NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's, born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923.

A family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're in New Orleans in the Seventh Ward, known for its Creole cuisine and music tradition.

Here on St.

Bernard Avenue, we're stopping at Vaucresson Creole Cafe and Deli to talk to a good friend of mine, Vance Vaucresson, so he can share his story of his family 120 years of making sausage.

So let's go on inside and take a look.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: My man, Mr.

Vance Vaucresson.

VANCE: What's up there, Dook?

DOOK: Oh.

VANCE: How you feeling, my friend?

DOOK: Wonderful, excited to be here, man.

What you got rolling?

VANCE: We're making our traditional hot Creole chaurice sausage.

DOOK: You know, we use this generation after generation.

VANCE: It's something that we've made, and actually, you know, we've been fortunate enough to provide it to your family for over 80 years, I believe, and you know, it's one of those products that we see really defines some of our cultural food ways in the city.

As I do this, I think about my grandfather, who started it, and my dad, who took it over, and then he passed it on to us and... DOOK: And knowing that you're getting it right, that's the beautiful thing.

That same great flavor that you're doing here, it's the same great flavor that was back then, man.

VANCE: We had a cafe deli back in the early '60s, Vaucresson's Cafe Creole.

It was on Bourbon Street.

It was actually the first business post-reconstruction owned by an African American male.

So, we wanted to continue that tradition here.

When we opened this up, we have a beautiful cafe deli, and we're just so blessed to have Chef Bunny Young to come in and from her family's traditions in the Seventh Ward and their cooking techniques and their traditions, it melded so well with what we wanted to present to the community.

And she's just going to show you how to do it even better.

DOOK: I love it, well, I got to go step in the kitchen and see what Chef Bunny got going on, on this stove.

VANCE: Well, you better go to hop in to go see Chef Bunny.

DOOK: Yes, indeed, well, I appreciate it, thanks, as always.

VANCE: All right, my brother.

Chef Bunny, how's it going?

BUNNY: Hey, Dook, bienvenue.

Welcome to the kitchen, it's going great.

Today, I'm working on crab, crawfish, and corn bisque.

DOOK: Okay.

BUNNY: You know this is a Creole tradition, a Creole favorite.

So I'm going to throw in my flour.

I'm working on a roux right now.

Going to use probably about a cup of flour.

DOOK: What are we looking for, a blonde roux, medium roux?

How dark do you want this to go?

BUNNY: We want this to be a blonde.

DOOK: Okay.

BUNNY: Because this is just a bisque.

And next, we're going to go ahead and add in some heavy whipping cream.

DOOK: You know, one of the things I love is just when you're smelling that roux.

BUNNY: Yeah.

DOOK: Whether you're going blonde, whether you're going medium, you know something fantastic is getting ready to happen when you get that smell of a roux.

BUNNY: And we grew up with that smell in the kitchen, right?

DOOK: Oh, you better believe it.

BUNNY: You know when you smell that, something serious is being cooked.

I learned from my grandmother, a lifelong dedicated Creole cook.

My aunts and everyone in my family taught me the authentic Creole way of cooking, and I stick to those traditions today.

DOOK: Same with me, just being in the kitchen, hearing those stories.

BUNNY: Yes, yes, for now, we have our sauce; that's the basis of the bisque.

DOOK: Now you're starting to build that flavor, and I'm smelling it.

There's Creole seasonings, there's onion, there's garlic, and then there's a little paprika for color.

BUNNY: Yes.

DOOK: I see you have these beautiful green onions in your hand.

That's something you're adding to next?

BUNNY: Yes, I am, of course, you know as well as I do, both of us being Creole, this is what makes your dish Creole, green onion.

This is the hallmark of Creole cooking.

So I'm going to put green onion, and a lot of it.

So it's giving it the flavor now.

It's cooking down.

And next, we'll move on to the next step, which would be the corn.

This corn gives it a nice sweet flavor.

I don't have to use all of it; we're only going to use a little.

Just a little bit.

