Southern Food and Beverage Museum

Last updated
The Southern Food and Beverage Museum
Southern Food and Beverage Museum
Established2004
Location1504 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA 70113
Coordinates 29°56′27″N90°4′45″W / 29.94083°N 90.07917°W / 29.94083; -90.07917
Website www.southernfood.org

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is a non-profit museum based in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a mission to explore the culinary history of the American Southern states and to explain the roots of Southern food and drinks. Their exhibits focus on every aspect of food in the South, from the cultural traditions to the basic recipes and communities formed through food.

Contents

Canning demonstration at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in 2010 Canning at Southern Food and Beverage Museum New Orleans.jpg
Canning demonstration at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in 2010

History

The Museum was founded in 2004 by Matt Konigsmark, Gina Warner, and Elizabeth Williams, who was the former President. The current President and CEO is Constance Jackson. The museum got its start through a small exhibit on the history and influences of beverages in New Orleans. [1] With help from co-founders Elizabeth Pearce and a growing board of interested foodies from around the South, the exhibits grew. Pearce curated an exhibit based on the revival of restaurants in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans called Restaurant Restorative that was featured at the 2006 James Beard Foundation Awards. [2] From there, it was only a matter of finding the proper space for a full-sized museum on food and beverages that would cover the entire South, not just New Orleans and Louisiana. In the summer of 2008, the Museum finally found a home in Riverwalk Marketplace, a shopping mall right on the Mississippi River in the Warehouse District of New Orleans.

On September 1, 2011, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum announced it was relocating to a larger space on O. C. Haley Boulevard in historic Central City, New Orleans. [3] The groundbreaking at Dryades Market building happened on June 25, 2012. The new facility opened on September 29, 2014. Its current location includes a culinary innovation center, an exhibit for every southern state, an absinthe gallery, a Gumbo Garden, a Culinary Heritage Sign Gallery, and a temporary exhibit space. [4]

In May 2011 Southern Food and Beverage Museum was named one of the five great museums devoted to food by Saveur magazine. [5]

Exhibits and Programs

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum features a wide range of food and beverage related exhibits.

The Leah Chase Louisiana Gallery is a permanent gallery focused on the food and traditions of Louisiana. The gallery is named after New Orleans creole chef Leah Chase. [6] Louisiana Eats! Laissez Faire – Savoir Fare, as the exhibit is called, covers everything from beignets to harvesting crawfish, to the evolution of jambalaya through colonial and native foods.

Bruning's Bar is a bar from the 1830s that is in the process of being restored. It was salvaged from the wreckage of Bruning's Restaurant, the third oldest restaurant in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina. The bar is also used as such during special events.

As part of the Paul McIlhenny Culinary Entrepreneurship Program, SoFAB has a partnership with Deelightful Roux School of Cooking. The school is located inside the museum.

Events

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum usually hosts events on weekends. The events range from cooking demonstrations to workshops on beer making or rum tasting.

The Museum also hosts children's culinary camps that teach kids how to cook and appreciate food. There are also lesson plans for teachers to use to teach history and culture through a culinary approach.

Publications

Red Beans and Ricely Yours: The Museum reprinted Christopher Blake's 1982 cookbook in both 2005 and 2006. It is a collection of traditional recipes from New Orleans, beginning with Louis Armstrong's favorite, the classic red beans and rice.

Room in the Bowl: In partnership with the Culinary Trust of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), the Museum published this collection of essays and photographs examining the signature dish of Louisiana: a pot of gumbo.

On the Line is SoFab's online blog, with recipes and features by multiple contributors, all experts on food and food ways of the south. Liz Williams, museum director, writes the Bread and Butter feature, which focuses on her expertise in food law.

The Museum of the American Cocktail is housed in the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. It chronicles the extensive history of the cocktail in America and provides a wealth of information regarding the social and cultural impact of alcoholic beverages.

SoFAB's culinary library and archive

In late October 2013, SoFAB opened a culinary library [7] on O.C. Haley Boulevard, a short distance from where the new museum will be located. This research library is open to the public and houses over 10,000 volumes including cookbooks, magazines, and books about food history and food politics.

It is also home to a growing archival collection. The archive will be a resource for scholars examining the culture of the South and the role of food and beverages in cultural history. [8]

The library and archive contain information about food from all over the world, not limited to the American South.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cajun cuisine</span> Cajun food

Cajun cuisine is a style of cooking developed by the Cajun–Acadians who were deported from Acadia to Louisiana during the 18th century and who incorporated West African, French and Spanish cooking techniques into their original cuisine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louisiana Creole cuisine</span> American regional cuisine

Louisiana Creole cuisine is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends West African, French, Spanish, and Native American influences, as well as influences from the general cuisine of the Southern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gumbo</span> Louisianan stew

Gumbo is a stew that is popular in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and is the official state cuisine. Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and the Creole "holy trinity" – celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used, whether okra or filé powder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jambalaya</span> Rice dish with meat and vegetables

Jambalaya is an American Creole and Cajun rice dish of French, African, and Spanish influence, consisting mainly of meat and vegetables mixed with rice and spices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calas (food)</span> Creole rice fritters

