Louisiana, USA · 2 tours
Gumbo, po’boys and pralines in the French Quarter, a roux you stir yourself, and two and a half hours west, the boudin counters and crawfish ponds of Cajun Country. Two tours and a free walk to start, from a morning in the Quarter to six days.
New Orleans, the French Quarter
Overview
New Orleans has the strongest food identity of any American city, and it is not one cuisine but two. Creole cooking came out of the city’s kitchens: French technique, Spanish and Caribbean spice, African hands, Italian grocers. Cajun cooking is country food from the prairies and bayous to the west, made by the descendants of French Acadians with rice, pork, smoke and crawfish.
Our tours start in the French Quarter, where some counters have been open for more than a century, and move out to Tremé, Uptown and, on the longer trip, to Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and Avery Island. Remy Thibodeaux, who grew up in Breaux Bridge, hosts.
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2 tours · prices per person
New Orleans · Breaux Bridge · Lafayette · Avery Island
CookingSpiritsProducers
From$2,890per person, double room, most meals
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Jackson Square · French Market · Royal Street · Decatur Street
Food walksMarkets
From$145per person, all tastings included
View tour4 places
01
The Quarter is thirteen blocks by seven and you can eat your way across it in a morning. Our walks start with chicory coffee and beignets near Jackson Square, take in a muffuletta from an Italian grocery on Decatur Street, Gulf oysters on Bienville, a cup of dark gumbo and a praline poured in a Royal Street window. The French Market at the river end has been a market since 1791. Mornings are the time to come: by mid-afternoon the crowds and the heat build, and the locals have already eaten. In the evening, music spills out of Frenchmen Street, just past the Quarter’s eastern edge.
Best monthsOctober to May
Tours that visit The French Quarter
02
The St. Charles streetcar, running since 1835, carries you out under the oaks to the Garden District and Uptown. This is where New Orleans families eat: roast beef po’boys with debris gravy at neighborhood shops, snoballs in summer, and long Sunday jazz brunches in old dining rooms with turtle soup and bananas Foster. Magazine Street runs parallel to the river for six miles of bakeries, coffee shops and restaurants. Our six-day tour rides the streetcar out here for dinner on Magazine Street after the cooking class, and guests with a free Sunday can stay on for a jazz brunch.
Best monthsOctober to May
Tours that visit Uptown and Magazine Street
03
Two and a half hours west, over the long bridge across the Atchafalaya Basin, is the heart of Cajun Country. Lafayette and the small town of Breaux Bridge, the self-styled crawfish capital of the world, eat differently from New Orleans. Breakfast is boudin, a pork and rice sausage, with cracklins from a meat market. Lunch is a plate lunch of smothered pork chops, rice and gravy. In spring the crawfish come from flooded rice fields, and on Saturday mornings a Breaux Bridge café serves breakfast with a live zydeco band. Our six-day tour spends two nights here.
Best monthsFebruary to May
Tours that visit Lafayette and Breaux Bridge
04
Avery Island is not really an island but a salt dome rising out of the marsh south of New Iberia, and since 1868 it has been home to Tabasco pepper sauce. The visit takes in the factory, where mash ages in white oak barrels for up to three years, the pepper greenhouses and a tasting of sauces you will not find in a supermarket. Next door are the Jungle Gardens, 170 acres of live oaks, azaleas and a heron rookery called Bird City, best in spring. It is a short drive from Lafayette and the last afternoon of our six-day tour.
Best monthsMarch to May, October and November
Tours that visit Avery Island
Ways to go
01
The French Quarter Food Walk is three and a half hours and six tastings, Thursday to Saturday, all year. It is the right choice if you have one free morning in the city, or want to learn the classics before you explore on your own.
02
Arrive a day early for the six-day tour and the French Quarter Food Walk is on the house. You meet Remy, learn the classics on your first morning and start day 1 already knowing your way around the Quarter and its counters.
03
New Orleans and Cajun Country is six days: three in the city with the class and the walks, then Lafayette, Breaux Bridge, a crawfish boil and Avery Island. The full picture of Louisiana food.
What’s included
Multi-day tours include hotels in the French Quarter and Lafayette with breakfast, the tastings, classes and meals listed day by day, transport between Louisiana stops, airport transfers at group times and Remy or another local host throughout. The food walk includes every tasting, one drink and a praline to take home.
Not included: flights to the start city, travel insurance, the meals not listed, tips. Alcohol only for guests 21 and over, the legal drinking age in the USA. Full list
When to go
New Orleans eats well all year, but visiting is most comfortable from October to May. Crawfish season runs from about January to June and peaks in March and April, which is also when the weather is mild and the azaleas bloom on Avery Island. Oysters are best in the cooler months. Summer is hot and humid, and some restaurants shorten hours in August. Mardi Gras, in February or early March, fills every hotel; we avoid that weekend.
Before you book
Ask Lena directly
Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day, Monday to Friday.
Creole is the city cooking of New Orleans, with butter, cream and tomatoes. Cajun is country cooking from Acadiana, smokier and spicier, built on rice and pork. Our six-day tour tastes both.
No. Live crawfish season runs from about January to June. On fall departures the boil becomes a shrimp and crab boil.
Yes, if your flight lands by about 9 am. The French Quarter Food Walk starts in the late morning.
Yes. We do not run multi-day tours over Mardi Gras weekend, when hotels triple their prices and the Quarter is packed.
Better than its reputation. Red beans can be made without meat, and we plan vegetarian gumbo z’herbes and other dishes with the kitchens in advance.
One cocktail on the walk and wine or beer with the included dinners, for guests 21 and over. Every stop has a non-alcoholic option.
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Tell us which tour, roughly when and how many of you. Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day with dates, seats, the price and how we can handle any dietary needs.
Lena, Grant and Priya, Charleston
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Lena Ortiz in reservations replies within one working day. No payment now. A $300 deposit per person holds seats on a multi-day tour; day tours are paid when you book.
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