|
A Bite of the Big EasyBy Carole Kotkin
It’s a regional cuisine with quite a history. Founded in 1719 as the commercial hub for the Mississippi River, New Orleans became a center of fine cooking. The Creoles and the Cajuns, two ethnic groups with separate heritages, dominate Southern Louisiana cooking.
The lineage of Cajuns is easier to trace. When the British assumed control of Canada, the Acadians refused to speak English or renounce Catholicism. As a result, in 1755, the English began driving them out of Nova Scotia. The Acadian castaways wandered the continent and a large contingent eventually reached southern Louisiana, where they settled in the swampy bayous west of New Orleans. This was a paradise compared to cold and rocky Nova Scotia. Here they could plant gardens, hunt for wild game and develop their own cuisine. The Cajuns survived on what they could grow, catch, or trap. The Choctaws taught the French settlers how to use ground sassafras leaves (file) for flavor and thickening in gumbo, how to make hominy grits, and how best to use the abundant wild game and shellfish. The Cajuns applied country French techniques to the preparation. German settlers had a great impact on Cajun cuisine, particularly with their emphasis on pork and andouille, a garlicky smoked sausage, that became important ingredients. Cajun cooks never wasted any part of the pig, turning out cracklings from the skin, head-cheese, blood sausage, white sausage, tasso ham, and backbone stew. Many of the peppers that give Cajun cooking its kick are grown on the marshy islands southwest of New Orleans. Compared to the elaborate presentations and multiple courses of Creole dining, a Cajun meal is a simple affair. New Orleans is situated in a rich breeding ground of crawfish, shrimp and blue crabs. There is an abundance of oysters and speckled trout. Produce grows prolifically, whether it’s the indigenous okra or fiery peppers from nearby Avery Island. Seafood, produce, pork and rice are vital to both cuisines. You can still experience of the pomp of New Orleans’s legendary restaurants like Brennan’s, Antoine’s, or Commander’s Palace, but for the past quarter-century, young New Orleans chefs have been doing for Creole cooking what jazz musicians have done with their music: Improvise on the essentials of tradition.
Scott Boswell, chef owner of Stella!, another new addition to the New Orleans dining scene, offers a menu that reflects his interest in many world cuisines. Before opening Stella!, Boswell honed his skills in France and Italy. A starter of cornmeal crusted Louisiana oysters with horseradish new potato salad is followed by butter-poached Maine lobster with crisp lobster claws, lobster whipped potatoes and dill-sauternes butter. Indian influences surface in an entrée of tandori-spiced Atlantic salmon with coconut-shrimp, basmati fried rice and spicy mango cashew butter. Stella!’s two dining rooms, like those in a comfortable European country house, belie the sophisticated food served here. Where to Stay:
Where to Eat:
Stella!, 1032 Charles St, 504-587-0092. The consummate New Orleans breakfast is a cup of strong local coffee, blended with chicory, and beignets, which are deep-fried pillow-shaped hot pastries, covered in powdered sugar. You’ll find the best at Café Du Monde, a 24-hour coffee shop near Jackson Square. |
|
TM
New
Orleans is one of the world’s best restaurant cities, and you’ve got a lot
of eating to do if you want to experience it all. The Big Easy is the
birthplace of oysters Rockefeller, shrimp remoulade, blackened redfish, eggs
Sardou and bread pudding. It was here that the French, American Indian,
Italian, Spanish, German and African American palates came together and
formed the basis for Cajun and Creole cooking, believed by many to be
America’s greatest regional cuisine and the only indigenous American
cuisine.
Creole
is a general term for people of mixed heritage, usually including French,
Spanish, and African. The name Cajun came from the French farmers and
fishermen who settled Acadia in Nova Scotia more than 200 years ago. The
British ousted them in 1755. Eventually they found acceptance in Louisiana,
where they were referred to a “Acadians” and later as “Cagians”. Over the
years, the distinction between the two cultures has become blurred, and
restaurants around the country often use Creole and Cajun interchangeably.
Creole is the cuisine of the aristocracy, Cajun the cuisine of the working
class. 
Creole
is historically the cuisine of New Orleans and has its roots in elegant
French cooking with an emphasis on rich, complex sauces. The cuisine
combines those elements with native produce, influences from the early
Choctaw Indians, Caribbean, Spanish and African culture. In the second half
of the eighteenth century, the territory came under Spanish rule, and a wave
of colonists added spice to the regional cuisine, as they adapted such
Spanish specialties as paella—a rice dish made with meats, seafood and
vegetables—into flavorful jambalaya. The Spaniards called the early French
settlers “criollo,” from which the French derived Creole. The word has come
to describe both the food and the people. The Spanish colonists along with a
second wave of French settlers encouraged the sophistication that separates
Creole cooking from Cajun in the late eighteenth century. The Europeans
brought with them classically trained chefs who further refined the dishes
of the Creole kitchen. Others preferred the cooking skills of their black
Creole cooks. The European style of dining with aperitifs, several courses,
and plenty of wine was firmly established in the grand mansions of New
Orleans during that time. Later groups of immigrants would further expand
Creole cooking: Italians added the Muffaletta, a sandwich made with green
olives, ham, salami, and provolone cheese. German immigrants introduced new
types of sausage, while West Indians added chayote, sugar cane, and bananas.
Louisiana had a plantation-based economy, with blacks working the cotton and
rice fields before and after the Civil War. Black women ran almost every
plantation kitchen and black men worked in most professional ones. The black
chefs nurtured the Creole tradition, shaping and defining it as they went
along. This complex, urban cuisine continues to evolve today. 
At
Restaurant August, award-winning chef, John Besh, focuses on the finest
ingredients of South Louisiana. He nestles Louisiana black fish on a bed of
fava beans spiked with crabmeat and radishes. He surrounds filet of beef
with chevre cream potatoes and piquillo peppers. In each case Besh
elevates the simple to the sublime. He never misses the prime element:
taste. The secret to Besh’s success is that the food tastes of itself. The
sleek new restaurant occupies an historic four-story Creole-French building
in the Central Business District dating back to the 1800s. Following a 3.5
million dollar restoration, Restaurant August has taken the lead among
contemporary restaurants and specialty shops in resurrecting this once
thriving commercial district. 
Loft
523, 523 Gravier St., 504-200-6523. This new, ultra-contemporary, boutique
hotel is housed in what was once an old carriage and dry-goods warehouse on
the edge of the French Quarter. The space has been converted into 18 lofts
(3 of which are penthouses) with 12-foot ceilings and architectural details
retained from the original structure. It’s walking distance to Harrah’s
Casino, the Riverwalk and the Aquarium.
Restaurant
August, 301 Tchoupitoulas, 504-299-9777.