“Far from being just a gimmicky marketing ploy, Treme . . . is an engaging representation of the cuisine of modern-day New Orleans . . . Fascinating.” —The Austin Chronicle Inspired by David Simon’s award-winning HBO series Treme, this celebration of the culinary spirit of post-Katrina New Orleans features recipes and tributes from the characters, real and fictional, who highlight the Crescent City’s rich foodways. From chef Janette Desautel’s own Crawfish Ravioli and LaDonna Batiste-Williams’s Smothered Turnip Soup to the city’s finest Sazerac, New Orleans’ cuisine is a mélange of influences from Creole to Vietnamese, at once new and old, genteel and down-home, and, in the words of Toni Bernette, “seasoned with delicious nostalgia.” As visually rich as the series itself, the book includes 100 heritage and contemporary recipes from the city’s heralded restaurants such as Upperline, Bayona, Restaurant August, and Herbsaint, plus original recipes from renowned chefs Eric Ripert, David Chang, and other Treme guest stars. For the six million who come to New Orleans each year for its food and music, this is the ultimate homage to the traditions that make it one of the world’s greatest cities. “Food, music, and New Orleans are all passions about which—it seems to me—all reasonable people of substance should be vocal . . . This book gives voice to the characters, real and imaginary, whose love and deep attachments to a great but deeply wounded city should be immediately understandable with one bite.” —Anthony Bourdain

I was born on February 8, 1951 in a small migrant camp town in Southeast Florida. This mostly hot sandy little community was called Indiantown. My mother was a nineteen years old along, who with her father David and other siblings, lived at this camp during the seasonal months of 1950. They worked picking vegetables out in the enormous fields owned by local farmers for what little money they could make. This money was to be taken back home to care for the rest of the family. Times were hard and the family needed money to make ends meet. My grandmother, Annie Mae, was at home, a two-hour drive north in central Florida. She was caring for all the younger children. David and Annie Mae came to Florida in 1950; their children would always tease them by saying . . . . "We left Carolina in 1949 and got to Florida in 1950". Of course it was late December when they left, and January 1st by the time they arrived.