When you grow up on the Bayou you learn to catch and cook pretty much anything that moves. When you get to be Executive Chef at one of New Orleans leading hip restaurants like Tivoli and Lee you can be "influenced" by your childhood roots but you can t totally replicate that cuisine. Chef Marcus Woodham is a product of Bayou Goula but the dishes he creates and serves on Lee Circle are a couple of degrees removed from the squirrel head gumbo his mom makes. Once you ve gotten past the subject of S...
Jan 06, 2015•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Molly Kimball is New Orleans highest profile proponent of eating healthy, but she s no tyrant. Molly is happy for you to go to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite meal. She also believes that your favorite restaurant can make your favorite meal with no white carbs meaning without or with less white sugar or white flour. Putting her money where her mouth is, literally kind of Molly s crusade Eat Fit NOLA works with New Orleans restaurant chefs to craft their same awesome meals withou...
Dec 30, 2014•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast When acclaimed Boston chef Dustin Brien mistakenly applied for a job as a line cook at Salu restaurant on Magazine in Uptown New Orleans neither he nor the equally confused owner understood what either of them was thinking. Once they got the confusion sorted out, the restaurant owners decided to ditch their plans to hire a chef they had lined up and put their chips on Dustin. It turned out to be a good bet. Chef Dustin shook up the menu and, insider tip he s in the process of changing it up agai...
Dec 16, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast The last thing you d think of as British food is hot dogs, right Right. And if you were going to import hot dogs into Britain the last person you d turn to would be a foodie from New Orleans. Right Wrong. Skip Murray introduced the unsuspecting Brits to the delicacies of second rate meat on lame white bread roll buns before realizing if that if he amped up his game he could create a gourmet dog and be on to a worldwide first. That s exactly what he did and had a thriving business in London for m...
Dec 09, 2014•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Traditionally in America there have been two sure fire ways to get out of a life of poverty sports and music. Here is New Orleans there s also another route food. Following in the footsteps of Catholic Charities success story Cafe Reconcile in Central City, Cafe Hope started up on the Westbank, giving disadvantaged kids courses in kitchen and front of house skills that they can then apply in the wider world of restaurants, service industry, and culinary arts. Cafe Hope s Executive Director Luis ...
Dec 02, 2014•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you don t hear this for yourself you won t believe it. It s hard to imagine a more innocent opening question to ask Chef Kevin White, the kitchen mastermind behind the Freret Street bistro success, Wayfare. Margo simply asks Chef Kevin, "How did you get started cooking " From there the conversation starts down a fascinating road that takes us from eating snakes in the Iraqi desert to cooking pasta with Mario Batali in New York. So far so good. So how exactly does that turn into a plea for the...
Nov 25, 2014•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Yusko came to New Orleans the same way many have before him "I met a girl from Hammond." Yanked out of the cosmopolitan world of tending Bohemian bar in downtown Los Angeles, Mike found himself pioneering the cosmopolitan world of Bohemian Freret Street at newly opened Cure. Creating drinks named after movies and Czech novels, like The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Mike didn t start writing moody novels in his off hours, but he did start making movies. Like the festival favorite, I m Gon...
Nov 18, 2014•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Harveen Khera s ethnic background daughter of Indian and Malaysian parents growing up in London and her cuisine career including working in San Francisco s finest restaurant and opening her own bar prepared her for almost any epicurean eventuality. Except being the chef in a New Orleans kosher kitchen. But that s exactly what she is, and she s killing it. Harveen is the founding chef at Hillel s Kitchen, the local, organic, seasonal, kosher restaurant in the Hillel House on Broadway, a part of T...
Nov 04, 2014•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sometimes you meet people who have moved to New Orleans and when they tell you their life story all you can think is, "Thank God you found New Orleans. There s no other place in the world you could be yourself." How about tonight s guest on Midnight Menu 1 for an example Where else in the world could you be a genuine Samurai custom cake baker hat maker Mardi Gras parade Marshall make up artist Meet Midori Tajiri Byrd. Yes, they re all Midori s cakes. And that s not half of the story. Midori is g...
Oct 28, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two guys walk into a bar. One owns a beer brewing store. The other is opening a brewery. They sit down at a bar table with the guy who owns the bar, and a guy who despite being known as "The Man Who Ate New Orleans" hasn t had anything to eat all day. They proceed to drink extra strong craft beer that the guy from the beer brewing store brought with him. What happens next You re listening to it. Margo thankfully for her sake couldn t make it tonight so Phil from Phil s Grill sat in for her and c...
