Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris
Originally published February 25, 2008
Could Be We're
Embarrassed
Why
Aren't Our Best Restaurants Creole?
That motto appeared on the masthead of Figaro, the weekly newspaper of the 1970s where I worked during most of the paper's history. I always liked it as a rallying cry for New Orleans, whose most important quality is its unique sense of place.
While I was in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that localism is a very big deal there, too. As well it should be. Is there another place anything like Hawaii? Its native culture was isolated for so long that it couldn't help but be unique.
More important, however, was something I didn't notice. In Hawaii, nobody is trying to act like the people in any other place. Oh, there are ethnic Asians who hang onto the culture they brought with them to the islands. But just as the Italians and Irish and Africans in New Orleans adopted a measure of Creole ways, people of all ethnic backgrounds in Hawaii are Hawaiians first, then whatever else.
I checked out dozens of restaurant menus everywhere we went in Hawaii, and dined in a few of them. The very best--and we're talking about restaurants more substantial and more expensive than the best we have in New Orleans--serve Hawaiian food. It may be utterly new and original, but it's local in name, ingredients and flavor. All the way, all the time.
That's also how it is in the middle and bottom of the market. Different dishes, but still Hawaiian. The only exceptions are the chains. Which, of course, serve the same spinach-artichoke dip they do everywhere else.
Think of the best restaurants in New Orleans. Some are intensely local: Commander's, Emeril's, Galatoire's, Brigtsen's. But the ones that have a way of grabbing ratings and headlines are places like August, Stella!, Cuvee, Peristyle, and La Provence. They're not very local in their menus at all. Check the trends in the current national food magazines, and note how well they match these restaurants' menus. They use local ingredients, of course--one would have to be a fool not to, in a place like this. (Although even that denial of localism has been tried. Remember Victor's at the Ritz-Carlton?) But local flavors? Probably not.
This is an old story, of course. Certainly not the first time I've written it. But it needs to be said now and then.
Here's how I'll say it: a restaurant serving the local ingredients and flavors is better than one that doesn't, all other things being equal. I can tell you that any avid diner who visits our town from elsewhere thinks that. I think we all think it, too. Maybe we're embarrassed to admit it.
It is possible to be world-class and very New Orleans at the same time.
© 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com