Leah Chase: The cook who changed America
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2017
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Meet 94 four year old Leah Chase. For seventy years she has led the kitchen at New Orleans famous Dooky Chase restaurant. During her time she's hosted US Presidents, and civil rights activists, and music legends from Ray Charles to Michael Jackson. Her specialty is serving creole food specialties like gumbo, fried chicken and sweet potatoes. Dan Saladino sits down with Leah as she tells her story through the food she's cooked and asks whether a restaurant can change the course of a country.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello you've downloaded a podcast of BBC Radio 4's The Food Program. |
| 0:05.0 | Welcome to our world, from cooking to culture, politics to pleasure. |
| 0:10.0 | We hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:25.0 | This week we're heading to the southern US state of Louisiana and into the heart of the city of New Orleans to meet a remarkable cook. How is your day being? |
| 0:28.0 | Well, good. |
| 0:29.0 | If you hear you good. |
| 0:31.0 | If you're walking, you're good. If you're walking you're good. |
| 0:35.0 | She arrives at her restaurant each morning to prepare food and then |
| 0:41.0 | Jervents unfold from a table placed at the center of her busy kitchen. |
| 0:45.6 | Is this where you sit every day? |
| 0:47.6 | Every day after I cook, this is where I sit and I bulk out orders. |
| 0:51.6 | But this noise is dishes pots and pans that's kitchen noise |
| 0:56.0 | and kitchens are not nice places to be all the time kitchens can get ugly because the work is hard. |
| 1:05.0 | The restaurant is called Duckie Chase. |
| 1:10.0 | The cook is Leah Chase and a few weeks ago she turned 94. |
| 1:17.0 | What time did you start? |
| 1:19.0 | About quarter of eight. I should have started a little early. I had so much to cook. I had to make a |
| 1:25.2 | gamble and I had to cook greens, I had to cook garment, all of that kind of thing. |
| 1:29.8 | Even though she's in her tenth decade, just hearing about Leah Chase's daily routine makes me feel tired. |
| 1:37.0 | To cook and move around the restaurant, she does need a bit of help these days from a walking frame and although she's less than five feet |
| 1:44.6 | tall with her waves of white hair and pink apron she stands out in the kitchen. |
| 1:50.0 | Lunch service is underway. The restaurant is full, but she's unfustered. In fact, she looks |
... |
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