrations by Jason Chin, Watercress takes taste memories to new highs and lows as Andrea recalls a moment in her childhood when her family foraged for the perennial plant on the roadsides of her rural Ohio home.
Read MoreFrom beignets to poor boys, gumbo to jambalaya, and crawfish to boudin, Louisiana’s cuisine is as eclectic as it is delectable. On this week’s show, we explore our state’s rich food culture, based on centuries of Creole and Cajun traditions.
Read MoreOne of the hidden gems of St. Tammany Parish is the Tammany Trace. Originally a well-travelled corridor for the Illinois Central Railroad, today the Trace travels 31 miles through five Northshore communities – accessible only by bike or on foot.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we meet some folks who have moved on to new adventures in their lives. We begin with Chef Steve Himelfarb and his wife Becky Retz. In the summer of 2020, they closed their beloved bakery, the Cake Café, after 13 years of business. But this isn't the first major life change for them.
Read MoreOn this week's show, we meet farmers, distillers, and plant breeders who are pioneers in their fields – and celebrate peas on earth. We begin with Ben Branson, founder of Seedlip – a distillery that produces non-alcoholic spirits using peas grown on his 300-year-old family farm in Northern England.
Read MoreHow many varieties of bitters are stocked in your bar? Once upon a time, there were only two choices – our beloved, local Peychaud bitters and Angostura – originally crafted in Angostura, Venezuela. Today, there are literally hundreds of varieties – a dizzying selection to say the least.
Read MoreOn this week’s show, we meet some individuals who are working to tackle the widespread problem of food and water waste. Laid off during the pandemic, hospitality workers Adam Orzechowski and Emily Shoemaker combined a zero-waste commitment with a fermenting obsession that resulted in a new business they aptly named Farm to Funk. Adam and Emily are now bubbling up internationally based concoctions using refuse from local farms that customers are snapping up at pop-up markets across the area.
Read MoreOne of New Orleans' greatest treasures are the legacy businesses that have kept locals wined and dined for generations. On this week's show, we learn about two institutions that share both an area code and the devotion of family required to keep a legacy going.
Read MoreLocated just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, the area widely known as Louisiana's Northshore is a mere 40-minute drive from the French Quarter. As close as the Northshore is geographically, in every other way it is a world apart. Made up of multiple small towns, each with its own identity, St. Tammany Parish is a wonder to wander – which is exactly what we’re doing on this week’s show.
Read More