New Orleans Podcasting

New Orleans lost a great friend in Leah Chase on June 1, 2019. Leah Chase was Chef at Dooky Chase's restaurant and a beloved culinary icon in New Orleans and beyond. Many knew her as the Queen of Creole Cuisine but perhaps Leah Chase's biggest accomplishment was as a civil rights activist.

As a tribute to Leah, I will re-post several of my interviews with her as she recalled her life from her early childhood years to her days as a civil rights activist. 

This 2006 interview took place in Leah's FEMA trailer, where she talked about the return of Dooky Chase restaurant following the devastating floods of Hurricane Katrina. We talked about Creole food, and the distinction between European Creole cuisine and the cuisine of Creoles of Color. While speaking about the evolution of Creole food, Leah pointed out that integration exposed Blacks to European Creole cooking. Black cooks then contributed their knowledge and ingredients, adding to New Orleans' rich culinary tradition.

Liz Williams is former President and CEO of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB) in New Orleans. Williams was the driving force behind SoFAB; when she transitioned from her president and CEO positions, Williams assumed the title of Founder. From its initial 2004 beginning as a museum dedicated to celebrating the foods and beverages of the South, SoFAB has given rise to three additional entities: The Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC), the John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library, and the Pacific Food & Beverage Museum. All three exist under the parent company, the National Food and Beverage Foundation. In this podcast, Williams shares insights into how SoFAB gave rise to three diverse organizations and gives a glimpse into the National Food and Beverage Foundation’s exciting future plans.

Sandy Rosenthal, and her son, Stanford Rosenthal, founded Levees.org in 2005, following Hurricane Katrina. The Rosenthals created the organization to inform citizens and law makers that Katrina’s devastating flooding of New Orleans was a man-made, civil engineering catastrophe, not the result of a natural disaster. Today, 14 years later, Rosenthal continues the organization’s ongoing efforts to educate residents, lawmakers, and others to ensure that our city will never again experience a man-made catastrophe like the flooding that inundated New Orleans in 2005.

Rosenthal’s 8th annual Levee Breach Bike Tour on Saturday, April 20, 2019 is a perfect example of how Levees.org continues its educational mission. The ride is free; all participants have to do is bring their own bikes. The educational ride will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Flooded House Museum at 4918 Warrington Drive,New Orleans, LA 70122.  

Visit https://go.levees.org/8thBikeTour for detailed information but first, listen to Rosenthal describe her Levees.org journey. In this podcast, she explain why educating ourselves about our vital levee system is much more than an intellectual exercise; having accurate information about our levee protection system has real-world, financial implications.