It's New Orleans: Midnight Menu +1

Nobody went to Ernie K Doe s legendary Mother In Law Lounge to actually lounge. Except Tee Eva Perry. Tee Eva was K Doe s back up singer and dancer, and best friend of K Doe s wife, Antoinette. Some of Tee Eva s fondest memories are of the nights every night of the week they weren t performing spent lounging around in the back room of the club with Ernie, Antoinette, and "Mom" Antoinette s mom . Revealing a little know fact about life behind the scenes in the world of the self styled "Emperor of the Universe," Tee Eva tells Margo and guest host Poppy Tooker that each of them had their own couch to lounge on in the lounge. Not that Tee Eva has spent much of her life lounging. She s mostly a ball of kinetic energy, making up batches of pies and pralines in her current Uptown corner street front kitchen, or delivering the live Tee Eva experience. This comes in the form of regaling a never ending stream of tourists seeking a taste of home cooking and baking they ve seen on TV with tales from the rivers and bayous of childhood, or performing as a Baby Doll a tradition that according to Tee Eva dates back hundreds of years in which grown women parade around dressed as a baby s doll. Among the stories of fun, self professed declarations of being one of the world s greatest dancers, and the romantic tale of Katrina romance and marriage to her 1 guest, husband Lou Adams, are the tales of working in some of New Orleans famous restaurant kitchens and the disillusionment with the politics and economics of the restaurant business that prompted her to leave behind the security of a paycheck and launch out on her own. Though she can t compete with the hair and tattoos, Poppy does a fabulous job sitting in for Ray who, according to Poppy, will "be back next year."

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chef Rob Bechtold loves his meat smoker so much he sleeps with it. Well, next to it. And gets up every half hour to tend to the flames. Apparently you can taste the love and dedication in every bite because Chef Rob and wife Emily s NOLA Smokehouse sells out of barbq every single day. Rob and Emily met on that romantic boulevard, Veterans Highway in Metairie, at the short lived take out for foodies Mecca, Foodies. Rob was a sous chef and Emily was making her first foray into pastries. Foodies came and went, Rob and Emily bounced around the New Orleans restaurant scene till Katrina bounced them out of town. Obsessed with coming back to New Orleans and opening a barbecue restaurant, Rob and Emily started out with a couple of pop ups before settling on their new home on Jackson Avenue near the river. Along the way Rob found his Buddhist path and his penchant for Bonsai. This is a true story of love, enlightenment, and smoked meat.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emeril s Delmonico Chef de Cuisine Anthony Scanio looks like he s directing traffic at a busy intersection, but actually he s just sitting down with a beer to have an amiable chat with Ray and Margo. Animated Chef Anthony is a whirlwind of wonderful tales about Arabi, Italy, crabs, mrlitons, kids, Creole cooking, Disney World, Mardi Gras, meat, and the sheer joy of changing your entire life s path to follow your dream. Chef Anthony s 1 guest, Emeril s Delmonico Sous Chef Darren Chabert, is also blazing his own trail out of childhood St Roch. Like Chef Anthony, Darren decided after spending 13 years in the army that what he really should be doing is cooking. Darren brought along a charcuterie selection from Emeril s Delmonico. Chef Anthony ends the evening on a high note, treating everyone to homemade liquers, including the magical Elixir of the Seven Powers, and Ruclino, believe it or not a delicious alcoholic shot of arugula. If you ever need a shot of reassurance that following your dreams is not only possible but rewarding in every way, and that the joys of life are to be found in New Orleans simply in the pursuit of everyday existence, listen to this inspiring conversation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Krista Pendergraft May is co owner of Cowbell. Not only was Krista brave enough to open a restaurant practically on the railroad tracks and the foot of the levee at what was then the worst part of Oak Street by miles she is also fearless enough to be a guest on a food podcast she had not only never heard of, but never heard. Nor had anybody, not even the hosts of the show, Ray and Margo. That s because this very night Krista showed up with her equally take no prisoners 1 Kim Vu, there has been no Midnight Menu 1. Yes, it s Wayback Week at Midnight Menu 1. This is the magical night that started it all the very first episode of Midnight Menu 1. What a way to kick off a dynasty. Well, that may be a little strong, but this is the show that definitely sets the tone for what s to come. Conversation ranges from the Heimlich Maneuver to Olympic volleyball. Do you recognize Krista s 1, Kim Vu When Kim moved to New Orleans from Alaska Kim decimated the Vietnamese population of the great state of Alaska by 50 . Fame was equally to find in New Orlenas. In no time Kim had a sandwich named after her at Cowbell the "Kim Vu s Rescue Banh Mi." Today Kim is even more of a superstar not only does she have her own NOLA record label, Milo Records, she the host of her very own podcast, VietNOLA. There s a good chance you ve never heard this show, unless you happen to be married to Margo or Ray. So take a listen, the guests are truly awesome, the hosts are hardly bruised, and the stories are timeless.