It should come as no surprise that we have a deep, oily, sizzling passion for fried foods. Heck, Jay is hosting his own show about just that on Travel Channel! With Deep Fried America set to premier tomorrow, we found ourselves reflecting on our favorite fried treats we’ve eaten over the past few years. But then we realized, why reminisce whenever you can make a list of them? Here are some of the best fried memories laid out for your mouth-watering enjoyment.
In the food world, the James Beard Awards are pretty much the "Oscars" of the industry. The James Beard Foundation, named after the legendary American culinarian, hands out the prestigious awards to chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, and more.
The Foundation converted James Beard's old brownstone house in Manhattan into their offices and a space for one-time-only dinners with rotating chefs from around the country.
While winning a James Beard Award is one of the ultimate milestones of a career in the culinary arts, getting invited to cook at the James Beard house is also one of those monumental achievements for aspiring chefs.
Being in the food world and even carrying a membership card for the James Beard Foundation, one of my bucket list dreams has been to dine at the James Beard House. However, I didn't just want to go to some random dinner on an odd trip to New York. Instead, I figured that I'd wait for a chef who I happen to be friends with to get the invite, and then I'd plan a trip to New York around that dinner.
Cody Carroll, Owen Hohl, Brad Andries and Jay Ducote with Louisiana Redfish at the James Beard House
So as fortune would have it, this summer while in the middle of my Food Network Star run, I got the news that Chefs Cody and Sam Carroll from Hot Tails in New Roads and the newly opened Sac-a-lait in New Orleans had been invited to cook at the James Beard House in October. I knew I didn't want to miss this dinner put on by Louisiana Culinary Institute graduates and the former King and Queen of Louisiana Seafood. I booked a trip for Team Bite and Booze to head to the Big Apple.
Brad Andries and Cody Carroll prep for their dinner at the James Beard House
The night before the dinner at the James Beard House, Cody told me that if I wanted to come help them prep, they could use a couple extra hands. An opportunity to actually cook in the James Beard House?! I couldn't pass that up. We showed up around noon the next day. I threw on an apron and got to work. I could feel the history. The legacies of chefs like Julia Child and Jaques Pepin filled the kitchen. In many ways, slowing down to savor the experience, I realized how truly awesome it was.
Jay portions out grits for one of the dishes at the James Beard House
From noon to around six I helped chop, slice, and portion different components of the 6+ course meal. The kitchen at the James Beard House is notoriously tiny. There are ample small corridors to squeeze through and low hanging obstacles on which to bump my head. As a rather large dude, it certainly proved to be as cozy as advertised. There is an atrium and a back yard to get a little extra head room and fresh air, though.
The Damn Thistle made with Oryza Vodka
The dinner got started with cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres. The Damn Thistle (pictured above) and barrel-aged sazerac were both big hits with the fun-loving crowd. The Damn Thistle starts with Louisiana's Oryza Vodka and finishes with elderflower, pineapple, lime, and hibiscus. We also feasted on deviled crab, pig's ear, and duck tongue appetizers as we mingled with other folks attending the dinner. Before long, with our stomachs ready for the task at hand, we sat down for the formal six course supper with wine pairings.
The meal could not have gone much better. Each dish came out seemingly exactly as the chefs intended. The flavors were true to Louisiana while being elevated and sophisticated for a refined palate. Turtle, alligator, oysters, duck, gulf fish, crawfish, venison and more rolled through the kitchen of the James Beard House and onto the taste buds of inspired diners. Congratulations to the chefs for pulling off a successful dinner experience. "Bayou in the Big Apple" certainly left its mark!
Piper, Liz, Jay, Cody, Sam, Blair and Sydney pose after the dinner at the James Beard House
Sorry, but there is nothing more American than a burger. Okay, not sorry.
It's a classic combination – a mound of ground beef nestled amongst crisp vegetables, slathered with creamy condiments, and sandwiched between a soft, fresh bun. The sight of a burger conjures up feelings of nostalgia and images of spacious skies, amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties above the fruited plains.
That's why each May, our nation sets aside a month to celebrate the hamburger. That's right, kids. It's NATIONAL HAMBURGER MONTH.
