"hurricanekatrina" news and stories

The James Beard Foundation is serving as a resource for restaurant owners and workers displaced by Hurricane Katrina. There is the Nation Restaurant News Hurricane Katrina blog which has restaurant-specific news regarding New Orleans. There is also a place to post jobs,  look for jobs and make donations. New Orleans has a long culinary tradition and hopefully the chefs and other restaurant workers  will rally around their own.

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Leslie at Whining and Dining reports that Greg and Mary Sonnier, the owners of Gabrielle in New Orleans are in Memphis after leaving on Sunday. They spent an hour packing thier clothes before taking off. Leslie reports that Mary is seeking information on employees; David Hopkins, Michael Mattio, Sr., Perry Treme. Mary and Greg Sonnier have had their restaurant for 13 years and said in a phone interview with Leslie: "We're just now dealing with the grim reality that we won't be going back home for six months, that our restaurant is gone, underwater."

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Everyone is aware of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, but there may be more food-related costs in the future. Not only is the future of one of America's most distinctive regional cuisines in jeopardy, but because of the hurricane, prices on some foods, especially chicken and seafood, are expected to rise. The storm ripped through the country's prime chicken-producing states. Hundreds of thousands of chickens died as farms were destroyed. Also, the gulf's fishing industry has been decimated and so items such as gulf shrimp, oysters and crabs will be scarce, if they are to be found at all in the coming months. It's too soon to know the full limits of the devastation, but it's just one more factor in an increasingly terrible tragedy.

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