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We invited one of New Orleans top chefs on the show, and got two. Chef Dan Esses from Three Muses is Ray and Margo s guest. Although in this picture it looks like Chef Dan is holding Margo s hand across the table and Ray s holding her other hand under the table, what s actually going on is even more interesting. But not as interesting as it s about to get. When Dan invited Chef Nathaniel Zimet from Boucherie as his 1 guest on this show, nobody could have predicted the walk they were about to take down the Memory Lane of Hell as they recall their early experiences as starting out chefs together in what has to be one of the worst run kitchens in the history of New Orleans dining. If you listen to Midnight Menu 1 to get a taste of what really goes in the NOLA culinary world and in the minds and hearts of its personalities, you re going to be enraptured listening to these chefs talk about what they went through to get to where they are today. When they started out, Chef Dan and Chef Nathaniel didn t know each other. Their shoulder to shoulder trials by fire on the line in a New Orleans restaurant you ve probably eaten at our attorney suggests we don t mention any names in writing has made them lifelong friends. As if they haven t been through enough dredging all this up, Margo hauls out The Book of Questions for a little more personal revelation. What would you stoop to doing for 10,000 This is a classic Midnight Menu 1. From Ted s Frostop.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having 5 girls under 6 is no picnic, especially when 4 of them are quadruplets. How many more life changing events would you like after that How about the non quadruplet daughter is diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis That s what happened to Alicia Murphy. Alicia s husband and her 1 guest on tonight s show is Matt Murphy, owner and chef at Irish pub and restaurant, Irish House. So when their daughter wasn t responding well to traditional medication, Alicia turned to long nights of research and days experimenting with diet. From that dedication a new diet began to rule the Murphy household and will soon creep its way on to the Irish House menu too, but that s a story for a little later that Matt announces for the first time, on this show. Seeing a phenomenal success in their daughter s quality of life, Alicia and Matt started eating healthy too. The result Matt lost 35 pounds and Alicia opened a bakery and healthy food store on Magazine Street which she has called Fare Food Apothecary. What began as a practical joke in a Dublin restaurant where Matt was a chef and Alicia a waitress, involving Matt making chocolate covered goat cheese balls and passing them off as truffles, turned into a date which became a marriage and now a partnership in every sense of the word. This is a story about love and food and the power of both to change lives. It could change yours. The photos on this page were taken by Midnight Menu 1 s sometimes underwater photographer Douglas Engel.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kelly Boffone started out baking at Maurice s in Metairie when she was 18. It was the ideal job starting at 4am meant she could stay all night partying and go straight to work. Little did young partying Kelly know that she would turn out to be a naturally super talented baker and after graduating from John Folse s cooking school end up being head pastry chef at Emeril s. Having reached the top of the mountain early in life, Kelly decided to channel her "God given gifts" into serving her community. And that s how she came to open The Peacebaker, a dedicated Gluten free bakery, certified Kosher, dairy free, vegan, allergy friendly bakery making cakes, cupcakes, pastries, brownies, cookies, king cakes and more. And by the way, The Peacebaker ships and delivers, anywhere thanks, Dad . If you visit The Peacebaker on Veterans Boulevard at the Veterans exit of the I 10 right by Tiffin Inn you ll meet Sarah Hairston. Sarah is the face of the bakery and on this show she s Kelly s 1. Sarah started at The Peacebaker for no better reason than she needed a job, but fate and gluten has a funny way of changing lives and Sarah is now a leading gluten and allergy free baked goods expert with knowlewdge that rivals Dr Oz. All the photos on this page were taken by the fabulous Douglas Engel.