Kim Pemberton: Food tour offers a taste of New Orleans

“Only rule we have is don’t leave town hungry,” a shopkeeper in New Orleans’ French Quarter tells me during a food tour with Doctor Gumbo.

I think to myself that’s easy. It’s impossible not to be enticed by the city’s irresistible culinary scene, with many travellers coming just for the food. Known for its Cajun, Creole and French cuisine, New Orleans has a long gastronomy history, and in fact was named best food destination in the U.S. by Tripadvisor in 2023.

I definitely ate well during my recent five-day visit, including three hours spent with Doctor Gumbo Tours, with guide and food scholar Nate Prendergast. His walking tour through the scenic French Quarter, the city’s oldest neighbourhood, included six “tastings” and four drinks from different restaurants and specialty food shops. But these were more than just tastings. All of the dishes were healthy-sized portions, compared to my past culinary tour adventures. For instance, in a U.S. city I won’t name the chowder came in a tiny dixie cup. But with Doctor Gumbo, servings are generous.

At our first stop, for instance, at the Red Fish Grill on Bourbon Street, we were given a large bowl of gumbo, featuring alligator, local blue crab, Gulf of Mexico shrimp and smoked pork, washed down with the restaurant’s specialty cocktail called the Cat 5 Hurricane, heavy on the rum.

We were still full from lunch when we visited Napoleon House, which earned its name in 1821 because it was meant to provide a refuge for Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile. In the historic building, where we also got to check out Napoleon’s never-used apartment, we enjoyed another New Orleans classic, the Muffuletta. The sandwich, stacked with ham, salami, pastrami, Swiss and provolone cheese, was deliciously warm, unlike most places serving it cold in New Orleans.

We also got a side of Creole jambalaya, a rice-based dish flavoured in chicken stock with ham sausage, chicken, celery, onion, green bell pepper and tomato and the restaurant’s signature drink — a Pimm’s cocktail with house-made lemonade and a splash of lemon-lime soda.

At Pepper Palace we tasted hot sauces, lining the walls with one section dedicated just to Louisiana sauces. One sauce, in particular, called The End, stood out. Considered the hottest sauce in the store, visitors wanting to try it are required to sign a waiver they won’t sue should the tasting not go well.

At Leah’s Pralines we enjoyed a praline-packed cookie for dessert before ending the tour on a lacy wrought iron balcony, overlooking Jackson Square, at Dickie Brennan’s Tableau Restaurant. From this prime vantage point we could listen to jazz street performers below, while enjoying yet another full-size cocktail.

While the food and drinks were highlights, learning about Louisiana’s history, through a culinary lens, was enlightening. And you can’t talk about the New Orleans culinary scene without explaining why Cajun and Creole food are so dominant in the city, something our history-major guide knows something about.

“The Cajuns were here all the way back to 1604. They very much pre-dated Louisiana territories when a group of French Roman Catholic farmers, 40 families, came here to basically farm and practise their religion. They had settled in places like Nova Scotia, upper Maine, New Brunswick and the eastern part of Quebec,” said Prendergast, but added after they were deported in 1755, for refusing to pledge allegiance to the British, the Acadians went to New Orleans, now Spanish territory, to help populate the region.

“They’re going to move to the swamp area and farm and eat what the land gives them — snakes, squirrels, and alligators. Let’s just say their food was a little bit gamey.”

Thanks to Spanish spices, he said, the Acadians or Cajuns were able to improve the meats’ flavours.

“The cuisine of the Acadians is very different from the Creole. It’s like the spicy crawfish boils, spicy sausages, the brown spicy jambalaya. Creole cuisine, on the other hand, is based on French classics, whole bunch of butter and cream and some spices to bring it together but it’s not meant to be the leading flavour,” he said.

After the tour (and history lesson) we headed to a major culinary event that was happening in New Orleans during our visit in mid-June. The Americas semi-finals for Bocuse d’Or, considered the “Olympics of Cooking” which will take place next January in Lyon, France. This was the first time the United States was hosting the qualifying competition for Bocuse d’Or, and Canada was among the nine international teams competing from north, south and Latin America.

