Calendar of Events
Note: Meetings are usually held on the second Sunday of each month, September through May, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Currently we are meeting via Zoom, but in-person meetings are held at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, Maryland, and occasionally at other venues. The meetings are open to anyone. However, certain meetings may require a fee.
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How the Food of Southern Louisiana Became as Different and as Interesting as Italian Food. Is there a true Southern Louisiana Cuisine?
March 13, 2025 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
LIZ WILLIAMS’ BIO
Liz Williams founded the Southern Food & Beverage Museum (SoFAB) and its Research Center. SoFAB is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Liz has authored six books about food and culture, especially New Orleans food culture. She has taught Food Studies and New York University and Dillard University. Her podcast, “Tip of the Tongue” (about food, drink and culture), appears weekly. Her most recent books are Nana’s Creole Italian Table (a cookbook about the Sicilian community in New Orleans) and the SoFAB Cookbook, with co-author Maddie Hayes. The SoFAB Cookbook has been shortlisted for a Gourmand International Cookbook Award.
Her book, coauthored with Stephanie Jane Carter, The Encyclopedia of Law and Food, was published by Greenwood Publishing in 2011. In 2013 AltaMira published New Orleans: A Food Biography. Her book, Lift Your Spirits: A Celebratory History of Cocktail Culture in New Orleans, was published by LSU Press in the spring of 2016. Unique Eats & Eateries New Orleans was published by Reedy Press in 2019.
TALK DESCRIPTION
The distinct cuisine of southern Louisiana developed from its French heritage, the help of Native Americans, enslaved Africans and their descendants, Sicilians, Caribbeans, Central and South Americans, and—more recently—Vietnamese. The Creole and Cajun characteristic of the area is as much of a draw to visitors as its music and its architecture.
Sicilians, who had first been recruited to work in the sugar cane fields after enslaved Africans were freed, came at the turn of the 20th century in droves and also influenced much of the food of New Orleans. Because of its port and trade, there were many relationships with cuisines of other countries in our hemisphere.
Liz will not only discuss these influences but also why New Orleans and the surrounding areas absorb and do not resist them. All of these things make for a dynamic and ever-changing cuisine that sometimes looks back but keeps moving forward. How did all of the influences coalesce into the whole? That is what she will explore.