The Dooky Chase Cookbook

As the unquestionable Creole authority, Leah Chase has gathered a collection of delectable Creole recipes from both the restaurant menu and her personal file and spices her cookbook with stories that reflect her Creole heritage and document the origins of various recipes.

From the inception of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in 1941, the establishment has functioned as a gathering place for the black political community of New Orleans, with the incomparable Leah Chase at the center of it all. As life for Black people gradually began to change, the restaurant became a hub of political activity during the Civil Rights movement of the ’60s.

Chase attributes the initial popularity of the new Dooky Chase to a change in her gumbo recipe, insisting, “It wasn’t until I changed the whole menu to Creole that I really got acceptance from everybody.” She originally tried to gain patrons by serving dishes such as jambalaya, fried chicken, shrimp, and oysters—foods that Black people wouldn’t normally eat at home—but eventually changed the entire menu.

Known as the "Queen of Creole Cuisine," Leah Chase is a New Orleans chef, author, and television personality. Chase has been the recipient of a multitude of awards and honors, including a lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance in 2000 and the James Beard Lifetime Achievement in 2016 for her lifetime's body of work that has had a positive and long-lasting impact on the way people ate, cooked and thought about food in New Orleans.