[Image Courtesy of WYES]

WYES-TV Celebrates the Women Chefs of New Orleans

14:17 May 13, 2020
By: Kim Ranjbar

Things will be heating up this weekend on your TV with the premier of Kitchen Queens: New Orleans, a new cooking series turning a spotlight on some of our city's finest female chefs. In partnership with with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, WYES-TV has launched this 26-part series to chefs who are making their contribution to the local culinary landscape with innovative and unforgettable dishes. This Saturday, May 16th at 10:00am join both Louisiana PBS member stations, WYES and LPB, to watch the state-wide premiere of Kitchen Queens: New Orleans. Each weekly episode will repeat on Sundays at 1:30pm on WYES. After the sneak-peek on May 16, LPB viewers can watch the entire series beginning Saturday, June 13 at 12:00pm. Viewers can also watch the premiere simultaneously online at wyes.org.

Shot on location all across the city, the show spotlights the skills and technique of female chefs in their element from the teaching kitchens at the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI) to the Diva Dawg Food Truck. Producers Terri Landry and Dawn Smith, a duo all too familiar with creating national cooking series for WYES, have been planning a woman-centric series like this for years. "As women in all walks of life are being acknowledged and celebrated, the timing was right," says producer-director Landry.

Throughout the history of humankind, women have been the foragers and cooks, always tasked with feeding and caring for their families, yet when it comes to the professional arena, they are woefully misrepresented. "There was a terrible old saying that 'women make good cooks, but men make better chefs,' Landry said. "Our Kitchen Queens are reimagining the restaurant world as chefs and restaurateurs."

Meet the incredible women whose unique voices and recipes will be highlighted in Kitchen Queens: New Orleans:

Melissa Araujo - Saveur Catering, Cara Benson - Tartine/Toast, Meg Bickford - Commander's Palace, Jana Billiot - Restaurant R'evolution, Haley Bittermann - Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, Lenora Chong - Morrow's, Maribeth Del Castillo - Taceaux Loceaux, Tanya Dubuclet - Neyow's Creole Café, Megan Forman - Gracious Bakery Café, Tia Henry -Café Dauphine, Amarys Herndon - Palm & Pine, Christina do Carmo Honn - Café Cour/Carmo, Ericka Michelle Lassiar - Diva Dawg Food Truck, Nicole Mackie - Ma Momma's House of Cornbread, Chicken and Waffles, Melissa Martin - Mosquito Supper Club, Luot Nguyen - Magasin Café, Christie Plaisance - Bouligny Tavern, Leighann Smith - Piece of Meat, Susan Spicer - Rosedale/Bayona, Alison Vega-Knoll - Station 6, Allison Vines-Rushing - NOCHI, Cynthia VuTran - Café Minh, Becky Wasden - Two Girls One Shuck, Rebecca Wilcomb - Gianna, Sue Zemanick - Zasu

Kitchen Queens: New Orleans is dedicated to Leah Chase, the "Queen of Creole Cooking" and an advocate of both African-American art and Creole cooking. A culinary pioneer, Chase was chef and matriarch of the beloved Dooky Chase's Restaurant, one of the most culturally significant dining restaurants in the city … if not the United States. In Kitchen Queens: New Orleans, viewers will enjoy grandson Edgar "Dooky" Chase, IV, and niece Cleo Robinson prepare three of Leah's signature dishes, while reflecting upon her life and legacy.

Funding for Kitchen Queens: New Orleans was provided by The Melvin S. Cohen Foundation and The L.E. Phillips Family Foundation. Local funding by Rouses Markets.

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