Keep Cookin': Friends of Louisiana Cookin' Magazine

Viking Cooking School classes to benefit hurricane relief

CAJUN COOKING FOR A CAUSE

Viking Cooking Schools across the country will donate proceeds from their New Orleans-themed cooking classes, "Big Easy Hors d'oeuvres" and "Cajun Christmas" to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

For more information, e-mail: [email protected]

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

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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A message from the publishers of Louisiana Cookin'

The following is a note from Romney and Charley Richard, publishers, to the readers and advertisers of Louisiana Cookin' Magazine:

Thank you for the interest and concern shown to the staff of Louisiana Cookin' since Hurricane Katrina drove us to seek refuge elsewhere. I am writing you from an RV parked in the driveway of our children's home near Baton Rouge.

Louisiana Cookin' will keep cookin'. We are working to publish the November/December issue, with the help of our staff scattered across five states, and concerned colleagues from out of state who have joined us to ensure that we publish with as little interruption as possible.

To our readers who have been forced out of their homes by Katrina, we are going to provide you the option to send us a change of address through a link we will post very soon. If we don't hear from you, we will suspend your subscription and then resume delivery to you once mail service is restored to your area.

Many of our advertisers have been affected just like we have, and we are anxious to help them communicate their viability to our readers. We look forward to seeing how we can play a role in restoring this very tight-knit community we are all a part of.

In the meantime, keep cookin'. And thanks again for your prayers and well-wishes.

Romney and Charley

tags: keepcookin, louisianacookin

Keep Cookin' Weblog

We'll be making many more posts in the coming hours and days letting you know about our volunteer efforts to support the publisher and staff, readers and advertisers of Louisiana Cookin' Magazine during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.