Keep Cookin': Friends of Louisiana Cookin' Magazine

Update from Scott Rappold, Louisiana Cookin' Copy Editor

I live in the French Quarter and, trusting the integrity of my building, decided to stay through the storm. We were a group of six, including two 85-year olds, plus three dogs. The incessant wind was the most nerve-wracking experience of the little odyssey that follows. We lost power, but we had water, gas to cook with, a generator and full use of the completely stocked freezers and refrigerators next door at Café Amelie. We dined by candlelight on the balcony on Royal Street.

Monday after the storm we walked aroung the Quarter to survey damage. It was very minor compared to what we would, many days later, see in pictures of other areas. On Tuesday, everybody who had stayed in the Quarter was out and about cleaning up messes and helping neighbors however they could. By Tuesday night the phone calls started pouring in from around the country, friends and family telling us about what was going on with the flooding.

On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to drive out of the city. I had scouted around on my Vespa to see if we would have a viable route. This, and then driving across the bridge not knowing what was going to happen, were the two scariest moments for me.

One of us, Neal, is from Cocodrie. We drove down the bayou, and stayed for almost 10 days in a fishing camp his sister had secured for us. She and her husband own Cecil Lapeyrouse grocery; we really were not wanting for anything. The title of my story would be: Have Chef, Will Travel. In Cocodrie,  I became the camp cook, feeding all of us, and our hosts, and whoever stopped by, daily. Every place our little odyssey took us, we tried to repay a place to stay with a taste of home.

After a few days in Cocodrie, our group started splitting up. David and his mother have family in Houma, and they got an apartment for the short term. Bill's Dad got a ride to Houston, and from there flew to Tampa and son John's house. Neal was supposed to start a new job in New York September 30. That was delayed, but we had to get him on a flight out of Jackson, Mississippi, because he had to first drop off his dogs with a friend. Bill and I drove from there to the Gulf Coast, so we could visit with and help family from Biloxi and Gulfport, and then drove to Tampa. We flew from Tampa to New York, where we are staying with a friend until we can go back home. Bill has work, and I am in the process of getting library privileges at NYU so I can get cranking on my dissertation.

We in our group all survived fine, but we all feel incredibly lucky that our survival did not entail the difficulties so many others had to face. The outpouring of love and support from family and friends all over the country has been overwhelming. Humbling, too.

Update from Elizabeth Harman, Louisiana Cookin' Art Director

As I sit at my computer in my new home in Baton Rouge, I can’t help but feel very blessed.  My husband and I moved into our new home on August 19th, only 10 days before Katrina hit New Orleans.  While we were fortunate to escape the physical destruction that Katrina caused to so many people’s homes and businesses, we, like so many, felt the emotional pain of watching the suffering of all those affected.  While we only lived in New Orleans for a short time, we made numerous friends and developed a love for the city and its culture.

Now, like the rest of the world, our prayers are with the people of New Orleans as the city begins the rebuilding process.  I have no doubt that the Crescent City will be better than it was before and that the city that gave us the blues will give us all a reason to shout for joy. --Elizabeth Harman

Letter from Marcy McCall, Editor of Louisiana Cookin'

Dear readers and friends,

I can't believe it, but I am in Cape Cod in September. Four months ago, I swore this could never happen. See, back in May, my husband and I (then my fiance) were sitting in a bar in New Orleans with some old friends who have a home in Harwich, Massachusetts. They invited us up and recommended coming in September or October. We told them there was no way that we could visit then. That's one of our busy times at our deli that we own, called The Grocery.

Well, Katrina made sure that our September was wide open.

We fled the city with our dog, our wedding pictures and two changes of clothes, expecting to be gone for a day or two. It soon became quite clear that we were not going home that soon. We headed to my parents' house in Missouri. After traveling the state, we decided that we would never have a month off again until we're 65. So, we took up that offer of Cape Cod in the fall.

It is beautiful here, but even the gorgeous scenery can't stop the constant thoughts of home. I love New Orleans. I think I have the best jobs in the world, between the magazine and the deli. The deli is right there on St. Charles Avenue, with a big picture window that looks out on the passing streetcars. Our customers become our Friends after a visit or two. We have great employees. One went back to Colorado. The other is now in Shreveport with his family. We sell Louisiana Cookin' at the deli. Customers are thrilled to learn that I edit the magazine. They turn to the Editor's Letter and show me my picture "That's You!" they say with delight. I tell them the best recipes in the issue and we talk about food.

