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62 oysters rockefeller Cynthia LeJeune Nobles New Orleanians are likely to describe their raw “ersters” as salty, sweet, slippery, briny, and creamy. Some call them metallic, coppery , and even tinny (and those are the positive adjectives). But regardless of these not-so-flattering descriptions, a peek inside restaurants such as Casamento’s (not in the summer, of course),Acme, Felix’s, or Pascal’s Manale will reveal happy eaters downing freshly shucked bivalves as is or topping them with a quick splash of hot sauce, horseradish, or lemon. No doubt about it, local connoisseurs are addicted to oysters in the buff. However, over the years, creative area cooks have looked past the chilled half-shell, experimenting with sauces, dressings, sandwiches, and grills. As a result, New Orleans has spectacularly refined and accented the mundane. Many of these concoctions are even legendary. The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book (1901) takes this accolade one step further and gives New Orleans sole credit for“open[ing] the eyes of the United States to the possibilities of the oyster in every variety and form of cooking.” Of the area’s fantastic array of oyster dishes, none is more revered or written about than Oysters Rockefeller. This classic was created during an 1899 European snail shortage that prompted Jules Alciatore, owner of Antoine’s, to grind together a hodgepodge of local greens and to smother native oysters with the resulting sauce. The elegant broiled dish ended up tasting so rich that Alciatore named it after one of the wealthiest men in the country, John D. Rockefeller . Oysters á la Rockefeller was an immediate sensation and a must-have for visitors. One notable out-of-towner who tried Antoine’s marquee dish was President Franklin Roosevelt,who,in 1937,was famously asked by New Orleans mayor Robert Maestri in his gnarly voice and working-class dialect (one that New Orleanians call a“yat” accent),“How ya like dem erstas, Mr. President?” oysters rockefeller 63 Today, Oysters Rockefeller is arguably the world’s best-loved cooked oyster dish and is thought to be the single greatest contribution of the United States to haute cuisine. That is quite a phenomenon considering that, although chefs and home cooks have stirred up close copies, Antoine’s original recipe is locked away from the public. Jules Alciatore, on his deathbed, reportedly demanded eternal secrecy from all who knew just exactly what went into that shell. This aura of mystery consequently leaves the living yearning to find the answers: Were the ingredients originally found on a relish tray? And do they include spinach? Olives? Vermouth? New Orleans food critic Tom Fitzmorris writes in his New Orleans Food (2006) that he received a request for his version of Oysters Rockefeller from, of all people, Bernard Guste, the fifth-generation owner of Antoine’s. Seems the restaurant needed a recipe to give the many folks who ask for it, and Guste felt that Fitzmorris’s adaptation was mortifyingly close to the real thing.The greens in this virtual copy include celery,parsley,green onion, fennel, and watercress. Fitzmorris adds green food coloring, an addition he says is authentic, and is quick to point out that the original recipe did not include either spinach or Mornay (white cheese) sauce. Some twenty years after the invention of Oysters Rockefeller, Arnaud’s Restaurant’s colorful“Count” Arnaud popularized the now classic Oysters Bienville . Named after either New Orleans’ founder or Bienville Street, where Arnaud’s sits, this savory dish is a baked oyster in its half-shell topped with a creamy, sometimes cheesy, and usually shrimp-laced sauce. Interestingly, some say that Emile Commander, the original owner of Commander’s Palace, should take credit for inventing the dish, while Roy Guste Jr. writes in his Antoine’s cookbook (1979) that Oysters Bienville was actually invented around 1939 by their restaurant’s chef Pete Michel and Antoine’s then-owner Roy Alciatore. Bienville and Rockefeller, in particular, receive the most press. Yet among the hundreds of oyster dishes originating from New Orleans, many old-timers swear that Corinne Dunbar’s 1930s-era Oysters Dunbar, a savory casserole of oysters and artichokes, was the best dish ever invented. Contemporary diners vote for Clancy’s irresistible Oysters with Brie. New Orleanians also flock to the venerable Mosca’s for Oysters Italian or drive to nearby Metairie for Drago’s Charbroiled Oysters. With all the hullabaloo surrounding these famed oyster specialties, it should not be surprising that, with the possible exception...

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