Beth D'Addono, author of City Eats New Orleans
Everybody's in LA: Beth D'Addono, author and journalist
speaking to Paul Oswell
Beth D'Addono is one of our city's most prolific food writers. She's also an author, and her latest book, City Eats New Orleans, is a collection of the city's most influential restaurants and chefs. It's an instant essential read for anyone interested in not only where to eat, but also how the current culinary scene has evolved, and where it's going. We talked to Beth about the book, her inspirations and her thoughts on the city's evolving gastronomic landscape.
Out All Day: Hi Beth, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Your new book, City Eat New Orleans, has been out for a month or so now, and you’ve been doing live events at various restaurants that are featured in the book - why did you choose to do them and how have they been going?
Beth D'Addono: They’ve been going great - except when Francine got in the way of the one planned with chef Marcus at The Bower. The idea was to engage chefs and restaurateurs in the evolving food conversation about the New Orleans dining scene in a series of Happy Hours. My next one is at Mister Mao on October 3rd, 5-6 pm with chef Sophina Uong. We love to talk about food in New Orleans!
How long have you been writing about food? Tell us about your formative culinary experiences - was the young Beth a foodie from the start?
I didn’t grow up here. I was born outside of New York City and moved to Philadelphia as a kid. That’s where I started my writing career and really discovered food. It’s a city of many ethnic neighborhoods, each a portal into a different cuisine. I’ve been writing about New Orleans since my first assignment in 1991. From the first time I came to town I knew there was something special about how food brought people together in New Orleans. It was clear to me that here, unlike every other American city, there is a fully formed cuisine that unpacks the city’s 306-year-old history on the plate.
When did you realize that you could turn interests in food and culture into making a living? How did you go about establishing yourself as a writer, once you’d decided that was the path for you?
I really kind of fell into food and travel writing. I started working as a journalist on the news side and when I had the opportunity go into features, I took it. I was working for a weekly newspaper and had to wear a lot of hats. Every time I was asked if I could do something, I just said yes, then I figured it out afterwards. I learned by jumping in the deep end. I quit my last full time newspaper job 30 years ago to freelance. It was terrifying, a decision that demanded nerves of steel, and sometimes still does. As to making a living, well you know, Paul, we don’t choose this path for the big money it pays. But honestly, I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I love my work.
New Orleans used to famously be called ‘a city with a thousand restaurants and three menus’, or variations thereof. How do you feel that the city’s gastronomic landscape has changed in the years that you’ve been writing about it?
It's gotten so much more diverse. While the importance of the grand Creole restaurants can never be underestimated, our gastronomy continues to evolve – it’s more than just Creole cuisine. Half of the restaurants mentioned in City Eats: New Orleans weren’t around before 2020. The pandemic upended everything. One of those restaurants, Dakar Nola, earned a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant this year. A new culinary narrative is unfolding. Like most other cities in the United States, the restaurant industry here has historically been dominated by white-owned businesses. Giving voice to the BIPOC hospitality community and culture bearers that bring millions of visitors to the city every year is at the heart of this conversation. This is a necessary conversation that continues to evolve.
The book is so comprehensive and well written - it must have taken a huge amount of research and planning. How did you even whittle down a shortlist of the restaurants to be included?
That was so hard. And I still feel that I could have spoken to so many more chefs and restaurant owners. But I tried my best to get a good cross section of traditional and new restaurants, always with diversity of cuisine, background and perspective in mind.
You also talk to the executive chefs and owners so that the reader has some great context for the information, which I thought was a great touch. You include such a lovely variety of cooks, from near legends to relative newcomers, and all sizes of restaurant. Did any common themes/complaints/enthusiasms come up regularly when you were interviewing people?
Thanks so much for that. I’m story driven and endlessly fascinated by what passion, grit and hard work can accomplish. I think each of the culinary artists and hospitality professionals I spoke with feels compelled to do what they do. It’s almost not a choice – feeding people, taking care of people, is a vocation and a joy. It’s also grueling and sometimes this difficult city makes it almost impossible. Everyone in this business knows it’s hard. And in New Orleans, the combination of natural disasters, failing infrastructure and governmental red tape makes it even harder. But they persevere.
What are your personal preferences in a restaurant? What kind of things do you look for that assure you you’re in a place that cares about its food?
My thought is always, what is the expectation that the restaurant sets for its guest, and does it meet that expectation? It doesn’t matter if It’s a po’boy or a fancy dinner, if the ingredients are fresh and high quality, it shows. If the person cooking the food cares, it shows. If the person serving the food cares, that comes through. And the place needs to be clean. I always look at that. I love to support local and family-owned restaurants, restaurants like Addis, Brigtsen’s, Rosedale, Pomelo, Thai d’Jing. It’s been a great pleasure and honor for me to get to know so many chefs and restaurant owners in this town. Against all odds, they set the highest bar in true hospitality.
Do you watch a lot of cooking-based TV shows or movies? What are some of your favorites?
I don’t really watch the chef smack down shows, but I am a huge fan of The Bear.
After New Orleans (of course), which are some of your favorite food cities?
Philly as I mentioned, and yes, I love a good cheesesteak. I adore all types of spicy Asian cuisine so wherever I travel, I seek out the Chinatown if there is one. And I love to travel somewhere and go on a treasure hunt for hidden gems. I just wrote about the Spring Branch neighborhood in Houston west of downtown for Local Palate. Amazing food and cocktail options in a gritty area with lots of strip malls. Chef Emmanuel Chavez earned a James Beard award this year for his restaurant Tatemó, hidden in one of those shopping centers. So fun to discover.
Finally, it’s the end of a long night, perhaps a few cocktails have been drunk, you’re looking for a guilty pleasure/comfort food…what do you throw together at midnight?
My comfort go-to is pasta. Simple aglia e olio, spaghetti with garlic and oil and lots of chili pepper. Eat that, drink more wine, that’s heaven.
City Eats New Orleans by Beth D'Addono (Harper Collins) is available now.
You can meet Beth at Mister Mao on October 3rd, 5-6 pm, in conversation with with chef Sophina Uong, and follow her on Instagram