Oct 21, 2014•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bryan Gilmore likes to mix it up. Blast freeze it. Thaw it. Freeze it. Serve it. That s how you make ice cream and that s what Bryan does all day on Prytania Street in the old McKenzie s Bakery, which according to the Historic Places designated red neon sign outside, is still McKenzie s but in fact is Creole Creamery, Uptown s favorite ice cream shop. Imagine if you could eat all the ice cream you want, from childhood, and never get cavities in your teeth. That s what is happening to Bryan s kid...
Oct 14, 2014•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Franky Vivid is one of the most colorful characters in the New Orleans food ecosystem. Franky is the wearer of many hats, most of them related in one way or another to scantily clad or naked women. Franky is the producer of internationally renowned burlesque shows Superstars of Burlesque, and Burlesque Hall of Fame. He's the co founder of the live event and website, Naked Girls Reading, and if you're wondering how any of this gets you invited on Midnight Menu 1, Franky Vivid is the creator and p...
Oct 07, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast When you come from a New Orleans family of 10 kids it can sometimes be difficult to remember what number sibling your sister is even if she is your business partner and closest friend. Of course you can always blame your faulty memory on the Bloody Mary that you have to drink to be sociable because they re making it with the Bloody Mary mix you and your sister 6 produce. Or maybe it s the martini you had to drink to be sociable because they re making it with the spicy olive juice mix and olives ...
Sep 30, 2014•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Margo s away, Ray will play, by inviting his friend and filmmaker, Dylan Field Turner. Not ones to wait around, Ray and Dylan waste no time in welcoming our guest, Dave Wright, owner and head Chef at Del Fuego Taqueria. Dave talks about how Del Fuego serves regional food, taking the cooking styles from various parts of Mexico. He also talks about coming to New Orleans for an internship at the Culinary Institute of America and, like so many, never leaving. He also brought some of Fuego s sig...
Sep 23, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sarah Edwards is living the lives of 3 people. By day she is a barista at Hey Cafe on Magazine Street. Then she ll go hop on her pedicab and sweat out the caffeine in the French Quarter for a few hours. When most people would then crash out and sleep or drink the night away listening to music, Sarah is following her main love, with the man she s in love with. Sarah and Frankie Ostello are the co heart and soul of St Clair, a short bus food truck with a wood fired pizza oven. Frankie is the reaso...
Sep 02, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Zen Temple is on the 4th floor of a Camp Street building in downtown New Orleans. The building used to be Cosimo Matassa s legendary recording studio. Today, below the Zen temple where the music temple once stood and the greatest of New Orleans music was recorded, the Zen Boogie has been handed on to the next generation Phil s Grill. Where once Cosimo built hits, like Earl King s Big Chief, track by track, now Phil builds some of the city s most popular and talked about burgers, ingredient b...
Aug 26, 2014•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Paris, of course, is not in Latin America. Nor is it in North America. To Zella Palmer aka Zella Palmer Cuadra the blending of cultures, food, and music in New Orleans is unlike anywhere else in the US or in Europe and the simplest description that explains the blending is in culinary terms a gumbo and in cultural terms a Latin Paris. Zella herself is something of an internationalist and a personal and cultural gumbo. Born and raised in Chicago but with roots in New Orleans that go back generati...
Aug 19, 2014•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jeremy Labadie is, in every sense, the Beer Buddha. Whether his Buddha like stature is God given or the result of consuming beer, whether his calm countenance is from a Zen like approach to life or a couple of cool brews, who really knows the truth about, well, anything Among the many surprising Buddha enlightening moments on this show are the revelations that Abita actually makes good beer despite the beer snob community thumbing it s collective nose at the conglomerate across the lake. And the...
Aug 12, 2014•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mid City's new gem - Pearl Wine Co See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Aug 05, 2014•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aaron Vogel makes donuts and sliders and has chocolate milk on tap at his new unique Magazine Street eatery District Donuts Sliders Brew. But what Aaron s really doing is changing the world. An ex pastor, Aaron is deeply committed to making the world a better place. He has a business plan that spreads love, happiness, and human decency beyond his four walls to the neighborhood, cities and nations. It s not some cheesy business slogan like "changing the world one donut at a time," it s a real bus...
Jul 22, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nobody went to Ernie K Doe s legendary Mother In Law Lounge to actually lounge. Except Tee Eva Perry. Tee Eva was K Doe s back up singer and dancer, and best friend of K Doe s wife, Antoinette. Some of Tee Eva s fondest memories are of the nights every night of the week they weren t performing spent lounging around in the back room of the club with Ernie, Antoinette, and "Mom" Antoinette s mom . Revealing a little know fact about life behind the scenes in the world of the self styled "Emperor of...
