Culinary Virtuosity in New Orleans
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
More from our series Food and Jazz from New Orleans. In his autobiography Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans Jazz great Louie Armstrong often riffs on his mother's culinary virtuosity and improvisations. Louie “Satchmo” Armstrong (1901-1971) was born and raised in impoverished Uptown New Orleans know popularly as Back of Town. His mother Mayann cooked with very little money and created sensational meals. “When she sent me to the Poydras Market to get fifteen cents’ worth of fish heads she made a big pot of ‘cubie yon’ [fish stew] which she served with tomato sauce and fluffy white rice with every grain separate,” writes Armstrong.
