Susan Spicer's Café au Lait Pot de Crème

By Lolis Eric Elie

Truth be told, some of Janette's recipes actually come from the mind of Susan Spicer. Take for instance the time she tried to butter up her parents for a loan during the first season. One of the desserts she serves is this café au lait pot de crème.

Janette got less from her parents than she'd hoped, but it wasn't the fault of the dessert course, a smash by all accounts. This is one of several Susan Spicer recipes that will be published in our 'Treme' cookbook this spring. In the meantime, you can try making it at home.

Interview with Susan Spicer

By Lolis Eric Elie

Susan Spicer has been involved with 'Treme' since the beginning. She’s helped write menus for the two Desautel’s restaurants; she’s helped check our scripts for culinary accuracy, and she’s helped us imagine what a young chef like Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens) would go through in opening and maintaining a restaurant. We recently talked to discuss how her experiences compare.

What did you do to help Kim Dickens prepare for her role as Janette Desautel?

Susan Spicer: Originally, Kim came in the kitchen at Bayona and watched us prepping and getting ready for service. I would give her lots of shallots to mince and vegetables to slice or dice so that she could be comfortable handling a knife. Then she would hang out and observe during service -- I think it was important for her to get the "sense of urgency."

How much do Janette Desautel's experiences, particularly opening a new restaurant this season, mirror your own?

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Tujague’s and the Golden Age of New Orleans Dining

By Lolis Eric Elie

I co-wrote last Sunday’s episode, “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say” with Jen Ralston, our sound supervisor. We wanted to include a classic New Orleans restaurant in our episode, the kind of old school place New Orleanians would go to as part of a family Christmas tradition. Sophia Bernette (India Ennenga) and her mother, Toni (Melissa Leo), have had to create their own traditions, new traditions in the wake of Creighton’s (John Goodman) suicide in the first season. I consulted my friend, New Orleans food maven Poppy Tooker, about possible options. She immediately suggested Tujague’s (pronounced TU-jax).

“Tujague’s is such a historic dining tradition that even the location itself is a landmark,” Poppy told me in an email. “Over 150 years ago, the legendary Madame Begue created the concept of Breakfast at Begue’s, an 11 a.m. multi-course meal which today is known everywhere as brunch. A meal at Tujague’s is like stepping back into the golden age of New Orleans dining. It has kept its authenticity into the 21st century.”

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We set our Christmas dinner at Tujague’s, hoping that, in addition to providing a sweet mother-daughter moment on the screen, we might also evoke a faint whisper of the old traditions of Madame Begue. Tujague’s signature dish is its beef brisket. That’s a cut of meat usually associated with Texas barbecue, not Creole cuisine. Yet, the idiosyncratic is part and parcel of the Creole tradition. The owners, father and son Steven and Mark Latter, were kind of enough to let us include their brisket recipe here. If you can’t make it to Tujague’s for Christmas, you can still enjoy a little Tujague’s at home.