Sunday, October 31. Feast With The Stars. Two annual events convince me that it's autumn. One of them is Halloween, of course. More personal is the Feast With The Stars. This year (for the first time, I think) the two came on the same day.
Feast With The Stars is a small fundraiser for the Parkway Partners, who work with the city to plant trees and shrubs on neutral grounds and in pocket parks around town. They do this quietly but to great effect. The damage done by the Katrina flood to our stock of trees is still far from being remedied, but the Parkway Partners has seen to the planting of over eight thousand trees since then to move the program well along.
It's a Sunday brunch buffet in Gallier Hall--the old City Hall, a highly distinctive setting. The idea was hatched twenty-something years ago by Chef Paul Prudhomme, whose K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen is a perennial participant in the Feast. Also there year after year are Bayona, the Columns Hotel, the Windsor Court, and the Marriott. For a time, the theme of the event was to spotlight hotel restaurants, but that focus has blurred.
The Stars are various media, business, and political figures. I am one of the minor stars. Bob Breck, Peggy Scott Laborde, Errol Laborde, Flo Schornstein (the long-time director of the Parkways and Parks Commission), Jackie Clarkson, and Margarite Bergen are better-known regulars. A lot of them--and many of the guests--were in Halloween costumes. I get asked to a lot of things like this, but I always say yes to this one. I haven't missed it for at least fifteen years.
The food was slipping badly in the years after Katrina. Two years ago I was asked to help goose that up by writing a letter to the restaurants. Whether it was that or not, I don't know, but something worked. The food this year was the best ever.
The dish most discussed was from 5Fifty5, the restaurant in the Marriott on Canal Street. It made the same insanely rich and good macaroni and cheese with lobster that everyone loved last year. I am not wild about mac and cheese, but this was undeniably delicious, and it went fast. K-Paul's doled out the beef debris they serve over filet mignons at the restaurant, but over mashed potatoes here. The dish only sounds low-rent. It's an incredible taste.
A double surprise came from Dooky Chase. Both Leah Chase herself--deep in her eighties, and having trouble getting around--and her grandson Dook were there. Dook is taking over the kitchen these days. The dish: Miss Leah's famous gumbo z'herbes. I've had this at the restaurant more than a few times, but I don't remember its ever having been this great. It was the only dish that had me going back for seconds.
Although I gave a thought to another pass at Windsor Court's chef Drew Dzejak's escargots with garlic butter and pasta. Not that the other food was unworthy. There was just enough of it that one serving of each dish would have been enough to keep you full into the next day. The only complaint I had was that there weren't enough desserts, but in past years there were too many.
This was the first year that Mary Ann came with me. Her plan was to stay just a little while, then go visit her brother and pick me up later. But she liked the party enough to stay. I almost wish she hadn't. She was so turned on by the table centerpieces that she bought four of them, a good deal at $35 apiece. "These will be wonderful for Thanksgiving!" she said.
Another donation from our house met a gratifying fate. My two current books went off at the silent auction for $25 over the cover price. I was very pleased to autograph those.
I persuaded Mary Ann to drive home by way of Slidell. I began doing that every year after the first post-Katrina Feast. At the time, I wanted to take a mental snapshot of New Orleans East. It was in shockingly terrible shape in 2005. Now there are more gaps than filled spaces--the most amazing of them being the place where once stood the gigantic former Plaza In Lake Forest shopping mall. I remember its opening as a glamorous mall that was set to rival Lakeside Mall. It happened deep enough into my adulthood that it seems like recent history. Now it Ain't Dere No More, to quote Benny Grunch.
