Feeding New Orleans - by Jeanne K Firth

About the Book

"After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many high-profile chefs in New Orleans pledged to help their city rebound from the flooding. Several formed their own charitable organizations, including the John Besh Foundation, to help revitalize the region and its restaurant scene. A year and a half after the disaster when the total number of open restaurants eclipsed the pre-Katrina count, it was embraced as a sign that the city itself had survived, and these chefs arguably became the de facto heroes of the city's recovery. Meanwhile, food justice organizations tried to tap into the city's legendary food culture to fundraise, marketing high-end dining events that centered these celebrity chefs. Jeanne K. Firth documents the growth of celebrity humanitarianism, viewing the phenomenon through the lens of feminist ethnography to understand how elite philanthropy is raced, classed, and gendered. Firth finds that cultures of sexism in the restaurant industry also infuse chef-led philanthropic initiatives. As she examines this particular flavor of elite, celebrity-based philanthropy, Firth illuminates the troubled relationships between consumerism, food justice movements, and public-private partnerships in development and humanitarian aid"--

Book Synopsis

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, many high-profile chefs in New Orleans pledged to help their city rebound from the flooding. Several formed their own charitable organizations, including the John Besh Foundation, to help revitalize the region and its restaurant scene. A year and a half after the disaster when the total number of open restaurants eclipsed the pre-Katrina count, it was embraced as a sign that the city itself had survived, and these chefs arguably became the de facto heroes of the city's recovery. Meanwhile, food justice organizations tried to tap into the city's legendary food culture to fundraise, marketing high-end dining events that centered these celebrity chefs.

Jeanne K. Firth documents the growth of celebrity humanitarianism, viewing the phenomenon through the lens of feminist ethnography to understand how elite philanthropy is raced, classed, and gendered. Firth finds that cultures of sexism in the restaurant industry also infuse chef-led philanthropic initiatives. As she examines this particular flavor of elite, celebrity-based philanthropy, Firth illuminates the troubled relationships between consumerism, food justice movements, and public-private partnerships in development and humanitarian aid.

Review Quotes

"Firth hits stride when discussing her direct engagement with the food scene and culinary workers. Her study is an incisive examination of philanthropy and the New Orleans restaurant industry."--Louisiana History

"Instead of crafting a study of community-based efforts, ground that has been well cultivated, Firth instead 'studies up' by critically investigating the role of celebrity chefs and their nonprofit foundations in shaping the foodscape, the city and our understanding of what philanthropy can do. . . . Firth concludes by arguing for analyses of the afterlives of aid, particularly of failed efforts, and conceptualizing under-resourced communities as due a rightful share rather than recipients of gifts. These seem like excellent places to start."--Gender and Society

"A searing and classic anthropological question about the meaning of a 'gift' undergirds Jeanne K. Firth's fantastic ethnography . . . [which] speaks to scholars from anthropology, critical humanitarian studies, critical race theory, feminist theory, food studies, and organizational sociology, and it belongs on syllabi taught in any of their subjects."--Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

"Through her meticulous observations at charity events and her interviews with scholarship recipients and donors, Firth demonstrates how chef philanthropy significantly influences the re-construction of New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina. . . . There is so much to learn from this book and from all the work Firth has done to ensure New Orleans is fed both physically and spiritually."--Southeastern Librarian