Jul 15, 2014•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chef Rob Bechtold loves his meat smoker so much he sleeps with it. Well, next to it. And gets up every half hour to tend to the flames. Apparently you can taste the love and dedication in every bite because Chef Rob and wife Emily s NOLA Smokehouse sells out of barbq every single day. Rob and Emily met on that romantic boulevard, Veterans Highway in Metairie, at the short lived take out for foodies Mecca, Foodies. Rob was a sous chef and Emily was making her first foray into pastries. Foodies ca...
Jul 08, 2014•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Emeril s Delmonico Chef de Cuisine Anthony Scanio looks like he s directing traffic at a busy intersection, but actually he s just sitting down with a beer to have an amiable chat with Ray and Margo. Animated Chef Anthony is a whirlwind of wonderful tales about Arabi, Italy, crabs, mrlitons, kids, Creole cooking, Disney World, Mardi Gras, meat, and the sheer joy of changing your entire life s path to follow your dream. Chef Anthony s 1 guest, Emeril s Delmonico Sous Chef Darren Chabert, is also ...
Jul 01, 2014•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Krista Pendergraft May is co owner of Cowbell. Not only was Krista brave enough to open a restaurant practically on the railroad tracks and the foot of the levee at what was then the worst part of Oak Street by miles she is also fearless enough to be a guest on a food podcast she had not only never heard of, but never heard. Nor had anybody, not even the hosts of the show, Ray and Margo. That s because this very night Krista showed up with her equally take no prisoners 1 Kim Vu, there has been n...
Jun 03, 2014•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast We invited one of New Orleans top chefs on the show, and got two. Chef Dan Esses from Three Muses is Ray and Margo s guest. Although in this picture it looks like Chef Dan is holding Margo s hand across the table and Ray s holding her other hand under the table, what s actually going on is even more interesting. But not as interesting as it s about to get. When Dan invited Chef Nathaniel Zimet from Boucherie as his 1 guest on this show, nobody could have predicted the walk they were about to tak...
May 27, 2014•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Having 5 girls under 6 is no picnic, especially when 4 of them are quadruplets. How many more life changing events would you like after that How about the non quadruplet daughter is diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis That s what happened to Alicia Murphy. Alicia s husband and her 1 guest on tonight s show is Matt Murphy, owner and chef at Irish pub and restaurant, Irish House. So when their daughter wasn t responding well to traditional medication, Alicia turned to long nights of resea...
May 20, 2014•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Kelly Boffone started out baking at Maurice s in Metairie when she was 18. It was the ideal job starting at 4am meant she could stay all night partying and go straight to work. Little did young partying Kelly know that she would turn out to be a naturally super talented baker and after graduating from John Folse s cooking school end up being head pastry chef at Emeril s. Having reached the top of the mountain early in life, Kelly decided to channel her "God given gifts" into serving her communit...
May 13, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Gourmet has a day job as a doctor and professor of medicine at Tulane University. And a side gig as a gourmet doctor at Tulane s revolutionary Goldring Institute for Culinary Medicine. Emmy Award winning Dr Gourmet, aka Timothy Harlan, started out working in restaurants at age 11. He opened his own French Bistro in his early 20 s, and when his wife s ill health drove him to find out more about medicine he went to med school. A number of twists and turns led Tim to Tulane University, and what...
Apr 29, 2014•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Addie K. Martin is a self described "Swamp Cajun." As opposed to the "inland Cajuns" with the cochon propensities, Addie s Golden Meadow Cajuns are shrimpers and fishers. After graduating from the King of Cajun s Cooking School, aka Chef John Folse s Culinary Institute, Addie went on to work in restaurants till Katrina blew her plans in a different direction. She created advertisements at Peter Mayer for a bunch of years before returning to her passion for food. Addie stirred everything she d le...
Apr 22, 2014•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chef David Bridges is so high energy that he makes Midnight Menu 1 co host Ray look practically normal. David s career has been a wild ride, from life on a Lear jet catering to the rich and famous to his current prestigious gig at one of New Orleans finest restaurants, Upperline. At one point David had a restaurant in Shreveport Louisiana which was known for its fine food until it became even more widely known as the place Chef David came out of the kitchen to kick out actor Tom Cruise. As you c...
Apr 15, 2014•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
