The Story of Cuisine, like the stories of New Orleans, the United

States, and the World itself, is the story of immigration. Indeed the

word creole, from the Spanish criollo was a legal designation for one

born in the New World. Thus Creoles were from all countries, were

all races, practiced all religions...

Not many realize the first cooking school in America was started

in New Orleans in 1722. Creole cuisine, one of the very few cuisines

truly indigenous to America, owes its beginning to the search for

love, passion, and food ---The Petticoat Rebellion of 1722.

Bienville, distressed by the drunken brawls of his men in this

predominantly male military outpost in the New World, posted a

dowry for any woman who wished to come to New Orleans for the

purpose of marriage. Knowing that a well-fed husband leads to a

happy marriage, the good women who came to New Orleans were

horrified to discover they did not know how to cook with the local

ingredients. This is a dilemma that faces all immigrants -- the search

for the comforting taste of old by somehow using the new. A good

and wise leader, Bienville did not consider something as “minor”

as cuisine a non-military concern. Indeed, he knew it was essential

to the peace and happiness of his men and thus to the success of

his mission. Bienville convinced his aunt, housekeeper and cook

Madame Langlois [pronounced Longue-WAH] to open a cooking

FOREWORD

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school. Madame Langlois, who owed much of her knowledge to

the local native Americans, introduced the young women to filé

[pronounced fee-LAY], grits and shrimp, cornbread and wild honey,

succotash, fish, crabs and the local wild rabbit. Marital bliss settled

upon the colony. Thus was New Orleans truly settled upon the twin

foundations of romance and good food.

In my last book Broussard’s Restaurant and Courtyard Cookbook,

I examined the history of New Orleans and its predominant early food

influences of native American, colonial, French, Cajun and Creole,

German, and Italian through recipes, music, art, architecture and the

history of these special groups, revealing the nuanced cultural blend of

our City. That book was also designed so the host or hostess could have

a Broussard’s Dinner for one’s book club or dinner club by choosing a

recipe, purchasing a recommended wine and playing accompanying

music, all of which is available on YouTube, amazon.com, iTunes or

from the Louisiana Music Factory in New Orleans. I also attempted

to illustrate my personal theory that food tastes differently depending

on the additional concurrent sensory inputs. Those additional firing

neurons affect the sensation of taste. For example, New Orleans food

always tastes better when accompanied by a live jazz band!

In this book, New Orleans’ Best Restaurants: Ethnic, I examine

the emerging culinary history of New Orleans, the contemporary

groups joining the cultural mix of this grand City and infusing our

food with exciting and vibrant energy. Thanks to New Orleans

food great Tom Fitzmorris, we know the number of post-Katrina

restaurants in the greater New Orleans area is consistently in the

1300 -1325 range. When I look back to the Urban Gourmet by

that other New Orleans food icon Richard Collins and examine old

telephone listings, the number of ethic restaurants in New Orleans

was minimal. Richard Collins mentions ethnic restaurants in the

100 range. During the post-Katrina years, there have been 325-

425 ethnic restaurants operating, 25-30% of the City’s restaurants!

This is a food trend that deserves a cookbook!

A good friend and fellow foodie asked my definition of ethnic for

this book and my definition is simple: Food which has not become so

absorbed into our national culture that it is now defined as “American”

cuisine. American cuisine? What’s that? Besh does it brilliantly at The

American Sector and at The Soda Shop at the National World War

II Museum, as does Dat Dog on Freret Street. Like so much else,

American cuisine -- we know it when we taste it! It’s hot dogs,

mac and cheese, hamburgers -- all of which originated somewhere

else but are so absorbed and redefined by American culture that we

think it is our own. And what is ethnic -- just about everything else!

And I discuss a new concept in this book -- “American Ethnic” in the

Americas chapter so check it out!

One of my most amazing discoveries during this journey is that

many of the New Orleans ethnic restaurant chefs are in fact classically

trained chefs. Another discovery was that most chefs have a garden

patch in their restaurant or home where they are growing unique varieties

of herbs. Most chefs have unique sourcing and suppliers, sometimes

themselves! One chef serves tea from her family’s own tea plantation

in the old country, another grows his own old country peppers in his

backyard and makes his own pepper sauce, and a third serves roasted

wheat produced by his relatives back home. Fueling this New Orleans

ethnic food boom are the many quiet ethnic grocery stores and dedicated

butchers, festivals and places of worship and community.

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So what did I look for in a restaurant to be highlighted in this book?

Trained as a mystery shopper for a restaurant consulting firm, I applied

all of that criteria and then I looked for more. I looked for people who

were trying, who were doing more, who were making the extra effort

in their food. The taco served with doubled hot bread and homemade

sauces, the Polish Master Patisserie working entirely from scratch

with no timer on his oven, the third generation Italian chef who still

makes a time consuming complex historic dish on his menu to please

his customers and his sense of honor, the immigrant mother who

only sought to raise her children with her cooking or baking and in the

process created for them and herself an empire. These are the stories

of the men and women in this fascinating new food world.

Opening a restaurant serving the food of the old country is a

regularly practiced first step by new arrivals. Taking what they know

to meet the needs of a growing community while establishing

economic independence is a tried and true method of success.

Once the restaurateur reaches a certain level of success, he is

confronted by what I am calling “The Restaurateur’s Dilemma.”

The Restaurateur’s Dilemma is a rental situation. When the

landlord refuses to sell the property to the restaurateur, the restaurateur

will not invest in maintenance and upgrades to someone else’s

property, even when required to do so under the lease. Likewise the

landlord would rather use the rent funds for his own purposes than

reinvest in what is essentially someone else’s business. Eventually

the successful restaurant business moves on and the unsuccessful

business closes, both to escape the burden of maintenance of

building systems that no long work efficiently. The landlord is now

faced with massive renovation costs or long term vacancy or a

string of failing businesses interspersed with vacancies. Additionally,

once a commercial property has a commercial kitchen installed, it is

effectively limited in the number of tenants to which it will appeal.

In some immigrant communities, the immigrant landlord holds

his restaurateur in rent bondage untile he finally leaves. In other

immigrant communities, the immigrant landlord wisely decides that

he would rather be the mortgage holder of a prosperous business in

a prosperous community than be the owner of many derelict vacant

properties abandoned by both failing and prosperous members of

a less prosperous community. Once the restaurateur becomes

the owner of title, the restaurateur has a greater chance of financial

success and can raise additional capital to maintain and upgrade

the property. For his part, the mortgage holder can then use those

funds to invest in new ventures or for other projects without holding

reserves for repair. In the event of foreclosure, the property returned

is of greater value because it is improved and better maintained,

but more importantly, when a business is successful, the mortgage

holder has helped the entire community to achieve financial success--

which in turn earns him not only greater financial returns, but also the

respect of his people as a wise leader.

Part of the romance and history of New Orleans is its immigrants.

Men of honor and women of courage founded and grew

New Orleans cuisine. We can do no better than to live up to

their examples.

Ann Benoit

New Orleans, LA

September, 2013

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