Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans [Paperback]

Marcelle Bienvenu (Author), Judy Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2008

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, thousands of people lost their keepsakes and family treasures forever. As residents started to rebuild their lives, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans became a post-hurricane swapping place for old recipes that were washed away in the storm. The newspaper has compiled 250 of these delicious, authentic recipes along with the stories about how they came to be and who created them. Cooking Up a Storm includes the very best of classic and contemporary New Orleans cuisine, from seafood and meat to desserts and cocktails. But it also tells the story, recipe by recipe, of one of the great food cities in the world, and the determination of its citizens to preserve and safeguard their culinary legacy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marcelle Bienvenu writes the popular "Cooking Creole" column for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, and has collaborated with Chef Emeril Lagasse on several of his cookbooks. She lives in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Judy Walker is the food editor of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. She is the author or co-author of five cookbooks on the food of the Southwest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; Original edition (October 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811865770
• ISBN-13: 978-0811865777
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > U.S. Regional

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An evocation of New Orleans, its cuisine and its people, December 11, 2008

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans (Paperback)

Marcel Bienvenu writes the "Cooking Creole" column in the "Times Picayune", and and Judy Walker is the food editor for that publication. They've written other books together, but in a sense this one was written by their readers as they sought to recover from Katrina.

On Oct. 7, 2005, Walker invited her readers to take part in a program they called "Rebuilding New Orleans, Recipe by Recipe." Essentially, the idea was to pair readers who needed a particular recipe with folks who still had theirs. Walker writes that the response was over-whelming. "It became a sort of community project; everybody wanted to help.... It was amazing, so many of the requests were for the same recipe, sometimes the same recipe on the same day."

The book contains 250 of the best recipes, each with a short essay that puts the recipe into a human perspective. Only two of the thousands of requested recipes have not been found; a gumbo recipe from a New Orleans Saints football player and a pasta salad recipe.

Some of the recipes are famous, Jamie Shannon's recipe for Tasso Shrimp with Five-Pepper Jelly; Leslie's mirliton gumbo; and the Roosevelt Hotel's shrimp remoulade, for example.

Others are clearly from home cooks, some handed down from generation to generation; these ten were taken from a file of newspaper clippings: Fair Grounds corned beef; Crabmeat Remick; Johnny Becnel's Daddy's okra gumbo; turkey bone gumbo; Jolene Black's cream biscuits; salt and pepper shrimp; Rosie's sweet potato pies; Brownies to die for; Ursuline Academy anise cookies; and rosemary cookies.

Walker describes the importance of this collection in the following words:

"Here in south Louisiana, we still have an intact food culture, thanks to every one of you who's ever made a roux. Restaurants and home cooks keep the cultural and literal flame burning under the emblematic red beans and rice on Mondays. People make their mama's oyster dressing at Thanksgiving. That's reason No. 1: We have something unique, worth saving.

"And, the region is blessed with many only-in-Louisiana ingredients -- crawfish, hot sausage, cane syrup, andouille, Creole mustard -- this list could go on and on until lunchtime. But there are not a lot of recipes in "Joy of Cooking" for crawfish or cane syrup. So that's another reason: Even when you do find a recipe for stuffed peppers, they're not stuffed with seafood as they are here. So these unique recipes, the lost ones, are specific to south Louisiana."

This is a wonderful book for people like me who have gone to New Orleans just to spend a long week-end enjoying restaurant foods on offer. The recipes and stories capture a wonderful city, its cuisine and its citizens.

Robert C. Ross 2008

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Collection of Recipes, January 21, 2009

By 

S. Franke "liquid lover" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans (Paperback)

This cookbook is not the most visually stimulating, with no pictures and no color. However, I quickly got over my disappointment with the overall look when I began thumbing through these fun dishes, full of Louisiana flavor and ingredients that are universally appealing. I began to realize that this cookbook was put together just as one would on their own: a collection of recipes that have been passed down through the years between family and friends. I immediately ordered 5 more as gifts.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best, February 21, 2009

By 

NuJoi "Create with me" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans (Paperback)

I absolutely love this cookbook! It is truly a collection of beloved favorites, even for a former transplant who claims New Orleans as an adopted home.

Where do I start? These are popular recipes, requested by those who lost their treasured Times-Pic and other recpes in Hurricane Katrina. (What a novel idea to combine them in a cookbook. This just shows you how important food is to the culture.)

I am really impressed by the extensive range of recipes. You will find a wide range of recipes here, from appetizers, to drinks, to Lenten dishes to desserts. These foods eaten as part of the everyday the Southeastern Louisiana lifestyle. The recipes are favorites from both home kitchens and restaurants. My only criticism is that there is no etouffee recipe.

I would not recommend this book as a souvenir cookbook or for the unintiated. This is for people who know the food of the region, love it and cook it regularly. The recipes aren't extremely difficult, but a properly made roux can be challenging if you've not done it before.

If you know anyone who misses NOLA and her foods, buy this book.