When Thanksgiving gets here, who makes the gumbo? 

First, let me put aside the controversy about the real Thanksgiving. We know the deal. New Orleanians can relate to welcoming people into our city and then they want to take over. Yet, on the Thanksgiving holiday, we still do take time to celebrate blessings, remember traditional foods, and give thanks that we are alive.   

This brings us to gumbo, without which no family get-together is actually serious. Many of us know our gumbo by heart or have the ingredients written down on a scrap of paper somewhere. We also have a record provided by our elders. “The Dooky Chase Cookbook” is about as popular in our homes as the bedside bible. Written by ancestor Leah Chase, the book’s recipes are a map to the savory and sweet dishes we have enjoyed in the restaurant. I personally miss talking about food and families on my visits to the corner of Orleans and Miro. Yet, I get the flavor of Mrs. Chase’s personality in this book and her previous ones. (As you know a gumbo is only as good as the passion of the cook.) The other Chase cookbooks are “And Still I Cook” and “Listen, I Say Like This.” All are from Pelican Publishing. 

EMBERS

The tyranny of a columnist is the ability to choose her subjects independently. So be assured that my editor did not make the following recommendation. My two favorite restaurant families for gumbo in New Orleans are the Chases and the Baquets. There are plenty of other good chefs and restaurants. However, I go to Dooky’s, Chapter IV, and Li’l Dizzy’s without having to consider too many factors beforehand because I know the food will satisfy me. So I must mention that in 2009 Wayne Baquet wrote “The Baquet Family Cookbook: Four Generations of Creole Cookin’ in New Orleans.” The 71-page book contains recipes but is also a piece of history. Both of these restaurant families fed their communities during segregation with affordable dishes, hosting locals as well as celebrities, politicians, and civil rights leaders. 

LAGNIAPPE

“Treme: Stories and Recipes from the Heart of New Orleans” an  “Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country” by Lolis Eric Elie; “Cooking for the Culture: Recipes and Stories from the New Orleans Streets to the Table” by Toya Boudy; “Southern Creole: Recipes From My New Orleans Kitchen” by Kenneth C. Temple.

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Fatima Shaik is the author of seven books including "Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood," the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 2022 Book of the Year. She is a native of...