In honor of such a gastronomic celebration, here are a few of Baton Rouge's craziest burgers for you to get your little paws on this month:
The Hardcore Burger
Hot Tails in New Roads knows hot to do burgers
This Hot Tails burger is so hardcore it comes with a knife stabbed into the top of it. This thing is not to be messed with. While the New Roads restaurant might be better known for their take on Cajun cuisine and most notably for their boiled crawfish, the folks there can throw down on some burgers. They've got different spins on the classic such as their Oyster Rockafeller Burger or this bad boy photographed above with a heaping glob of melted cheese, crawfish tails, and a whole lot more. Add in some of their signature Spillway Sauce and a cold beer, and this burger is tough to beat.
Bite and Booze Burger
The Bite and Booze Burger from Barcadia Baton Rouge
Barcadia Baton Rouge ran this beauty as their burger of the week recently, so we're just hoping they keep it around little longer or bring it back from time to time. The Bite and Booze Burger consists of Barcadia/Curbside's house ground patty topped with smoked cheddar, 12 hour smoked pork, and of course Jay D's Louisiana Barbecue Sauce incorporated into a slaw. They also throw some kettle chips onto the burger for good measure. Make it happen on your taste buds.
The Ridiculously Tall Burger Challenge
Jay Ducote gets a good look at the Triple Quarters Burger
This Triple Quarters Burger is totally impossible to eat without disassembling, and it's big enough to feed a small army. Seriously, this burger is nuts. Just because you can stack three burgers on top of each other doesn't necessarily mean you should. But, we're kind of glad Quarters did... And for the month of May, you can take on the Triple Quarters Burger Challenge. Eat the burger and the accompanying cheese fries and you get it for free, plus a $25 gift card, a roll of toilet paper, and your picture on the wall. Don't finish it all, and you're out $39.99.
The Breakfast Burger
Mason's Grill always has a knack for outdoing themselves. Their Breakfast Burger is no exception. This monstrosity looks like it was thought up by Dr. Frankenstein himself: a homemade sausage patty on top of a fried egg on top of bacon on top of a hamburger patty on top of another fried egg, dressed with lettuce, tomato and onions. It's a must-try because... for real... the flavors work. This is a tasty burger. See the breakfast burger, barbecue burger, and Cajun shrimp burger in this video from Bite and Booze, tommysTV, and 225 Magazine:
The Expensive Burger
A crosscut of Restaurant IPO's Wall Street Burger
This burger is not all that enormous, but its price tag is. If you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can't afford it. Restaurant IPO's Wall Street Burger is the classiest burger money can buy. The patty consists of house prime beef, and it's topped with sautéed duck confit, smoked Vidalia onion jam, merlot truffle mayonnaise, gruyere cheese, seared foie gras, sautéed wild mushrooms and a sunny side up egg. It also comes with a spit of Pinot Noir to help wash down all the richness. It's the kind of burger that sends the message, "I have more money than God." Okay, really it's only $55, and because of the truffle and foie and duck, you can understand why. The thing is, on rare occasion, it can be worth it. Just consider splitting it between a few people and getting some other tapas too while you're there.
The Royal Burger
Two Big Ben Burgers that did not get finished. Photo Courtesy of The Londoner on Facebook
Kate just gave birth to a royal baby girl, but there's no way that kid weighed as much as he Big Ben Burger at The Londoner. This monstrosity of a burger is yet another challenge that the competitive eater can tackle in Baton Rouge. Just ask you server for the Big Ben Burger challenge, make a happy plate in 45 minutes, and its yours for free. If you can't handle the whole thing or if you just want to order the burger to share it'll cost you $35.
Chefs Cody and Sam Carroll, both graduates of the Louisiana Culinary Institute, opened a new restaurant in the New Orleans Warehouse District last week and Team Bite and Booze could not be more anxious to get through the doors. Sac-A-Lait boasts a menu full of elevated Prairie and Swamp Cajun dishes.
I first met the Louisiana Culinary Institute graduates while tagging along on shoots for the Louisiana Culinary Trails. We filmed at the duo's first restaurant, Hot Tails, in New Roads.