It's great life, and I can't wait to go back to it. I'm one of the fortunate ones. The deli, housed in a
building from the 1880s, is still standing. It did not flood and we were not looted. How did we get so lucky? All I know is that this storm has made it clear to me and my husband that we must give back, for all that we have been given. I truly believe that one small way that I can give back is to continue to make Louisiana Cookin' a success. A good meal can help mend a broken heart. To make that meal, you'll need a good recipe. That's what I can give in the pages of our magazine. --Marcy McCall

Chefs to Watch Dinners

Dear Chefs and associates:

I hope you all made it out of harms way  for Katrina. Right now, Charley and I are in Prairieville, living and  working out of a new RV we purchased. We are working on the December  issue of Louisiana Cookin' as we speak. We have been "adopted" by  Hammock Publishing out of Nashville, TN. They have graciously offered  any help they can for the next few issues, and are in the process of  putting a internet circulation campaign on for us. (see  www.louisianacookin.com)

We have also been in touch with Craig Cuccia, Executive Director of  Cafe Reconcile, who wants, as so do I ,to raise money for the restaurants in New Orleans, one of our most precious gems. We were  not sure where all of you are located, or how you all fared through the storm with your restaurants and homes, hopefully everything is  ok. We know the next few months will be terribly hard on this  industry as tourism will be down and most locals will be rebuilding. It is just in the beginning stages, but we were curious to see if you chefs would be interested in touring the country in various cities,  putting on "Chefs To Watch' dinners as fund-raising events for you and your fellow associates to keep our restaurant industry viable?

Our dinner at Cafe Reconcile will take place, however none of us are  sure exactly when. But in the meantime, we thought this would be a  great opportunity to put you all to work, give the United States a  taste of New Orleans, and help keep this world renown New Orleans  industry going.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Romney

An update from Jen Reeder

Here's an update from Jen Reeder, marketing coordinator for Louisiana Cookin' Magazine:

Ever since my husband Bryan and I have lived in New Orleans, he’s hounded me that if there was a hurricane headed our way, we would evacuate because he didn’t want us stuck in traffic for the storm – he’d sat in gridlocked traffic at way too many music festivals!

The Friday before Katrina, Bryan started telling me we would probably have to evacuate the next day. I didn’t want to listen because Louisiana Cookin’ was hosting a fundraising dinner Monday night (the day Katrina hit). The Chefs to Watch dinner would have featured our five “Chefs to Watch” for 2005 donating time and food to create a five course meal to raise money for Café Reconcile, a cool local group that teaches “at risk” youth the skills they need to work in the restaurant industry. Many sponsors had donated wine, silverware, glasses, wait staff, music, lighting, tablecloths…many forms of generous help for the event, which had been sold out for weeks and would have raised thousands of dollars for Café Reconcile.

So I was sure that Katrina wouldn’t hit because in my mind, the Chefs to Watch dinner had to be able to take place Monday night. A lot of planning had gone into it, and it was for such a good cause…

But Saturday when we heard contraflow would start at 4 p.m., I realized Bryan was right and that we should evacuate. Because our goal was to beat traffic, rather than to prepare to leave indefinitely, we packed in a very haphazard way: Bryan brought around 10 pairs of shorts but no pants, I brought two skirts but a dozen tank tops, for some reason. Fortunately, we did find time to pack beer into the cooler, which we needed as we sat glued to the TV watching the news for the next several days in a hotel in Memphis.

This has been such a tragic disaster. It keeps unfolding like a nightmare. I am so glad that all of our staff safely evacuated, including our sweet intern Kendolyn. Some of our friends did not, and I still have one that is missing (are you out there, Lawrence Tullier?).

I just want to thank everyone who is helping the people of New Orleans and supporting Louisiana Cookin’. The flow of love and support by both loved ones and strangers has been a great source of hope and inspiration.

Update from Romney & Charley

On Saturday, Louisiana Cookin Magazine publishers Romney & Charley Richard returned to their offices in New Orleans for the first time. Here is their report:

Thanks to all of you who have written directly to us and to the keepcookin blog. Charley and I wanted to give all of those interested an update. When we left New Orleans and evacuated to Praireville, near Baton Rouge, we took all our computers to an upstairs room that we felt was safe. We did take our circulation computer, thinking that, if needed, we could get by without the other computers, but without our circulation computer, we could not publish and mail. At the time we thought, worse case scenario, we would be back home in 2 or 3 days.

