Elegance in The Big Easy: Antoine's Restaurant

The wild and crazy atmosphere of Mardi Gras has earned a carnival reputation for “The Big Easy,” but there is most assuredly more to New Orleans -- there is dignity, sophistication and tradition.

   A prime example: the venerable Antoine’s restaurant.

   My familiarity with New Orleans goes back more than 50 years. In those days I was a young military man intrigued by the warnings of older and wiser troops about the dangers lurking in the boisterous bars of The French Quarter.

   My acquaintance was recently renewed when I received a copy of Antoine’s Restaurant Cookbook from a friend. It portrays a far from boisterous or dangerous French Quarter establishment, of that you may be certain.

The author is

Roy F. Guste, Jr., a fifth generation family member who ran the restaurant for about ten years. His association seems to have concluded in the mid-1980s when he decided to pursue other interests, including the writing of more New Orleans-focused cookbooks.

   Guste traces the history of the place to the founder, Antoine Alciatore.

   Antoine came to New Orleans from Marseilles, France, and was but 16 when he opened the establishment bearing his name in 1840 -- at first a boarding house. But Antoine had apprenticed as a chef and in short order his place became a popular dining establishment.

   It is safe to say the restaurant has grown over the years, through various relocations. At the time the book was produced the restaurant had 14 dining rooms.

   Of the dining, Guste says “our cuisine is basically a seafood cuisine, developed through a compatible marriage of French, Spanish and African influences.” There is far more to the fare than seafood; elsewhere we are informed that the restaurant features “the best meat available in the United States and perhaps the world.”

   Given the French influence we of course expect sauces. The book does not disappoint. It offers quite an array of sauces: “The sauce is the lifeblood of our cuisine.”

   One such sauce which often makes an appearance in recipes is Creole Sauce. Here is a recipe said to be similar, as I compare the two it seems exactly the same as Antoine’s. 

   The book makes many claims to famous recipes originating with Antoine’s. Among originals is Oysters Rockefeller -- but the secret of preparation isn’t revealed.

   Since the recipe is widely available from other sources this seems odd. But those available recipes appear, from my survey, to depend on spinach. A friend sent a group of these recipes as issued by the Junior League of Baton Rouge over the years, all featuring spinach. Other guesses at ingredients range from dandelion greens to parsley to watercress.

   Guste denies spinach, saying only that the dish involves a variety of greens – but no spinach.

   According to the Lindaraxa blog, a 1986 laboratory analysis of Antoine’s preparation done by William Poundstone in Bigger Secrets indicated that the primary Rockefeller ingredients are parsley, pureed and strained celery, scallions or chives (indistinguishable in a food lab), olive oil, and capers.

   Antoine's is now run by Rick Blount, a great-great grandson of the founder. In 2014 a new cookbook was announced, celebrating the 175^th year of continuous operation as Americas oldest family-owned restaurant, issued at $39.

   I haven’t seen it but suspect the new book may contain a great deal from the earlier book as it is by the same author and the focus is the same, history and recipes.

   As for the book in my possession, copies were available on Amazon and eBay in the ten to twenty dollar range, more or less -- mostly more.

    In conclusion, here is the Antoine’s recipe for Creole Gumbo, shown as it appears in the cookbook.

   This recipe features shrimp, oysters and crabs and is billed as The Bouillabaisse of Louisiana. It is of course just one of a great many gumbo recipes, many featuring meats such as Andouille sausage.