I hope Jay and I can make it to New Orleans soon to dine at their new venture. Once we do, we'll make sure to get you a full review. But to tide me over, I had Sam send over a few pictures of her favorite dishes. You can check out the full menu for Sac-A-Lait by clicking here.
Drunk Pheasant: Whole Bird with Rosemary with thin Canebrake Gravy
Low Tide Tower: Hot and Cold Louisiana Seafood
Lost Trout: Perdu-Style Speckled Trout, Sweet Corn Calas, and Crawfish Étouffée
Aged Banana Pudding in a Jar: Peanut Butter Mousse and Vanilla Wafer Crumble
Kermit Lejeune talks to Jay Ducote as Fred Mince, Dan Jones, Jordan Lewis, and Blair Loup produce
Blair Loup helps feed the baby goats before we get back on the road
Filming the Prairie Home Cooking trail brought us away from New Orleans and the Northshore and to the more rural central part of Louisiana. Life slows down a little here but the food culture doesn't. Much of Louisiana's famous smoked sausages and other meats come from this part of the state. We visited smokehouses, slaughterhouses, and people's houses to capture the spirit of Prairie Home Cooking. We paid a visit to Chefs Cody and Sam Carroll at Hot Tails, Kermit Lejeune at Lejeune's Sausage Kitchen, Andy Fontenot and Willie Burson from the Eunice Superette, Marguerite Constantine from WesMar Farms, and Karlos Knott from Bayou Teche Brewing.
Jordan Lewis, Fred Mince, Dan Jones, Jay Ducote, and Katie hope producing a great interview at the Eunice Superette
Jay Ducote checks out cheese curds at Wes Mar Farms
Dan Jones in the smokehouse at Lejeune's Sausage Kitchen
Kermit Lejeune and his faithful companion check the smokehouse at Lejeune's
Chef Sam Carroll of Hot Tails in New Roads talking about Prairie Home Cooking for Louisiana Culinary Trails
I caught Chef Cody Carroll (left) pulling out a fresh batch
of his famous boiled crawfish.
Hot tails is tucked away in New Roads, Louisiana which is about 45 minutes outside of Baton Rouge, and it is worth every second of the drive! Louisiana Culinary Institute classmates, turned chefs, turned married couple are the creators of Hot Tails. This is a casual yet hardcore Cajun place that has a lot more going on than it might appear. Each dish is prepared with an artful mind, a bold taste profile, and several smiling faces. In its inception, the primary reason for its existence was to be a crawfish house. Chefs Cody and Sam Carroll have a crawfish farm up the road of their own so they know exactly where the mudbugs are coming from. They then boil some of the most delicious batches of crawfish anywhere in the state.
Along the way Chefs Cody and Sam started to incorporate their flare into some of the dishes we all grew up loving. Everything coming out of the Carrolls’ kitchen is spot on. Every site, sip, and bite presents out of control deliciousness. They have been recognized as the Crawfish King and Queen by Louisiana Seafood and have been the subject of many write ups in various publications that adorn their walls at Hot Tails. Trust me--this place is worth checking out.
Here's a sampling of their menu so you don't have to take just my words for it, but you can also see for yourself. To taste and smell, though, you'll have travel to New Roads.
Blackened Alligator Po-Boy with Fried Okra and a pint of Tin Roof Blonde
The legendary Creole Crawfish Burger topped with sautéed crawfish, onions, mushrooms and pepperjack cheese.
The monstrous Gulf Platter with a fried soft shell crab, oysters, catfish, crawfish tails, and the most tender frog legs in existence.
The Seafood Muffaletta: sautéed shrimp, crawfish, mushrooms, onions, and garlic with Provolone.
Louisiana Seafood Gumbo.
Chef Sam prepared this beautiful and delicious Bloody Mary while Chef Cody made one of my favorites: fried rabbit with red beans and rice.
Back in March I had the pleasure of interviewing Cody and Sam Carroll, owners of Hot Tails in New Roads. Folks, this is a place worth driving to. If you've never been, do yourself a favor and listen to this tasty episode of the Bite and Booze Radio Show presented by Calandro's Supermarket, then make the trip to New Roads, LA and feast at Hot Tails!
