It’s getting close… Hopefully, the 90-year-old Willie Mae Seaton… who made famous fried chicken for more than 50 years before being flooded out when the levees failed after Katrina… will celebrate the holidays in her home/restaurant.

UPDATE: Just heard that Morgan Freeman donated $10,000 to the project. Hooray!!

Here are some pics from last weekend’s efforts… high fives to all those volunteers… anyone wanting to make a donation, please check out the Southern Foodways Alliance site for information.

Chefs from Restaurant August brought lunch Sunday.

Folks from Charleston — including Reggie Gibson and his 12-year-old daughter Emma — drove down with a truck full of equipment, tables and chairs… and TBonz Restaurant Group out of Charleston donated money for a new grease trap.

Emma Gibson from Charleston.

John Egerton, Jr., and Lee Adler put finishing touches on the entry.

SFA director John T. Edge, chef Adolfo Garcia (who brought chili… from his restaurant Rio Mar) and Todd Price.

John T. Edge and Leah Chase. Dookie Chase’s is around the corner from Ms. Seatons’ place.

Tried to get some secrets out of those chefs, but they were pretty coy.

All volunteer crews should eat so well!

According to GQ food critic Alan Richman, who skewered the city’s famous food in the November issue. Read it — and seeth — by clicking to this link.

Then, read Times-Picayune’s Brett Anderson’s brilliant response on this link.

I’m declaring Anderson the winner of this debate. What do you say? (Talk about kicking your sweet grandmother when she’s down!!)

People were sure fired up about it when I was down there this weekend.

Recently got a request from the Southern Foodways Alliance, the organization that’s been laser-beam focused on an effort to get a landmark restaurant — Willie Mae’s Scotch House — in New Orleans open before the end of the year. If ever there was a determined grassroots operation, this is it.

I’m going. I will be there next weekend, paintbrush in hand, to volunteer. Wanted to pass along this request, in case there’s anything anybody feels compelled to donate to the cause and/or join me. Let me tell you, they feed the volunteers very well.

Here’s the request:

“Under the leadership of SFA’s own John Currence, we’re closing in on the final details for the Scotch House rebuilding project. Our next (and probably last) volunteer work weekend will be Nov.17-19. We need all hands on deck! We hope to finish trim work this weekend so Miss Seaton may move in the following week and celebrate Thanksgiving in her newly refurbished home. Won’t you help us?

WHAT TO BRING
Once you confirm that you can work with us, we’ll send out a list of materials that you should bring with you to New Orleans. In addition to construction materials, we’ll also have a list of furnishings needed for the home. If you have extra bedspreads, curtains, a spare couch…anything that you could lug along in your car or truck…we might be able to use it. Miss Seaton lost everything in the flood.”

For additional details, log on to the SFA site.

It blows my mind that it’s been a year since Katrina… in today’s story in the Commercial Appeal I talked to several transplants working in Memphis area restaurants, making our city a better place.

I’m sure there are many more tales to tell… please add yours in the comments below.

City Grocery chef John Currence remembers looking into the eyes of nearly 90-year-old Willie Mae Seaton, as demolition crews ripped apart her restaurant in the Treme area of New Orleans, a place that has also been her home for more than 50 years…

She didn’t understand that the damage from Hurricane Katrina meant that the place essentially had to be rebuilt… “I told her that I would be there when they pounded the last nail in place,” Currence said in a phone interview.

He’s living in his hometown, working hard to get Miss Willie Mae back in the kitchen… his report is below… to connect with Currence, offer moral/physical/financial support, give him a shout at chefboy@dixie-net.com.
Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of spots 90 minutes from Memphis will mark the year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with, what else?, drinks and music…

On Tuesday, August 29, Proud Larry’s will have live music and drink specials… and City Grocery will serve up Hurricanes (of course!) and Pimm’s cups with DJ Twinkle spinning tunes sure to make you miss New Orleans…

The $10 cover (which gets you in to both places) and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Southern Foodways Alliance’s efforts to rebuild Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Getting so close, but still a work in progress, with City Grocery chef John Currence leading the charge…

Any Katrina events happening in Memphis?

