The Buster Holmes Restaurant Cookbook: New Orleans Handmade Cookin'

By Buster Holmes and Poppy Tooker

A local favorite for fifty years: Recipes, stories, and photos from the New Orleans Creole kitchen famed for its “fabulously good food” (Mimi Sheraton, The New York Times).
 
Starting in 1944, Buster Holmes served up soulful cuisine from his French Quarter restaurant at 721 Burgundy for half a century. Civil rights leaders and street musicians, debutantes and doxies, and all variety of hungry characters would gather in his shop for the daily specials he listed in scrawling letters on a chalkboard.

This collection of Holmes’ dishes includes his unmistakable and beloved red beans and rice recipe, along with hundreds of other entries ranging from shrimp Creole and Creole gumbo to turnip greens, fried chicken, deviled eggs, meatloaf, and—for the adventurous—preparations for such local game as marsh hare, possum, nutria, and squirrel. Historical photographs, anecdotes, and information about the restaurant and its history pepper the pages of this tribute to the classic Creole kitchen.

Includes a new foreword by award-winning food historian Poppy Tooker
 
“I've made grits before but nothing like this recipe. It called for 2 eggs added to milk to make a cup, and baked in the oven for 40 minutes. I must say, these are the best grits I’ve ever had. Rich, creamy, and yummy, I’ll be making this recipe again.” —Reader Views

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781455622122

Book preview

Buster's Story

With a cigar in his hand and a smile on his face, Buster Holmes greets his many friends and visitors at the door of his restaurant at 721 Burgundy in the French Quarter. 'The way not to die is to keep on livin', says Buster Holmes. I never been nervous a day in my whole life. I'm free as a bird. Yeah, I'm free as a bird."

Clarence Buster Holmes was born on New Year's Day 1907 in Pointe-a-la-Hache, Louisiana. His daddy was a farmer, trapper, and fisherman. The Holmes family was large—Buster had three sisters and a brother—so they all shared what little they had.

Buster began to like cooking when he was young. He helped his daddy hunt alligator, raccoon, squirrel, rabbit, and turtle. Later he watched his mama cook what they