It is now going on 3 weeks, and we could not get back to our office in New Orleans because of the flood until this past weekend. We needed to get back to our offices to retrieve our other computers, to make publishing our magazines a little less challenging and inspect the damage. In order to return to New Orleans, we had to get a pass, and only those working with evacuation, renovation of public buildings and certain zip codes could get these passes. We have a good friend, AJ Gerhold of Gerhold Electric, who told us he would get us in. Now mind you, we want to get to our property, however we are very happy with the strict enforcement of people entering, as we want our property protected.

We left early Saturday morning and headed to New Orleans with good friends, school teachers who live in our area and wanted to see their home. We planned to pull off I-10, the interstate to New Orleans, at LaPlace, a community 20 minutes from New Orleans. We were supposed to meet at the McDonalds there, they were closed, Wendy's across the street was closed, as was Waffle House, all closed since Katrina. So thanks to cell phones, we were able to meet at the busiest Shell station I have ever seen. Everyone there trying to make their way to New Orleans for the same reasons we were.

We left with our 3 car caravan headed to New Orleans, after crossing the "spillway," we entered Metairie. We were awestruct - every trip to Metairie is normally loaded with traffic, energy, commerce, children, and here we were, traveling there with no one around. Trees uprooted, roofs gone, grayness.

Then we came to the military roadblock. Where were we, I thought? I had seen movies with military roadblocks in Nazi Germany, but never in the United States, especially in our beautiful New Orleans! AJ. with all his persuasive techniques, could not get all three cars past the military. We re-grouped and had to enter in his "Gerhold Electric" truck. Once in, it was surreal. Everything was gray. Trees down, huge oak trees, down. We drove on to our office and Canal Street looked like a bomb had a direct hit on New Orleans. When we got to our office, our building was still there but you could see the water line on the outside. We got out of the truck and everything was gray, no grass - all trees and shrubs - gray. And the smell was horrific, a rotting odor that words can never describe. Charley forced opened the office door, sludge on the floor, everything in complete disarray, gray everywhere, and black mold growing on the walls and ceiling, really indescribable. It was so disheartening, working all your life to achieve something, to see it in ruin. With tears in our eyes, we grabbed the computers we came for and a few personal effects and loaded them in AJ's truck. Charley, who collects orchids, wanted to check on his orchids that he kept in the backyard. With all the gray and black surrounding us, he came back with a tear in his eye and a beautiful, brightly colored new orchid bloom in his hand - the orchid was a gorgeous purple, green and gold phaleonopsis. For those of you that don't know, these are the colors of Mardi Gras, the vibrant colors of New Orleans and its rebirth.

And just like that orchid, Charley and I will rebuild the executive and editorial offices of Louisiana Cookin', Sugar Journal and Forest Chemicals Review and with the help of many, will make them better than ever.

Again our heartfelt thanks to everyone.

Romney & Charley Richard

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Thanks for linking to Keep Cookin'

Please e-mail us (helpkeepcookin (at) hammock.com) if you post a link to KeepCookin.org. We'd like to thank the following folks for helping us spread the message:

Shawn Lea (Everything and Nothing)

Tom Biro (The Media Drop)

Carnival of the Recipes

SlashFood

And please encourage people to show their support by purchasing a subscription to Louisiana Cookin'.

NOLA restuaranters vow to rebuild

We plan to organize a directory of links to online information about Louisiana restuarants' progress in reopening. Until we get that together, we'll point to stories like this one from the L.A. Times called, "Only until further notice: In New Orleans, a city defined by its culinary culture, restaurateurs vow to rebuild."

Quote:

"According to a number of the city's prominent chefs and restaurateurs, that heartfelt tradition still remains, despite the nightmare still playing out. They all echo what Susan Spicer of Bayona and Herbsaint insisted from her brother's house in Jackson, Miss.: Nothing can kill the music or the food."

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Thanks for linking to Keep Cookin'

We really appreciate any help you can give us spreading the word about Keep Cookin' and Louisiana Cookin' Magazine. If you link to us, please e-mail us at keepcookin (at) hammock.com so we can say thanks. Thanks to these early linkers: Fixin' Supper's Laura Creekmore and B2B media blogger Paul Conley and Austin blogger Cole Huggins. Thanks also to Shawn Lea for spreading the word among the Carnival of the Recipes foodie folks.

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Thanks, David Shaw and Grid Media

David was quick to volunteer the services of GRID Media, the publication, conferences and media management services firm. On GRID's B or not 2B blog, David says helping out on a cause related to N'awlins cookin' is a natural for him, as he and his wife, "have a lithograph of Chef Paul Prudhomme hanging in our kitchen." Thanks, David.

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