This just in from the University of Mississippi:

‘Culinary Soul’ of New Orleans is Focus
of SFA, Tabasco Oral History Project

OXFORD, Miss. - Folklore surrounding the culinary legacy of New Orleans is the focus an oral history project planned by the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi and Tabasco product-maker McIlhenny Co. of Avery Island, La.

The “New Orleans Table: Return and Recollect” features a trio of events celebrating, supporting and preserving the past, present and future of New Orleans, one of the greatest gastronomic capitals of the world. The collective sharing of defining food memories, conversations and tastings opens Aug. 30 at Restaurant August in the Crescent City, with similar gatherings scheduled Oct. 12 in New York City and Nov. 29 in San Francisco.

“New Orleans has long been a culinary icon, but recent events have revealed how fragile its legacy can be,” said John T. Edge, director of SFA and co-host of the events. “The collection and preservation of the stories behind the food of New Orleans is critical to maintaining the culinary soul of this great city for generations to come.”

With keynote speaker Roy J. Blount Jr., a columnist for the Oxford American, NPR panelist and author of “Feet on the Street: Rambles Around New Orleans,” and other notable guests on hand, the inaugural event promises to launch the New Orleans Table project in true New Orleans style. Also planned are tastings of traditional Creole dishes from a menu of culinary luminaries, including Leah Chase, Gail and Anthony Uglesich, Lionel Key Jr., and John Besh.

Listening posts are to be staffed for guests to record their personal histories related to New Orleans and its food. These contributions will be archived for the oral history project, along with the stories collected by SFA and McIhenny Co.

The three events are part of the ongoing New Orleans Eats, An Oral History Project. SFA and McIlhenny Co. share a commitment to the preservation of America’s premier regional food lineages. This project seeks to capture the stories of those who create, consume and celebrate food and drink in New Orleans, and it promises to archive all the mouthwatering New Orleans lore folks can dish up.

Paul McIlhenny, president and CEO of McIlhenny Co. and Edge’s co-host, said, “We share the Southern Foodways Alliance’s commitment to protect and sustain the traditions of New Orleans. These events and the ongoing oral history project will highlight the relevance of our city in the food world, as well as establish a forum for people across the country to communicate their most delicious memories of New Orleans.”

McIlhenny Co. recently made a contribution to SFA in support of its oral history work.

The events in New Orleans, New York and San Francisco are free of charge and open to members of the public over age 21. Reservations are required and space is limited.

For more information, to RSVP for one of the events or to contribute a story to New Orleans Eats, An Oral History Project, call 1-888-841-6153 or visit http://www.southernfoodways.com or http://www.tabasco.com.

Just saw a short video put out by the NOLA Convention and Visitor’s Bureau about the rebuilding of Willie Mae’s Scotch House, an ongoing effort to get this landmark restaurant reopened.

Click here to check it out…

Click here for some images from my recent trip to New Orleans… which will make even more sense when you read my travel story in Sunday’s CA…

This mixed bag of snapshots — hey, I’m no photographer! — covers a wide swath, from memorable meals to deconstructing two landmark New Orleans restaurants: Willie Mae’s Scotch House and Dookie Chase’s with hard-working volunteers organized by The Southern Foodways Alliance. Both 80-something proprietors of these home-cooking classics were at the site during some of the demolition, and joined us for lunches, which were provided by superstar chefs: John Besh and crew cooked shrimp and grits and filet mignon with crab aand John Folse’s crew from Baton Rouge, who delivered and served up awesome gumbo and the best chocolate cheesecake ever.

If you have any questions on the pics, give me a shout…

Click here for images from last Saturday’s Krewe du Vieux parade… some funny stuff!!