New Orleans - (Big City Food Biographies) by Elizabeth M Williams (Paperback)

About the Book

New Orleans' celebrated status derives in large measure from its incredibly rich food culture, based mainly on Creole and Cajun traditions. At last, this world-class destination has its own food biography.

Book Synopsis

New Orleans' celebrated status derives in large measure from its incredibly rich food culture, based mainly on Creole and Cajun traditions. At last, this world-class destination has its own food biography.

Review Quotes

Liz Williams loads us into her time capsule for a journey to the mecca of New World cuisine. Through New Orleans: A Food Biography we experience the richness of the original fusion cuisine. New Orleans brought together every Western food tradition, and the Amerindian traditions, and over the centuries the glory that is New Orlean's cuisine evolved. Like to eat? Read this now.


Only in New Orleans would our food be considered just as important as any person and worthy of its own biography! So, whether you're a native New Orleanian or simply a fan of our cooking, just reading New Orleans: A Food Biography is sure to satisfy your craving. This book digs into the rich, centuries-old history of the many ethnic and geographic influences that have gone into making our cuisine so uniquely New Orleans.


Williams, the director of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, a New Orleans non-profit living history organization (southernfood.org), draws upon insights from history, economics, the law, and geography to craft a compelling book-length narrative from a considerable variety of data. . . This is all done very well. . . . The description of local foods in the final chapter and the bibliography are both also very useful, and the book is notable for its attention to more contemporary developments in New Orleans restaurant culture. ... New Orleans: A Food Biography is a book well worth reading and using. It evidences its narrative by a range of useful information from several fields; it includes the basics on many of the key people, institutions, and foods of the area; and it presents a picture of local foodways that will be accessible and interesting to students and general readers as well as scholars. I look forward to more books in this series.

About the Author

Elizabeth M. Williams is founder and president of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, which celebrates the food of the American South with exhibits, a library, archives, collections, and programming. SoFab is one of Saveur's "5 Great Museums Devoted to Food" (5/2011). Williams is also consulting professor at the Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism, University of New Orleans. Her roles there include teaching, writing, and researching issues in hospitality law, culinary history and culture, and nonprofit administration. She has contributed a number of articles on aspects of Southern food to journals. Williams has a law degree and co-authored The A to Z Encyclopedia of Food Controversies and the Law (2010).