European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 26, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Reolie cuisine Mack hands in the pot was always a Black Cook in i he Kitchen Points out lean. And that s what Creole cooking is All about a mixture of All those cultures and ways of doing  you just reach Back into everybody s past and use  now Leah Chase uses Only fresh Sassafras leaves from her father s tree across the Lake in Madisonville la., for her Gumbo. Daddy died but his tree is St Iii there and my sister brings me the leaves once a  she says with a sniff lifting the lid from a fragrant bubbling Broth. Another sister makes the Best pickled vegetables you Ever tailed. I had to Send for some More yesterday. Thai s the Nice thin about being from a big family we were. Nine girls and two boys you do things for each other at the Caribbean room Louis Evans is justly famous Tor such exotic dishes As Oyster and Artichoke soup red snapper and crawfish sauce crab meal Biarritz and his mite High pie which always proves bigger than the eyes of any 10 diners. But recently in a co Koif with 15. Master chefs Black and while. Irom the City s Best hotels and restaurants he was voted King of 1he red Beans for his tangy version of a Creole favorite that was t even on the Bill of fare when he was growing up in a sharecropper s Shack in Carlisle. Miss. That was City Lood we ate country  says Evans whose Mother was a. Fine Cook but never wrote any recipes Down and measured everything with her fingers and hands. The Way i do now. Cooking is something you got to Leel i never Lake the Salt Box and pour it into a pot. I pour some in my hand the Way Mother did. Growing up we were six boys and a girl but the girl was the youngest and we All had to take our turn at the stove. I never dream i d spend my life doing  celebrities and tourists besiege Evans for recipes and unlike the older Black. Chefs whom he trained under he does t mind writing them out. Some of those chefs never let us apprentices see what they were up  he recalls with a laugh. They d hide the spice Box behind their. Back or Send you into the icebox Lor something and when you came Back it was already taxed. I always figured a secretive Catiel like that was a scared chef. Scared someone is going to take his of Evans in the great tradition of  Black Chels going Al the Way Back id the heyday of the Pullman care and the fleets of banana boats. Is happiest working on the line sauteing. Broiling baking moving in and out my icebox sometimes going to Market to know what s available. You can l Cook irom an office. A chel whose main concern is the Bottom line of the menu making a Buck in t a chef  this Field is Well paying now but in s a Way of ills and you got to a willing to work the hours to savor the satisfactions. A maybe Thal s Why Young people can t eel May 26, 1986 interested. They Lack the dedication. When our chefs association gets together Black and White we Don t Lalk recipes. A talk hiring  Rudy Lombard an Urban sociologist who served a term As director of la cuisine. Creole an Agency for Mew Orleans chefs regards the Black hand in the pol As the single lasting characteristic of Creole cooking. Their cooking style has an improvised creativity very like that found among traditional new Orleans Black jazz musicians. Their Genius relies largely on experience combined Wilh the full use of All five senses. What they measure with cupped hands and a Pinch of the fingertips tends to be As accurate As any scale what they hear while deep frying is As accurate As a timer what they Edge by sight and smell will Tell them More than any Kitchen gadgets. And they re always last ing everything out at Chez Helena which he named in memory of his Eunju s wonderful cooking Austin Leslie Cocks in ear to his deep dryer Lihe a Mississippi riverboat Pilot listening to log Horn echoes Oil a Sand bar. You can led by the sound when tried Chicken is done. You listen for that change in the grease crackling. There s a rhythm to cooking that the ear can catch.". ". Leslie was brought up in the 7th Ward of new Orleans nol far from the restaurant where his Way with Sroul Marguery. Crawfish Touffee stuffed lobster and oysters blend Lyle has tilled his guest Book with names like Carol Channing. Ann Miller. Lena Home Lou Brocic. Mitzi Gaynor and other show business patrons from the nearby French Quarter. His food career began at age 8 when. After school on fridays he gathered local herbs and spices dried them and sold them in bundles door to door from a tiny Wagon. A favorite Wilh Blacks was Pepper grass which grew wild in the graveyards and along Neutral ground in the wider downtown is reels like Rampart and Esplanade. Now Pepper grass like the Long line of Black chefs is vanishing irom the local scene. When i was a kid we ale Gumbo like. Pizza Leslie says. Now it s a delicacy. Creole cooking is in bul in s Lough getting youngsters involved. I spend a lot of Lime visiting schools. The first thing a kid asks is How much i Lei him to get a mile knowledge first and hang Tough for a while. Then you can look behind and see. Where you re coming  Louis Leah and Austin Are grateful to Paul Prudhomme and his a Paul Kitchen where tourists Una up Lor hours for pulling in International spotlight on Louisiana cuisine but they differ widely on his free hand with hot peppers and the merits of blackened red Lush. This hot spice thing has gone to excess grumbles Evans who now. However adds a bit More spice to his recipes to satisfy tourist demands. They us dump in the Pepper pot because people have been fooled into thin Wing food s got to be leery hot to be  As for blackened red Lish. The  South culinary rage that Prudhomme concocted Lor new York mayor de Koch. Evans says flatly i would t have it  menu. You might bum someone s palate or worse Burn your restaurant  Leah agrees. This is. A Creole Lown not. A cajun town. Paul brags thai cajuns can take an old rooster and make it palatable. Well we creoles Don l Cook old roosters. To Start Wilh a Nice Lender Hen. Ca uns put All that Pepper in there so when it comes out bad. You can t table  Auslin Leslie who believes a chel must keep growing and be  shakes the hot Pepper pot a Bill More vigorously these Days to please the customers. And. I be added blackened Reddish to my menu bul not blackened to the extent that you can t Eal  Nouvelle cuisine had a Brief Vogue in new Orleans but could t compete with the traditional cuisine of Rich sauces thick gravies and Fried foods. They said we were overcooking vegetables and the trend was away from fats and grease says Louis Evans but Nouvelle was top expensive and never caught on Down  to Leah ii was All a joke if you re going to eat eat if you re going to diet go on a  pit Auslin Leftie it cont Derod of of the great Black Chafi. He own Chez Helena Laurant in new Rostant. The stars and stripes Page 15