Taking over several buildings in the eight hundred block of Rue Bienville in the French Quarter, Count (an honorary title) Arnaud Cazenave in 1918 began to build a monument to the sensual pleasure of fine dining. The menu was and remains extensive; with nine oyster appetizers, fifty-one seafood entrees, and forty vegetables (among them potatoes prepared sixteen ways), it defined French-Creole cuisine for decades. The kitchen is still the largest of any freestanding restaurant in New Orleans. Dining rooms throughout the complex range from the �lovers� lookout� on the mezzanine to small chambers for intimate, private dining. True to the nineteenth-century design, the restaurant today has a serpentine network of passageways through the various buildings. Throughout this cookbook are fascinating stories and scintillating recipes from the 1918 founding through today, as well as photographs, cartoons, drawings, and other Arnaud�s memorabilia.
Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook
By Kit Wohl
In a city known for its culinary excellence and abundance of fine restaurants, few establishments have achieved worldwide acclaim. Arnaud's stands as a monument to the enduring allure of classic Creole cuisine, as well as to the excitement of gustatory innovation.
This New Orleans restaurant is a leader of the culinary old guard and serves tradition today with a menu of classics with a thoroughly contemporary accent. Within its beautifully restored, historic walls, one can sample dishes created on the premises--succulent Oysters Bienville and Arnaud's famous remoulade sauce, to name only two.
Arnaud's lasting success can be attributed in part to the constancy of its owners. It has known only two families since its establishment in 1918, from the colorful founder, "Count" Arnaud Cazenave, to his equally flamboyant daughter Germaine Cazenave Wells, to her heir apparent, Archie A. Casbarian.
Like the founder and his daughter, Casbarian has infused the restaurant with tradition and flair and shepherded its growth as a magical place to savor the full experience of a meal. When Archie and Jane Casbarian acquired Arnaud's they embarked on an extraordinary adventure. "Tonight," wrote Casbarian in his inaugural menu on February 28, 1979, "marks the rebirth of a grand and noble restaurant and heralds a new era in the history of a world-famous establishment."
"Creole cooking is an exuberant, living cuisine," emphasizes proprietor Archie Casbarian. "It continuously evolves as we take advantage of Louisiana's rich bounty of fresh seafood, shellfish, produce and culinary talent."
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Casbarian is dedicated to the fundamentals of Arnaud's heritage, keeping one foot in the past and the other a step ahead. Menus burst with seasonal flavors and the fun that is the soul of New Orleans.
Here you will find Creole classics and Arnaud's favorites, from Oyster Soup to Trout Meuni�re, each recipe carefully adapted for use in the home kitchen. These versions have been tested to reproduce their delicious flavor profiles, while appreciating the realities of most kitchens. Aficionados of the restaurant can savor a true taste of New Orleans.
Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook contains more than 150 recipes ranging from Pompano en Croute and traditional Seafood Gumbo to many of the dishes for which Arnaud's has always been renowned. Liberally sprinkled throughout are fascinating stories about the restaurant's history, the legends that shaped it, and, of course, the many celebrities who have dined there. It is liberally illustrated with photographs, cartoons, drawings, and other Arnaud's memorabilia.
To read and use Arnaud's Restaurant Cookbook is to participate in a feast for all the senses, nearly as seductive as a meal at Arnaud's itself.
Arnaud Cazenave (1876-1948) expressed his philosophy of dining this way:
When choosing a New Orleans Restaurant--a dinner chosen according to one's needs, tastes and moods, well prepared and well served, is a joy to all senses and an impelling incentive to sound sleep, good health and long life. Therefore, at least once a day, preferably in the cool and quiet of the evening, one should throw all care to the winds, relax completely and dine leisurely and well. Au revoir, mes amis! Je vais vivre at diner en sage.
Author Kit Wohl lives in New Orleans. With her husband, Billy, she has worked with the Casbarians since they acquired the restaurant in 1979.
Photographs by David Spielman, unless otherwise noted
Edited by Brigit Binns
Recipe testing was supervised by Arnaud's Executive Chef Tommy DiGiovianni and Executive Sous Chef Jos� Munguia working with their extraordinary culinary team plus the talented home kitchen crew of Virginia Warren, Susan Hennessey, Christine Mason and Emanuel Dyer.
