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Critic-Turned-Cook Gets Hurt Mixing Politics and Food

Posted by Leslie Kelly, November 19, 2009 at 2:30 PM

Lost in a sensory memory while chopping pimento-stuffed olives, I slashed through my thumbnail. I should have known better—mixing politics and food preparation can be dangerous.

I was making olive salad for muffulettas for the 70 guys at Alpha Sigma Phi. My boss, Louisiana native Darlene Barnes, pulled the recipe from Cooking Up a Storm, the epic, deeply moving post-Katrina roundup of recipes lost in the disaster, a collection compiled by veteran food writers at the Times-Picayune.

While making that flat-out delicious recipe, I started thinking about the first time I had a muffuletta in New Orleans (at Central Grocery), about how much I love that city and how angry I was that five years later, there's still much to do. Will it ever be the same? Sure, there has been progress—visitors are back, carrying Hand Grenades, Hurricanes, and Big Ass Beers down Bourbon Street. But the going's slower on the outskirts of the city.

[Photograph: Leslie Kelly]

Shortly after the levees failed in 2005, devastating the city and displaced so many of its residents, I went there to help rebuild an iconic restaurant, Willie Mae's Scotch House, an effort organized by the Southern Foodways Alliance. (You can watch an amazing, uplifting documentary about the restoration on Vimeo.)

Back then, seeing the scope of the damage up close was shocking. Friends who live there took me to the Ninth Ward and the St. Bernard Parish, where block after block after block was wiped out. One image was particularly haunting: a lone man, sweeping around his home, trying to create some kind of order amid the chaos.

I've returned to the Crescent City many times since then, to pump money into the economy, mostly by eating myself silly. But seriously, the act of making that olive salad made me very emotional. I started ranting about the gazillions of dollars spent on wrong-headed wars and bailouts of banks when we should really be making things right in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. (That's when I got distracted and sliced into my nail.)

I know that sounds naïve, but it's just not right. Please, let's not forget New Orleans. (An important ruling that came down yesterday in federal court, holding the Corps of Engineers accountable for the levee failure is a step in the right direction, but doesn't it suck that it takes a lawsuit before the government is forced to do what's right? Dang, I'm getting worked up again!) I'm going to try and make sure the guys in Alpha Sigma Phi don't forget what happened in 2005 when, next summer, a few of them head to New Orleans for a national fraternity meeting. Yes, I know they'll let the good times roll, but I'm going to plant the seed that they should consider doing some kind of service project while they're down there, too.

Who knew olive salad could get a person so stirred up?

About the author: Former Seattle Post-Intelligencer restaurant critic Leslie Kelly has been working in professional kitchens since the newspaper folded in March and chronicling her culinary journey from pen to pan for Serious Eats. She also blogs at LeslieKellyWhiningandDining.blogspot.com and recently launched a story-telling project for Northstar Winery following one wine from the vine to the table.

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Tags: Critic-Turned-Cook, Louisiana, New Orleans