Interview with Alan Richman

Not long after I wrote the profanity-laced rant on Alan Richman's GQ Article "Yes We're Open," I sent Mr. Richman an email. Although I've never done it before, and probably won't again, I asked for an interview. To my surprise, Mr. Richman agreed, and we worked out a format in which I sent him questions via email, and he replied in the same way.

I was less than subtle in my earlier criticisms of Mr. Richman's piece, and downright surly when it came to him personally. For the latter, I apologize, both to him, and to anyone reading. I think the more astute among you probably noticed some hypocrisy at work in my ad hominem attacks on Mr. Richman. I was deriding him for pretty much the same thing about New Orleans.

I still disagree about most of what Mr. Richman said about New Orleans and our food culture. I'll have some thoughts in that regard following the interview. Text in boldface indicates my question.

A lot of the responses I’ve read to your piece, mine included, were extremely emotional. Given the circumstances, you understand that even if you don’t condone it, right?Not only do I understand it, I sympathize with it. Well, most of it --- maybe not the mindless disparagement. What troubles me is that the anger isn’t directed at the bureaucrats and politicians and agencies that have let you down, but at some guy who wandered into town, looked around, and had a few words to say. Are all of you really angrier at me than at the people who have lied to you?

How many times have you been to New Orleans, and when was the first time?

I’d guess I’ve been there at least a half-dozen times, probably more, the first time when I was an NBA beat writer in the seventies and covered New Orleans Jazz games. Pete Maravich and I got along extremely well, although you might find exquisite irony in a comment he made to me. He once told me he’d never read anything I’d written.

Prior to your visit, did you do any research, or did you prefer not to bring preconceptions to your work?

Well, I surely had preconceptions about the food, which I’d been eating on and off for more than 30 years. I actually did a lot of research about Cajuns and Creoles, which people who hated that part of my story might be surprised to learn.

You seemed to like the cuisine at August and Lilette, do you have a sense of why? Did you find any other restaurants taking the same approach?

I like old-style food. Truly. I wanted to love the food at, for example, Galatoire’s. I did not. I really don’t think the New Orleans restaurants that are attempting renditions of classic Creole food are doing it well or doing themselves much good. If they were, I might not have felt as I do, that August should be considered the prototype for the next generation of upscale New Orleans restaurants. What makes it so good is that it isn’t selling cuisine that used to be. When I eat most classic New Orleans restaurants, I get no sense of an authentic culinary lineage. I feel as though I’m eating food out of old cookbooks, prepared by people taking shortcuts.

Do you recall anything you ate at the Upperline specifically?

An odd question. Sure. I have notes (but not the menus, so don’t expect exactitude.) Gumbo --- which I didn’t love, by the way. Shrimp remoulade. Fried oysters with a spicy sauce that tasted to me as though it had sun-dried tomatoes in it, although I doubt that it did. I also thought I tasted garlic, lemon, pepper and butter. Nice crabcakes on fried green tomatoes. Lots of good desserts.

Have you eaten at Cuvee or Stella! How about Clancy’s, Mandich, or Pascal’s Manale? Did you visit any other “traditional Creole” restaurants during your July

visit or at any other time? I know you mentioned not going to Arnaud’s or Antoine’s in a decade, but how about Dooky Chase, Brennan’s, Pampy’s, Broussard’s or Tujague’s?

Well, every place I visited is in the story. It’s a big city. I couldn’t dine everywhere. I recall that Dooky Chase wasn’t open. I don’t believe Mandich was, either. I really wanted to get to Clancy’s but did not. I did eat at Brennan’s --- that’s in the story. Long ago I went to Pascale Manale’s for the barbecued shrimp. I thought it was a flawed presentation, the shrimp incredibly awkward to eat. I hope you’re not going to say that I failed because I missed all the best places.

You mentioned that you doubted the existence of Creoles, yet you met Leah Chase, who certainly considers herself Creole. Was your point that “Creole culture” as it existed hundreds of years ago is no longer around?

I’m about to get murdered again, but here goes. I will concede the following: I probably deserve to be criticized for taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to something that is taken far more seriously by the people of New Orleans than I realized. I should have just come out and said the following: I think Creole culture as it once was clearly does not exist, and while I understand the joy of celebrating what was, I suspect the people of New Orleans believe it still is. Okay, more hate e-mails coming my way.

You also noted that Cajuns were originally from Canada, via France, and seemed to imply that Cajun food was therefore somehow Canadian. That was a joke, I trust? You don’t actually see anything Canadian in Cajun cuisine, do you, one reference to Poutine aside?

Of course that was a joke. Thank you for being the one person who stopped being angry long enough to figure that out.

You wrote a good bit about the “narcissism, indolence, and corruption” of our culture, do you see any positives to our lifestyle?

Perhaps I have more Puritan in me than I know. I find the lifestyle seductive but not admirable. The greatest positive is warmth and friendliness.

One of the things that struck me about your piece was your seeming disdain for “loving the table too much.” Isn’t that an odd stance for a food critic? Am I mischaracterizing what you said?

Boy, that’s a question requiring introspection. No mischaracterization at all. I’ve never been a person who desires to eat excessively. I don’t admire people who do. I’ve never liked the work of food critics who go places in order to eat as much as they possibly can. I’ve always thought our work should be more qualitative than quantitative. I think the ultimate point I was making is that I find a connection between irresponsibility and gluttony. I suppose I could be wrong about that.

Do you know what Cala and Chaurice are?

Trouble ahead for me. Nope.

I think you’ll recognize that the vast majority of food critics who’ve visited New Orleans come away with an opinion that is very different from yours. Do you believe that other critics have either bought into the “hype” surrounding New Orleans food, or, post-Katrina, have decided to “take it easy” on us?

I’m not sure that many of the so-called food critics who visit New Orleans come away with any real opinion at all. Critical analysis is a dying craft, and very little of the food-writing of today is about that. These days, food editors issue marching orders that go something like this: We’re doing a spread on New Orleans. Go down there and tell us the best places to eat. Make sure you include some new ones nobody knows about. Thee writer comes back and announces that everything is fabulous, which is exactly what the publication wants to hear.

Do you consider Commander’s Palace a Creole restaurant? If not “classic Creole,” do you see the Creole influence on the menu there? How about August, do you see “Creole” influences on its menu?

As boxer Roberto Duran famously said in Creole when he left the ring, unwilling to take any more punishment, “No mas. No mas.” I’ve had enough Creole discussions to last me a lifetime.