The Sweet “Taste of Home” for Black History Month

The first celebration of a “Taste of Home”: Black History Month is Tuesday, Feb. 23.

Executive Chef Michael Johnson said traditionally “Taste of Home” is about the chefs interacting with LSU student-athletes and their families and building recipes and menus based off the families of the athletes, but for this edition the PNC wanted to celebrate the chefs.

“It was something that we felt like was proper, and Chartwells was really supportive of this effort,” he said.

Johnson said two of his chefs, Thaddeus Christy and Kevin Anderson, prepared the special menu. They chose the recipes from the “Sweet Home Café Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking.” Sweet Home Café is located in Washington D.C. at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Christy and Anderson tweaked the recipes to execute the mouthwatering “Southern Louisiana” taste.

“They really took the menu and ran with it,” Johnson said.

A Taste of Home is usually a one meal evening program, but this edition will serve an all-day menu for the chefs and their families to enjoy.

“We’re going to celebrate them and their families,” Johnson said.

They can stop by for breakfast, lunch and dinner to enjoy some delicious cuisine. On the menu for breakfast is savory drop biscuits with sausage gravy. Some of the flavorful menu items for lunch are sausage po-boy, black-eyed peas and crab cakes. A few of the tasty dinner options are fried chicken, collard greens and pastalaya.

“It feels really good to be part of, and I think it will be something that we do every year,” Johnson said. “Every other Taste of Home is about the student-athletes, but I think for us there’s something really wonderful about the culture and the chefs hand in hand.”