We arrived in time to see the Canadian team of top chefs earn second place, after the United States, with Mexico placing third. The winning dishes all included mandatory ingredients like alligator sausage and wild boar, not found in Canada but commonplace in New Orleans.

The event also attracted well-known local chefs and James Beard winners like Emery Lagasse, Frank Brigtsen, Nina Compton, Alon Shaya and Susan Spicer, who have some of the best restaurants in the city.

While it’s impossible to experience all New Orleans has to offer in southern cooking, visiting one or more of these chefs’ restaurants is definitely worth doing and if you go be sure not to leave New Orleans hungry.

Emeril’s New Orleans

For an upscale dining experience, Emeril’s New Orleans is my top choice. Diners can choose from two distinct tasting menus — either the Classic with dishes the city’s most famous chef has done over the years to the Seasonal, which showcases Louisiana’s culinary history.

I opted for the Classic, which began with a smoked salmon cheesecake, topped with caviar, gold flakes and dill. The appetizer was followed by oyster stew, trout almandine and the main course of a lobster gumbo and risotto with black truffle and parmesan.

At the helm of Lagasse’s flagship restaurant is his 22-year-old son E.J., who is continuing the family’s legacy by becoming one of New Orleans’ top chefs. You’ll likely see Lagasse junior or Sault. St. Marie native Josh Adamo, the restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine, working hard behind a floor to ceiling glass viewing window, in their spotlessly clean kitchen.

Brigtsen’s Restaurant

Described by locals as a “chefs’ chef” Frank Brigtsen has been cooking southern food for 51 years, and can be found most days in his small kitchen at Brigtsen’s, opened in 1986 in the residential neighbourhood of Riverbend.

The affable chef says one of his great joys in life is passing along what he knows about Creole and Cajun cuisine to today’s young chefs, a couple of whom were squeezed in with Brigtsen when I did a behind-the-scenes kitchen tour. One of the young chefs showed me how to make the restaurant’s famous gumbo sauce, which starts with a dark roux flavoured with pecans. While delicious, I’ll never forget the restaurant’s butternut shrimp bisque, a recipe I made sure to do from his cookbook when I got home.

BABS (formerly Bywater American Bistro)

Saint Lucia-born chef Nina Compton moved to New Orleans after winning runner-up in Top Chef season 11 and quickly made a name for herself as one of the city’s great culinary stars. In 2017 she was named one of the best new chefs in Food & Wine magazine and in 2018 won the James Beard Awards Best Chef: South. Her menu at BABS blends Caribbean, Cajun and Creole cooking methods and ingredients to produce amazing dishes.

I loved the beautifully presented whipped ricotta tart with cherry jam, the melt-in-your mouth whole roasted branzino and her carefully plated spaghetti Pomodoro. My fellow diners also raved about BABS’ grilled octopus and Wagyu beef lasagna. The bohemian restaurant, with a relaxed atmosphere, is also the perfect place to enjoy conversations.

Miss Rivers

Chef Alon Shaya, an Israel-born but Philadelphia-raised chef, describes the restaurant Miss River, located in the Four Seasons, as “his love letter to Louisiana.” Opened in 2020, it was named one of Esquire’s “Best New Restaurants in America” focusing not only on food that pays homage to Israel but brings a twist to southern favourites like blue crab with gruyere cheese, duck and andouille gumbo, barbecue shrimp and butter-fried beignets.

While it’s no longer the newest restaurant in downtown New Orleans it is still one of the best places to enjoy an evening of great gastronomy.

Rosedale

This local favourite, near City Park and the New Orleans Museum of Art, is easily accessible from downtown on the Canal Street streetcar. Housed in a former police station, built in 1936, the restaurant is unassuming, so much so that when you go to what you think is the entrance you are greeted by a sign that reads: “Right place, wrong door.”

Once inside, it’s hard not to miss a display of “St. Susan” prayer candles for sale, with a photo of Chef Susan Spicer, wearing a halo crown, giving bread to an outstretched hand. Cheeky but fun, which also describes the menu’s southern comfort food like bourbon fried chicken with mac & cheese, pimento cheese sandwich, shrimp creole and the Louisiana staple of ham po’boy.

Kim Pemberton was hosted by New Orleans & Company, which did not review or approve this story. Follow her on Instagram at kimstravelogue.