Episode 104 Chef Hardette Harris - "Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home"

Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

Chef Hardette Harris sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

0:32 1. For the last two years, 103 podcast episodes, I have been sitting down with folks in our community asking them to help me understand why we don’t take more pride in being from here. I should have just come to you.

The work you have done is extraordinary, inspiring, and exactly what I’ve been hoping and trying to do in my own way. We’re gonna use a couple of quotes of yours today because I love ‘em. So hang in there because they may be a little long but they go deeply to the heart of the matter. You once said,

“The reason New Orleans works so well is because they love what they are. They don’t try to fix it up for anybody. They say, ‘It’s just who we are,’ and the world loves it. That’s what I’m trying to do with our food…When you go anywhere in south Louisiana, red beans and rice is listed as ‘red beans and rice.’ They don’t have some fancy name and when you get the bowl, what is it? Red beans. And rice. They don’t try to do anything to it.”

You were responsible for creating The Official Meal of North Louisiana. Tell me, what is our food?

5:40 2. You once compared our food to a toy that we hurry to put away when guests come, only to serve them more popular food like gumbo or etouffee?

Why do you think we “try to fix our food up for people”?

16:25 3. You are one of the very best authorities on North Louisiana’s foodways. What’s the best way for the general public to learn from you these days? How do they get on your schedule to spend some time with you and eat some of your food?

20:06 4. What’s next for you?

23:14 5. You once wrote,

“Traditional North Louisiana dishes like smothered pork chops, fried buffalo and catfish, purple hull peas, mustard and turnip greens, hot water cornbread and rice gravy can now come out of hiding. They were told to hush and not make a sound. They obeyed, sat still and quiet until company left. We let out a sigh and rushed to the table to eat and enjoy the foods we know and love. Forgive us.”

My last formal question is simply, as you look around at our community what gives you hope that we’re headed in the right direction?