Tuesday, October 27, 2015.
Poppy Tooker Checks In. New Kingfish Chef. Tujague's Cookbook.
Poppy Tooker also does a radio show about food, although it's a lot different from mine. I've been on hers, she's been on mine, when either of us have news. She does today: the delivery of her new cookbook, surveying the the menu of Tujague's. That wouldn't have made much of cookbook until recently. Despite its long history, Tujague's was so famous for a small number of regular dishes that any collection had to rely largely on the works of Madame Begue, whose restaurant Tujague's took over about a hundred years ago.
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Poppy Tooker at Tujague's.[/caption]That situation is different now. When Mark Latter took over the restaurant from his late father Steven Latter, he revamped the entire menu, bringing it into the modern age to such a degree that he even considered (briefly, until he asked customers about it) spinning off the most famous Tujague's dish of them all, boiled beef brisket.
The recipe for that was the first one I looked for in Poppy's new tome. Steven Latter told me that the recipe was a secret, but that the only point of secrecy was one ingredient. I thought about that for a long time, and in my next few dozen boilings of brisket I tried to figure it out. One time, I added a cut-up turnip, which made me pause when I tasted it. This might be it, I thought. Well, Poppy's book does indeed show a turnip in the boiling pot. I don't think I can brag about this, but I feel good about it.
Poppy was one of the guests at today's radio round table. She took issue with me when I said that it was odd for Shaya to be named best new restaurant in America--implying that it was the best in New Orleans. Without denying the goodness of the place, I'm bothered that such an honor would go to a restaurant whose food is decidedly not in the style of our distinctive local cuisine. Mary Ann says I'm being an old fart again in thinking this.
The other round table guest is Nathan Richard (pronounced the way my parrain said it, "REE-shard)." He had been at the new Bombay Club when Greg Sonnier left Kingfish (I don't know what happened either). Nathan says that the concept will keep its emphasis on Cajun and Creole food with traditional flavors but a good portion of new ideas. As an example, he brought in a collection of boudin balls, hogshead cheese, cured pork picnic, house-made pickled vegetables, and a few other goodies.
When the show ends I strut the fourteen blocks from the radio station to Tujague's, there to meet up with Mary Ann. And to further congratulate Poppy, who is at Tujague's autographing her and the restaurant's new cookbook. Good food circulates: crawfish pies, crabmeat ravigote, chicken bonne femme, and a few other items. But no brisket.
A lot of people I know are here. Photographer Louis Sahuc--but that's unfair. He's
always at Tujague's. Eric Paulsen, currently the longevity king among New Orleans broadcasters. He's been on Channel Four for thirty-eight continuous years, a record that will be hard for anyone to top. He asked my favorite question these days: "So, just how much weight
have you lost?"
Mary Ann is pulled onto the balcony overlooking the French Market by her love of being on the outsides of buildings. A five-piece Dixieland jazz band is playing there, next to Tujague's distinctive neon sign. I realize that I am swaddled in New Orleans atmosphere. The kind that I used to see on television when I was a little kid. I didn't really like this distinctive culture back then, but there was something in it that made me feel securely at home. That was when I was five or six years old. I still feel it, especially well tonight.
Kingfish. French Quarter: 337 Chartres St. 504-598-5005.
Tujague's. French Quarter: 823 Decatur. 504-525-8676.
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Poppy Tooker at Tujague's.[/caption]That situation is different now. When Mark Latter took over the restaurant from his late father Steven Latter, he revamped the entire menu, bringing it into the modern age to such a degree that he even considered (briefly, until he asked customers about it) spinning off the most famous Tujague's dish of them all, boiled beef brisket.
The recipe for that was the first one I looked for in Poppy's new tome. Steven Latter told me that the recipe was a secret, but that the only point of secrecy was one ingredient. I thought about that for a long time, and in my next few dozen boilings of brisket I tried to figure it out. One time, I added a cut-up turnip, which made me pause when I tasted it. This might be it, I thought. Well, Poppy's book does indeed show a turnip in the boiling pot. I don't think I can brag about this, but I feel good about it.
Poppy was one of the guests at today's radio round table. She took issue with me when I said that it was odd for Shaya to be named best new restaurant in America--implying that it was the best in New Orleans. Without denying the goodness of the place, I'm bothered that such an honor would go to a restaurant whose food is decidedly not in the style of our distinctive local cuisine. Mary Ann says I'm being an old fart again in thinking this.
The other round table guest is Nathan Richard (pronounced the way my parrain said it, "REE-shard)." He had been at the new Bombay Club when Greg Sonnier left Kingfish (I don't know what happened either). Nathan says that the concept will keep its emphasis on Cajun and Creole food with traditional flavors but a good portion of new ideas. As an example, he brought in a collection of boudin balls, hogshead cheese, cured pork picnic, house-made pickled vegetables, and a few other goodies.
When the show ends I strut the fourteen blocks from the radio station to Tujague's, there to meet up with Mary Ann. And to further congratulate Poppy, who is at Tujague's autographing her and the restaurant's new cookbook. Good food circulates: crawfish pies, crabmeat ravigote, chicken bonne femme, and a few other items. But no brisket.
A lot of people I know are here. Photographer Louis Sahuc--but that's unfair. He's always at Tujague's. Eric Paulsen, currently the longevity king among New Orleans broadcasters. He's been on Channel Four for thirty-eight continuous years, a record that will be hard for anyone to top. He asked my favorite question these days: "So, just how much weight have you lost?"
Mary Ann is pulled onto the balcony overlooking the French Market by her love of being on the outsides of buildings. A five-piece Dixieland jazz band is playing there, next to Tujague's distinctive neon sign. I realize that I am swaddled in New Orleans atmosphere. The kind that I used to see on television when I was a little kid. I didn't really like this distinctive culture back then, but there was something in it that made me feel securely at home. That was when I was five or six years old. I still feel it, especially well tonight.
