Got Gumbo? 2015

This was my 5th Got Gumbo? event benefitting the United Way and it’s one of my favorite annual evenings. At the Royal Sonesta, 15 restaurants provided up to 4 dishes each to compete for Best Traditional Gumbo, Best Seafood Gumbo, Best Exotic Gumbo and Best Vegetarian Gumbo as well as the People’s Choice for Best Dessert, Best Float (decorated table display) and Best Gumbo. That’s 15 restaurants, each with multiple chefs, competing in up to half a dozen categories each so you can eat yourself silly surrounded by fun table displays and charitable gumbo-lovers (United Way  receives the $25 ticket price as well as the bar).  And, of course, there’s a band – Rick Trolson’s New Orleans Po’Boys.

Treme Gumbo Fest and Le Petit

My favorite food is “fest food,” so I’m always delighted when another festival rolls around and Treme Creole Gumbo Fest at Armstrong Park was made for foodies. It’s also for people who love music and local artisans. We caught Treme Brass Band with Corey Henry and Shamarr Allen & the Underdawgs. Both bands got the sizable crowd dancing – especially pint-sized Spidey504, protégé of DancingMan504. I caught him doing a move just like the logo for Jazz Fest. Spidey504 may have been born in New York 7 years ago, but his parents moved here because it’s where his soul belongs.

Got Gumbo? 2014

Gumbo is the perfect metaphor for our city, our music and our culture – all of the ingredients work together without ever losing their individual flavors. This was my 4th United Way’s Got Gumbo? at the Royal Sonesta but the contest has been running for 14 years. I had a friend visiting from out of town who’d been here a week and hadn’t eaten anywhere outside of his hotel and national chains. He joined us and got to taste over 20 restaurants competing in 4 categories of gumbo: traditional, seafood, exotic and vegan. Way to make up for lost time!

Gumbo Fest, Glen David Andrews and a “Pop Up” Restaurant

This weekend, the Superdome hosted the Sunday Night Football game bringing lots of Cowboy fans and the NBC Sports film crew into town. One of the film crew wives organized a dinner for the crew by getting some of her favorite local chefs to open a “pop up” restaurant in the Golden Feather Mardi Gras Indian Restaurant on Rampart. Surrounded by staggeringly beautiful, elaborately beaded and fully-feathered Indian suits, Melisande Short-Colomb and Venessa Williams of Cajun Moon Catering treated us to a paper plate feast. 

Gumbo Contest Judging

Those of us lucky enough to be raised by generations of Louisiana folk have been brought up eating gumbo. Yesterday, I took lucky to another level when I was asked to be a judge at Valero‘s annual fundraising event benefitting several local charities. Valero raised awareness and over a million dollars for organizations like Second Harvest and Special Olympics with their “Valero’s Got Talent” theme. When I arrived, blue-jumpsuited workers were milling around the gumbo tent sampling more than a dozen offerings. I joined judges Joseph Grey of Don’s Seafood and Ryan Gall, Executive Chef at TPC Louisiana as well as Eliza Eugene, who partners with Saints wide receiver Marques Colston (frequently found in the endzone at Saints games) in Eugene Colston Realty.

Got Gumbo? 2013

This was my third trip to the Got Gumbo? event benefitting the United Way and it’s fast becoming one of my favorite annual evenings. This year, 17 chefs and restaurants provided up to 4 dishes each to compete in the categories of Best Traditional Gumbo, Best Seafood Gumbo and Best Exotic Gumbo as well as the People’s Choice for Best Dessert, Best Float (decorated table display) and Best Gumbo. Do the math and you see that it’s an evening of eating yourself silly surrounded by whimsical tables and charitable gumbo-lovers (United Way  receives the $25 ticket price as well as the bar). The event is held at the Royal Sonesta. You may recall that my last trip to the Sonesta involved dropping my hoop skirt and greasing a pole to kick off the final weekend of Mardi Gras.

Got Gumbo? 2012

Where can you get all-you-can-eat gumbo from over 20 NOLA restaurants and help out the United Way? The annual Got Gumbo? event at the Royal Sonesta in the French Quarter. With competitions for best traditional, seafood and exotic gumbos, the chefs show off their best recipes on tables decorated as parade floats complete with throws. There’s even a dessert competition.

Got Gumbo?

Tonight, I attended the 11th Annual Got Gumbo? cook-off at the Royal Sonesta in the French Quarter. My taste-buds are still after-glowing. The ballroom was lined with tables from 20 different local restaurants competing in up to 6 categories. Half were judged by a panel and the other half were determined by our votes. There was even a Jazz band. What fun!

Treme goes dark and we eat like kings

As we face the largest environmental crisis in our nation’s history, a man-made catastrophe with no solutions in sight, the trials of the characters on Treme seem both hauntingly familiar and yet small in comparison. I’m sure there are those who wonder if I’m glad I moved here now that this is all happening, whether I would have stayed in L.A. if I’d have known this was coming. Who knows what I would have done if I’d known in advance, but I can tell you that, yes, I’m happy I moved here. Yes, yes, YES!

Palmer Park

My friend, Lauren, took me to an arts festival at Palmer Park. There were many kiosks of local painters, jewelry makers, furniture builders, etc. We got some Christmas shopping done and enjoyed the live music, alley of local foods (shared a gumbo and a jambalaya), and the dancing Santa.