Articles

I’ve been working with words professionally since 1999, when I transitioned from kitchen work to writing about restaurants for Gambit Weekly in New Orleans. Since that time I’ve been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, and literary journals, and on many websites. The following list represents a sampling of that writing.

• Op-ed: A one-in-a-million, Tarzan-tree-swing, busted-knee infection, Los Angeles Times

• A Revolutionary Vegetable, Oxford American

• Breakfast at Brennan’s, The Local Palate

• Remembering Jim Core, Edible New Orleans

• Tour de Gumbo, New Orleans Magazine/myNewOrleans.com

• Leah Chase: The Creole Grande Dame, Garden & Gun

• Daddy’s Roommate, Tin House

• Glitter and Glue Gun, Tin House

• The Secret Ingredient, Oxford American

• An Agtech Start-Up Growing Roots on the Central Coast, REACH.org

Oral History

Between 2005 and 2017, I gathered more than one hundred oral history interviews for the Southern Foodways Alliance, helping to document the foodways of the American South. Oral history work is low-profile but high-yield. I became a better listener, and indeed even a better person, through my fieldwork. I take pride and comfort in knowing the raw interviews will outlast me in their archival home at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Following is a list with links of the oral history projects I worked on; the SFA’s web site contains many, many more.

• The Southern Gumbo Trail

• The Southern Boudin Trail

• New Orleans Sno-Balls

• The Lives and Loaves of New Orleans

• Ya-Ka-Mein in New Orleans

• Down the Bayou

• Middendorf’s and Manchac

• Lunch Houses of Acadiana

• The Brennan Family of New Orleans

Podcasts

“Red Beans, Red Wine, & Rebuilds: A Katrina Anniversary Special” - In one segment of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Gravy podcast, I explore the history of Bacchanal, a wine bar turned institution in New Orleans.

“Food writing, gumbo, and big transitions” - Consumed host Jaime Lewis indulges my gumbo ramblings.

“Tell Me A Story” - Re-Wire! host Duchess Dale and I discuss a topic dear to both our hearts: life story writing.