Brenda’s French Soul Food

Chef Brenda grew up on the West bank of New Orleans, Louisiana in a little town called Harvey. As a girl she spent much of her time trapping crawfish in the canals behind her house, crabbing in nearby Lafitte, picking wild blackberries, gathering pecans and fishing on the local bayous and along the Gulf Coast on her family’s boat. Brenda was not only fortunate to have access to the rich abundance of local seafood and produce, but also the diverse styles of cuisine embodied by her Sicilian, French and Filipino ascendants, often enjoying the pleasures of a backyard crawfish boil one day, a big pot of gumbo the next, then feasting on pancit, lumpia and chicken adobo the next.