Chris Cody 's Journal

The best thing about moving is not the fun of packing all your earthly belongings and having strangers cart them hundreds of miles. Usually, half of the fun is not getting there but hopefully being there. Coming from the Midwest, I have never been impressed with the food culture of my origin. It is meat and potato land. Sometimes, I wonder if chefs are worried about people’s sodium level by leaving out the seasoning. Granted, all the tables have salt and pepper shakers but isn’t that the chef’s job?

I am not trying to put down my roots. There have been a few waves of chefs cutting ground in the Minneapolis area. They might even make you forget you are in the Midwest when you are in there eating. I applaud all efforts to wake up the culture of prime rib and baked potatoes.

Luckily, I have pulled up stake again and I am in New Orleans. Well, not quite, more like I am in River Ridge. That should be close enough, I would think. It is exciting to be a part of a new restaurant in its infancy. The kicker is being able to immerse myself into the culture which has long been a mixing pot of people and touted as a culinary capital of the south. How many other cities can say that France imported their chefs to show them how to cook popular dishes over a hundred years ago?

The Creole and Cajun cooking is just a part of the culture but by far what New Orleans is known for. We are near the cattle ranches of Texas and the farms of Louisiana and Mississippi. The ocean is right here with one of the busiest ports in the world. I would have to be a dead man not to feel inspired.