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D4N's avatar

I am so happy to have taken the leap from E.Jean where I took keen interest in your notes and the nature you present. Now, I peek in and find that you're a fellow 'foodie' And cultural student as I have always been. Though not anywhere near as accomplished as you seem, I'm ever a student and greatly enjoy what I'm learning about you. Do you happen to own or run a restaurant, or one that you frequent ? Though it's on my bucket list, I've not yet been to New Orleans. Also, I have a best friend that frequents through New Orleans as he has a brother living there. He's due to pass through soon with his wife and daughter. Brava Anne !

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Lisa Moody's avatar

I love it! This is really enjoyable.

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Anne Babson's avatar

Thanks, Lisa! I think the best food writers make one feel a little cozy.

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Bruce Craft's avatar

This is awesome!

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Anne Babson's avatar

Thanks, Dan! (Or D4N).

I do not work at or own a restaurant, but I do have an intermediate certificate from a professional French cooking school.

I have always cooked and loved it. I translated at a cooking school in Paris for international chefs as a way to earn a salary in Paris and stay a little longer. They paid me minimum wage plus all the food I could carry home on the Metro and gave me cooking lessons.

Here in New Orleans, I am friendly with the woman who founded the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, and practically everybody in Louisiana, it seems, can cook.

The only time I ever made money from my cooking was at a farmer’s market for a summer in the Deep South when I moved down here. I started a small pop-up business I called “Brooklyn Cookies” and dolled up classic American cookie recipes (example — I made oatmeal cookies with cardamom and dried apricot pieces soaked in Cointreau). I hadn’t started my doctoral program yet, so I needed a gig. I made as much as I would have made teaching a summer quarter at a university.

Here in Louisiana, I teach writing and literature at a state university, and on the weekends, I teach French at a cultural organization. I write and publish, mostly in poetry.

What kind of food do you like to make? Where do you live? What’s the cuisine like there?

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Anne Babson's avatar

Thanks, Bruce! I can’t solve problems related to the Electoral College on my own, but I can cook dinner and tell jokes.

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