Ella Brennan: The Woman Who Made New Orleans a Food City
The Woman Who Made New Orleans a Food CityElla Brennan did not cook. She did something arguably more important: she created the conditions under which great cooking could happen, building a restaur...
Leah Chase: The Queen of Creole Cuisine Who Fed the Civil Rights Movement
The Queen of Creole CuisineLeah Chase was a chef, an author, a television personality, and the undisputed Queen of Creole Cuisine — a title she held not because someone gave it to her but because s...
Lulu White: The Madam of Mahogany Hall on Basin Street
The Madam of Mahogany HallLulu White was a brothel madam, a procuress, an entrepreneur, and one of the most colorful figures in the history of Storyville, New Orleans' legendary red-light district....
Nellie Murray: The Formerly Enslaved Woman Who Became Queen of Creole Cuisine
The Queen of Creole Cuisine Before the Title ExistedNellie Murray was a formerly enslaved woman who became the most sought-after caterer in New Orleans during the Gilded Age, feeding the city's wea...
Mr. Okra: The Beloved Fruit Vendor Who Sang Through the Streets
I Got Watermelon!You would hear him before you saw him. The sound of a PA system mounted on a red pickup truck, crackling through the neighborhood streets, broadcasting a voice that was part song, ...
Al Copeland: From the St. Thomas Projects to the Popeyes Chicken Empire
From the Projects to the Chicken EmpireAl Copeland's life reads like the kind of story that would be rejected by a Hollywood screenwriter for being too improbable. His father abandoned the family s...
Chris Owens: The Queen of the Vieux Carré
The Queen of the Vieux CarréChris Owens was not just a French Quarter performer. She was the French Quarter — its glamour, its excess, its stubborn refusal to age gracefully when aging gracefully w...
Kate Chopin: The Author Who Told the Truth Before the World Was Ready
The Woman Who Wrote Too EarlyKate Chopin wrote a novel about a woman who wanted more than society was willing to give her, and society punished them both for it. The Awakening, published in 1899, w...
Herman Leonard: The Photographer Who Showed the World What Jazz Looks Like
The Man Who Photographed JazzHerman Leonard did not play a single note, but he shaped how the world sees jazz. He was a photographer — considered by many to be the most significant photographer of ...
George Porter Jr.: The Meters' Bass Man Who Helped Invent Funk
The Funkiest Bass Player in New OrleansGeorge Porter Jr. is one of those musicians whose name might not be immediately recognized by the casual listener but whose playing has been heard by virtuall...
Professor Longhair: The Piano Man Whose Rhythms Built New Orleans Funk
FessHenry Roeland "Roy" Byrd did not look like the most important pianist in New Orleans history. He was lanky, eccentric, and often disheveled, with a stage presence that suggested a man who had w...
Pete Fountain: The Clarinet King of Bourbon Street
The Clarinet King of Bourbon StreetPete Fountain was the most famous jazz clarinetist to ever come out of New Orleans, which in a city that practically invented the jazz clarinet is saying somethin...
Kermit Ruffins: The Happiest Trumpet in New Orleans
The Happiest Trumpet in New OrleansKermit Ruffins is what happens when a city's entire philosophy of life gets concentrated into a single human being. He plays trumpet, he sings, he cooks barbecue ...
Pralines: Sugar, Butter, Pecans, and Pure New Orleans
Sugar, Butter, Pecans, and Pure New OrleansThe praline is the sweet ambassador of New Orleans, a candy so deeply associated with the city that you cannot walk three blocks in the French Quarter wit...
Bananas Foster: The New Orleans Dessert That Catches Fire
The Dessert That Catches FireBananas Foster was created in 1951 at Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans, invented by Chef Paul Blangé and Ella Brennan as a way to use up a surplus of bananas that we...
Coffee and Chicory: Born from Scarcity, Beloved by Choice
Born from Scarcity, Beloved by ChoiceCoffee and chicory is what happens when necessity invents something better than the original. During the Civil War, when Union blockades cut off coffee supplies...
Café au Lait: Half Coffee, Half Milk, All New Orleans
Half Coffee, Half Milk, All New OrleansThe café au lait is as fundamental to New Orleans mornings as humidity and regret. It is a simple drink — equal parts hot coffee and steamed milk — that becom...
Mint Juleps: Cool Relief in a Silver Cup
Cool Relief in a Silver CupThe Mint Julep belongs to the entire South, but New Orleans claimed it early and has never let go. While Kentucky gets the Derby Day glory, New Orleans has been serving j...
The Superdome: The Biggest Room in New Orleans
The Biggest Room in TownThe Superdome is not just a stadium. It is the living room of New Orleans — a 73,000-seat monument to civic ambition that has hosted everything from Super Bowls to hurricane...
Mardi Gras Indians: The Most Beautiful Cultural Tradition in America
The Most Beautiful Tradition in AmericaOn Mardi Gras morning and again on St. Joseph's Night, the Mardi Gras Indians take to the streets of New Orleans in suits so elaborate, so massive, so breatht...