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Gourmet has a day job as a doctor and professor of medicine at Tulane University. And a side gig as a gourmet doctor at Tulane s revolutionary Goldring Institute for Culinary Medicine. Emmy Award winning Dr Gourmet, aka Timothy Harlan, started out working in restaurants at age 11. He opened his own French Bistro in his early 20 s, and when his wife s ill health drove him to find out more about medicine he went to med school. A number of twists and turns led Tim to Tulane University, and what used to be called a reassuring bedside manner at a time when a doctor actually sat, and much less beside your bed led Tim to media and online celebrity as Dr Gourmet, a handsome and reassuring voice of scientific reason and kitchen smarts in the cluttered media food world. The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine is literally a revolution in the medical approach to food. Not a fad driven class at cooking school, this is a scientifically driven course at a leading medical school. The center is dedicated to teaching both doctors and the surrounding community how to think about food in tasty and healthy ways. And not just to think about it, but how to actually cook it, bake it, and make it tasty. The secret The course is taught by chefs Tim s 1, Chef Leah Sarris, is the star of the Culinary Medicine biz. Charismatic, undeniably cute, modest, unpretentious, and passionate about food as well as the rest of life s joys, Chef Leah epitomizes the joy of cooking and the glowing benefit of good health. She doesn t believe in resisting temptation, except when it comes to Nutella. On this fun and fascinating episode of Midnight Menu 1 Ray manages to get through almost an entire show without embarrassing Margo, or mentioning his hair. Well, actually, things go off the rails early on, but Dr Gourmet hasn t cooked his sense of humor out of his diet and Chef Leah almost learns to speak French.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Addie K. Martin is a self described "Swamp Cajun." As opposed to the "inland Cajuns" with the cochon propensities, Addie s Golden Meadow Cajuns are shrimpers and fishers. After graduating from the King of Cajun s Cooking School, aka Chef John Folse s Culinary Institute, Addie went on to work in restaurants till Katrina blew her plans in a different direction. She created advertisements at Peter Mayer for a bunch of years before returning to her passion for food. Addie stirred everything she d learned around the creative tables at the ad agency into her love of food and created Culicurious, a food blog and web based recipe development hub that centers on a healthy and seasonal kitchen table, and fun n hearty home dining experience. Somewhere in this time line, along came Twitter. The predictable next sentence in this tale would be how Addie was cleverly able to apply her ad agency smarts to Twitter to find a new market, but she actually used it to find a husband, Jeremy Martin. If you ve never heard anyone happily married say "We met on Twitter," that s just for openers. There are a lot of other firsts in Addie and Jeremy s romance as they tell it to Margo and Ray on this show. Among them, Ray declares their honeymoon is "the worst honeymoon story I ve ever heard." Addie and Jeremy are one of the cutest couples you ll ever meet and despite some couples reports of working together ripping them apart, working together on a book of the life, foods and secrets to the future of the earth hidden in South East Louisiana is an exercise in love and harmony for the Martins. They ve also discovered that anyone anywhere will reveal everything about themselves if you tell them you d like to talk to them because, "I m writing a book." After Ray is done with demolishing the Martins happy honeymoon and other tales, everything seems to be going so well for a little while in this show. Ray agrees with Addie when she says frozen entrees are the worst food imaginable, but then things take another horrible turn when Margo admits that she actually purchases and eats frozen entrees. Oh Ray may have fainted if it wasn t for the large plate of delicious deviled pimento cheese pastry bites that Addie brought, which everybody was able to devour; pimento cheese apparently having the healing property of returning some semblance of sanity to proceedings.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chef David Bridges is so high energy that he makes Midnight Menu 1 co host Ray look practically normal. David s career has been a wild ride, from life on a Lear jet catering to the rich and famous to his current prestigious gig at one of New Orleans finest restaurants, Upperline. At one point David had a restaurant in Shreveport Louisiana which was known for its fine food until it became even more widely known as the place Chef David came out of the kitchen to kick out actor Tom Cruise. As you can imagine from these pictures, David tells this story in a way that no mere reporting could capture. Regular listeners to Midnight Menu 1 might notice something wrong with these photos. There is no 1 the mystery guest the guest brings with them. Every guest that is except Chef David. A little lack of pre planning is not going to get in his way though Chef David plays the part of both himself and his sous chef, Pedro. This is one of the wackiest Midnight Menu 1 shows we ve made. Chef David Bridges is an amazingly talented, award winning chef, a larger than life character, and funny as hell.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.