Calas are dumplings composed primarily of cooked rice, yeast, sugar, eggs, and flour; the resulting batter is deep-fried. It is traditionally a breakfast dish, served with coffee or cafe au lait, and has a mention in most Creole cuisine cookbooks. Calas are also referred to as Creole rice fritters or rice doughnuts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Remoulade</span> Mayonnaise-based cold sauce

Rémoulade is a cold sauce. Although similar to tartar sauce, it is often more yellowish, sometimes flavored with curry, and often contains chopped pickles or piccalilli. It can also contain horseradish, paprika, anchovies, capers and a host of other items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Prudhomme</span> American chef

Paul Prudhomme, also known as Gene Autry Prudhomme, was an American celebrity chef whose specialties were Creole and Cajun cuisines, which he was also credited with popularizing. He was the chef proprietor of K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen in New Orleans, and had formerly owned and run several other restaurants. He developed several culinary products, including hot sauce and seasoning mixes, and wrote 11 cookbooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirty rice</span> Traditional Louisiana Creole rice dish

Dirty rice is a traditional Louisiana Creole dish made from white rice which gets a "dirty" color from being cooked with small pieces of pork, beef or chicken, green bell pepper, celery, and onion, and spiced with cayenne and black pepper. Parsley and chopped green onions are common garnishes. Dirty rice is most common in the Creole regions of southern Louisiana; however, it can also be found in other areas of the American South and referenced as "chicken and rice," "Cajun rice," or "rice dressing".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leah Chase</span> American chef and artist

Leyah (Leah) Chase was an American chef based in New Orleans, Louisiana. An author and television personality, she was known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, advocating both African-American art and Creole cooking. Her restaurant, Dooky Chase, was known as a gathering place during the 1960s among many who participated in the Civil Rights Movement, and was known as a gallery due to its extensive African-American art collection. In 2018 it was named one of the 40 most important restaurants of the past 40 years by Food & Wine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austin Leslie</span> Chef from New Orleans, Louisiana, US

Austin Leslie was an internationally famous New Orleans, Louisiana, chef whose work defined 'Creole Soul'. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 71 after having been evacuated from New Orleans; he had been trapped in his attic for two days in the 98 °F heat, in the aftermath of the August 29 Hurricane Katrina. He was honored with the first jazz funeral after Katrina on October 9, 2005, in the still largely-deserted city. The procession, led by the Hot 8 Brass Band, marched through the flood-ravaged remains of Leslie's old Seventh Ward neighborhood, starting out at Pampy's Creole Kitchen and stopping along the way at the location of the original Chez Helene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Museum of the American Cocktail</span> Museum

The Museum of the American Cocktail, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to education in mixology and preserving the rich history of the cocktail as developed in the United States. Among its events are tastings in association with specific seminars or exhibits. It annually presents the American Cocktail Awards, together with the United States Bartenders Guild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cuisine of New Orleans</span> Culinary traditions of New Orleans, Louisiana, US

The cuisine of New Orleans encompasses common dishes and foods in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is perhaps the most distinctively recognized regional cuisine in the United States. Some of the dishes originated in New Orleans, while others are common and popular in the city and surrounding areas, such as the Mississippi River Delta and southern Louisiana. The cuisine of New Orleans is heavily influenced by Creole cuisine, Cajun cuisine, and soul food. Later on, due to immigration, Italian cuisine and Sicilian cuisine also has some influence on the cuisine of New Orleans. Seafood also plays a prominent part in the cuisine. Dishes invented in New Orleans include po' boy and muffuletta sandwiches, oysters Rockefeller and oysters Bienville, pompano en papillote, and bananas Foster, among others.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faubourg Lafayette</span> Part of the 10th Ward of New Orleans


The neighborhood of the Faubourg Lafayette is a division in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a portion of the 10th Ward of New Orleans, and part of Central City, New Orleans. The boundaries are the lake side of St. Charles Avenue from Jackson Avenue to the Pontchartrain Expressway, back to Simon Bolivar Avenue.

Frank Joseph Davis (1942—2013) was a radio and television personality in New Orleans, Louisiana, distinguished by his tag line "Naturally N'Awlins" that concluded his on-air interviews. He served New Orleans television station WWL-TV and its radio affiliate WWL-AM, from 1974 until his health-related retirement in 2011. Davis's inaugural broadcast responsibility was a live sportsman's radio talk show, following a brief career with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. His journalistic style shifted to on-air featured stories and interviews as his subject matter expanded from fishing in southeast Louisiana to the New Orleans Mardi Gras and the cuisine of New Orleans. His outdoor sportsmen's reports tied together south Louisiana cuisine with the sport of fishing in a way that was said to be pioneering. Davis perennially covered Mardi Gras festivities for local television audiences from a St. Charles Avenue broadcast booth. His death was due to Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, a rare autoimmune disease.

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References

  1. "Introduction to SoFaB | Southern Food and Beverage Museum". Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
  2. "Quick Bites:Southern Food and Beverage Museum going strong".
  3. Walker, Judy (2011-09-01). "Southern Food and Beverage Museum will relocate to Central City". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  4. "Southern Food and Beverage Museum breaks ground at new location".
  5. "Eat With Your Eyes: Five Great Museums Devoted to Food". 18 March 2019.
  6. "The Queen of Creole Cuisine's latest honor is a museum gallery".
  7. "New SoFAB Culinary Library and Archive opens Wednesday in New Orleans".
  8. Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine