About this Site
This website is an accompanyment to a presentation made on March 15, 2006 — for faculty and students of the hospitality and culinary colleges of Johnson and Wales University, North Carolina — on the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans restaurant industry. It is an overview published for educational purposes only.
Who we are
The presentation is the work of Deet Gilbert and the web design is by Kate Cohen.
Deet Gilbert grew up in New Orleans and attended Green Mountain College in Vermont. She returned to one of America's great restaurant cities to graduate with a Masters in Drama and Communications from the University of New Orleans, but her passion for food and wine kept her in the food service industry.
After working at several different levels of the food arena, she was able to work for Chef Susan Spicer as a server at Bayona. It was here that she began to fully appreciate the hard work and lifestyle that the industry demands in order to be a success. Working for the James Beard Award-winning chef for nearly five years was like a rigorous post-Masters program: an ongoing education on food, wine and standards of service. Later, at Peristyle — a repeated recipient of awards from Wine Spectator and others — Deet worked for Chef Tom Wolfe.
Last July, only about five weeks before Katrina devastated her home town, she brought her skills and fifteen years of industry experience to Charlotte. She stepped back into management here and is one of the front of house managers at Upstream restaurant in Southpark. Upstream is one of the city's finer restaurants and Deet is hoping that she can lend some of her experience to making it even better.
Veteran web designer Kate Cohen is a New Orleans native and food enthusiast with a special passion for the restaurants of her home town. She volunteered her services for this project because she believes it is important to keep New Orleans' unique cultural story alive in the wake of the devastating 2005 hurricanes. She visited New Orleans in late February 2006 and contributed some photos and information to the project.
Sources
Information for this presentation came from many sources, including personal interviews and responses to an e-mail questionnaire sent to people in the New Orleans food service industry. Additionally, information from the following sources was used:
- The Times-Picayune/nola.com
- Gambit Weekly
- The Miami Herald
- The Seattle Times
- The Dallas Morning News
- The Washington Times
- The Review Journal
- The New York Times
- The Los Angeles Times
- Food and Wine
- New Orleans City Business
- The National Restaurant Association
- The Louisiana Restaurant Association
- ABC news
- msnbc.com
- decanter.com
- hotel-online.com
- restaurantedge.com
- cityofno.com
- katrinacoverage.com
- laseagrant.com
- nomenu.com
- salon.com
Links
Keep up with the New Orleans restaurant and hospitality industry with these handy links.
New Orleans Menu. Longtime New Orleans food critic and cookbook writer follows the recovery and keeps a handy list of re-opened restaurants. The archive of his daily journal of the days from August 28 to October 21, 2005 is an interesting read on the industry's first tentative steps of recovery.
The Times-Picayune's online dining section at nola.com. Good source of latest news.
Gambit is New Orleans' lively weekly newspaper and its food news is featured at its bestofneworleans.com site.
New Orleans City Business covers all aspects of the restaurant/hospitality and related industries.
Relief assistance efforts
The Slow Food USA Terra Madre Katrina Relief Fund to Benefit Gulf Region Food Producers and the New Orleans Chapter are assisting regional food producers and restaurants.
The Louisiana Restaurant Association's Restaurant Employee Relief Fund is helping to defray the costs of bringing displaced staff back home.