These are the possible claimants! Santos Cruz, head bartender at the historic Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas, created the Margarita for singer Peggy (Margaret) Lee in 1948 with equal portions of blanco tequila, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice. He modeled it after the popular Sidecar for Miss Lee, who liked tequila. Peggy Lee, who performed at the Balinese Room, never disputed this story. Enrique Bastate Gutierrez created the Margarita in the early 1940s as an homage to actress Rita Hayworth, whose birth name was Margarita Carmen Dolores Cansino, born in Tijuana, Mexico. Carlos “Danny” He ..read more

By Carol Allen “Cordon Bleu has taught me a lot, but I have learned most from my grandmother.  I feel like I’m leaving school to go into another training with Leah Chase. It will be fun.” So says Edgar Chase IV (L’il Dook), sippng un express in a bistro in the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris.  Dook, as family and friends call him, was a successful accountant getting annual promotions with Entergy in New Orleans when he made a life-changing decision. He didn’t want to sit behind a desk crunching numbers; he wanted to be wielding a knife, stirring a pot, orchestrating a kitchen. And ..read more

Louisiana has two distinct coffee preferences. We drink dark roast coffee and we drink coffee with chicory.  There is some controversy as to why and when New Orleans added chicory to its coffee. It was a common practice in Europe to stretch expensive coffee by adding toasted chicory.  New Orleans is called the “natural port” for coffee.  After it was introduced into the Western Hemisphere coffee plantations spread from the islands of the Caribbean, starting from Martinique in the 18th century.  From there it began to be grown in Brazil and the other islands, Central America ..read more

According to Betty Crocker's Outdoor Cook Book (1961), "Here are some proved picnic rules to remember: Take drinking water if there is even the slightest doubt that it will not be available near the site you have chosen as perfect because there isn't a house within miles! Take enough for washing hands, too. Keep hot things hot and cold things cold. Collect ice cubes in advance. Store them in the freezer. Take them to the picnic in plastic bags lined with layers of damp newspapers if you do not have an insulated pail. Chill bottles of soft drinks for 24 hours in the refrigerator and protect the ..read more

Don't think this is silly but I sometimes worry about our friends and good neighbors in the northern, eastern and western parts of our great country when it comes to corn grits. Here in the south we have conquered those fears and truly embrace our grits. Let me take you to that promised land where this inexpensive dish can bring you and see what you think. First, it is always a matter of taste when it comes to the type of grits you cook.  You can do the slow and long cooking grits or the modern-day faster cooking ones. The important choices are for you to decide which additions should go ..read more

During the Roman Empire, snow was hauled down from the mountain tops and served as a summer treat covered with flavored syrups. Once ice could be manufactured, snoballs (the preferred New Orleans spelling) could be made by shaving ice with a hand tool with a blade to mimic the texture of snow. It was a lot of work to make a snoball.  Some enterprising people fashioned machines to shave ice, which greatly eased the work and time, making a snoball stand viable as a commercial enterprise. This was true even at the incredible price of 2 cents. Notable among these early innovators was Ernest H ..read more

This is the final week that we will be tucking into the history behind the four classic pastas of Rome: amatriciana, cacio e pepe, carbonara, and gricia. Pasta alla gricia (or griscia depending on the Italian dialect) is the forgotten pasta. This pork-forward pasta is often overshadowed by its famous friends: amatriciana, cacio e pepe, and carbonara. Pasta enthusiasts describe gricia as amatriciana minus the tomatoes, cacio e pepe with the addition of guanciale, and carbonara without the egg. But gricia is a leading lady in its own right. Undiscovered talent, if you will. A future pasta darlin ..read more

Over the next couple of weeks, we will continue tucking into the history behind the four classic pastas of Rome: amatriciana, cacio e pepe, carbonara, and gricia. Last week, we greedily slurped up the history of cacio e pepe. This week, we are chowing down on a heaping, steamy, dreamy bowl of amatriciana. Historians and chefs alike generally agree that pasta all’amatriciana clearly consists of bright jammy tomatoes, velvety and funky cured pork, and an avalanche of grated cheese, but that’s where the consensus ends. “As with every Roman recipe, l'amatriciana (or la matriciana to some) sparks l ..read more

Over the next few weeks, we will continue tucking into the history behind the four classic pastas of Rome: amatriciana, cacio e pepe, carbonara, and gricia. Last week, we devoured the history of carbonara. This week, we are sitting down to a massive saucy plate of cacio e pepe. In Italian, cacio e pepe translates simply to cheese and pepper. Much like its name, cacio e pepe is straightforward and uncomplicated. It only has three ingredients. But don’t let that fool you! Cacio e pepe’s simplicity is what makes it so marvelously moreish. You’ll find yourself whipping a bowl up more often than yo ..read more

Over the next four weeks, we will tuck into the history behind the four classic pastas of Rome. Amatriciana, Cacio e Pepe, Carbonara, and Gricia. First up to the plate: carbonara. Carbonara is silky and glossy, owing to the rich custardy eggs, the starchy pasta water, and the reckless amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano (or pecorino Romano) cheese, unctuous because of the rendered pork fat and zesty and lightly spicy due to the freshly ground black pepper—culminating in an utterly addicting dish. It’s simple, yet indulgent and luxurious.  While we can all agree that carbonara is devilishly deli ..read more