"The Picayune's Creole Cookbook was compiled at the turn of the century to preserve for posterity the secrets of Creole cookery and to insure a Creole heritage for future generations."
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the newspaper engaged noted food writer and chef Marcelle Bienvenu and photographer/designer Wendi Schneider to recreate The Picayune's Creole Cook Book. Published as the Sesquicentennial Edition in 1987, Random House re-published this edition with a new jacket shortly thereafter.
- the book to which the famous Creole chefs refer
- more than 800 original Creole recipes originally published in 1901
- updates next to the recipes by acclaimed Creole chef Marcelle Bienvenu
- 629 pages
- period photographs by Pops Whitesell, Arnold Genthe, Morgan Whitney and other turn-of-century photographers and period-inspired photographs by Wendi Schneider
- Newcomb Pottery illustrations by New Orleans artist Beverly Morris
"The Times-Picayune engaged noted food writer and chef Marcelle Bienvenu to update and revise the recipes. She and her dedicated staff sifted through more than a thousand recipes, with an eye toward Creole classics and enduring favorites, especially those that captured the flavor of times gone by. After testing and tasting, researching and retesting, they selected the 800-plus recipes that appear in this volume, from Creole coffee to custards, Jambalaya to Red Beans and Rice, making careful notes of modern measurements and methods, substitutes and suggestions. For ease of use and to preserve the charm of the original text, these updates appear in the margins, and the result is an entertaining and practical volume that is as gratifying to read as it is to cook from. An added pleasure are the photographs and drawings that grace its pages."
Several editions of the book were published in the 1900s with the text rewritten to reflect the taste of the era. We chose to preserve the text of the definitive second edition published in 1901, which was an expansion of the first edition. Later editions were published in 1906, 1916, 1922, 1928, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1954, 1966 and 1971. The Sesquicentennial Edition was published in 1987, the Random House edition, 1989.
Designed, photographed, art directed and produced by Wendi Schneider.