The Dooky Chase Cookbook (hardcover)

Where do personalities the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Ray Charles, Lou Rawls, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, the Jackson 5, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama choose to eat when they are in New Orleans? Dooky Chase's Restaurant, a New Orleans landmark and celebrated bastion of fine Creole food, has welcomed these notable individuals as well as thousands of locals through its doors since opening in 1941. The unquestionable authority in the restaurant's kitchen for many of those years, Leah Chase offers here a collection of recipes from the menu and her personal files that have delighted patrons for decades.

Spiced with exquisite works from the African American art collection that hangs in the restaurant's dining room, this cookbook pairs the flavors of Leah Chase's dishes with anecdotes recounting the restaurant's traditions, origins of the recipes, and memories.  Many of Leah Chase's iconic dishes are included: Shrimp Clemenceau, Southern Fried Chicken, Crawfish Etouffée, Split Pea Soup, Creole Jambalaya, Court Bouillon, Lemon Meringue Pie, and the famed Gumbo des Herbes. This revised and expanded edition presents even more of the restaurant's favorite offerings and features a new chapter on drinks. Dooky Chase's longtime chef and proprietor passed away in 2019, but these pages honor Leah's legacy through recipes and sentiments that will be forever intertwined with the history of New Orleans.