DOOK: And when you talk about adding that corn and that sweetness of that yellow corn, and you have the seasoning going in, you have that green onion, you still have that roux that's just tying all this beautiful greatness together.

BUNNY: Right, making it a thick, creamy soup.

DOOK: Do you want to add the pepper in now?

BUNNY: Yes, a little black pepper.

DOOK: A little black pepper.

BUNNY: Just a little.

The next step would be our crawfish.

That's where the flavor comes in, the crawfish.

DOOK: I love it, I'll let you add that, though.

(laughing).

BUNNY: All right, here we go, we like a lot of crawfish.

We can go ahead and put all of that in.

And this is about two pounds.

And now, go ahead with the crab.

DOOK: I'm going to let you add this as well, I want to keep my hand intact.

BUNNY: You know we do the crab dead last because we don't want it to cook up, you want it to be visible in your dish.

You want people to see that pretty lump crab, that's why we bought it.

And for the flavor.

We're lucky to live here and have blue crab.

So this needs a little longer to simmer, but I made a little earlier because I knew you all were coming.

And this is what the end result would look like.

DOOK: Thank you, Chef.

It's been an honor for you to invite me in this kitchen to talk about just New Orleans Creole cuisine, authentic Seventh Ward dishes here.

I can't wait to taste this at the table.

BUNNY: Anytime, I'm so glad to have you in my kitchen.

I can't wait for you to taste it and give me your feedback.

DOOK: I love it.

And now we have the Creole sausage queen sitting at the table, Ms.

Julie Vaucresson.

And I'm going to add something to that.

The mustard mogul, tell us a little bit about what you have here?

JULIE: So I started a line of mustard and sauces.

Thought it was the perfect complement to sausage, because what goes with sausage?

Mustard.

I always say it's like a love story.

I'm the sauce to his sausage, and he's the must to my mustard.

DOOK: Oh, I love it.

VANCE: Well, you know, we as a family, we've been servicing this particular neighborhood in the Seventh Ward since 1899.

It's such a rich community with a rich history, and one of our mottos when we opened this cafe was culture, community, and cuisine.

We wanted the three Cs because culture, Creole culture, is the dominant culture for the state of Louisiana.

It's truly what is the umbrella for all of the wonderful things that make it a rich culture.

And we, we do cherish our cuisine because we know it's the most unique and most flavorful in the world, and the Creole cuisine is truly what we have to give the world to showcase who we are as a people.

DOOK: I always tell people they fall in love with this city because it reminds them so much of home.

They get a little piece of their culture in here, and that's exactly right.

I'd say Creole cuisine is the all-star of culture.

And then continuing that legacy brings me to you, Miss Hilary.

Talk a little bit about the, the fourth-generation camaraderie that we share together, but tell us the story about growing up in the business.

HILARY: I can remember working like the Jazz Fest and all of those things, very young age.

You know you're out there, it's hot, it's hard, but it's like you're doing something that you can see is impacting so many people.

So many people are coming.

So many people, um, they come, first thing they do, they come to our booth, and they need to be there.

And you're working with all these people who really care, and for me, that's part of like, the most rewarding thing for me is you're working with your family for something that you really want to succeed; you want it to grow, and you just see how just impactful it all is.

DOOK: And this dish, we talked about it being served at celebrations.

This is a celebration.

And, and that's what I love about this city so much.

It's a celebration of cultures, a celebration of traditions.

Continuing a company that's been around since 1899.

Having a fourth generation saying we want to jump in and keep this thing going.

Tasting grandmothers' and aunties' recipes passed down to different chefs.

This just speaks to who we are.

This speaks to our New Orleans culture.

So thank you all so much for allowing me to be here.

Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

We're talking Creole sausage today from our visit from the Vaucresson Creole Cafe and Deli.

Today, we're making daube glace.

As you know, Creoles, we don't waste anything.

Leftover roast with this glace at the bottom that's been reduced, and we'll show you how to turn that into something.

I'm going to add some vegetable oil to this pot.

And with that, we'll start building on the flavors that you already cooked when you cooked the roast.

And we're going to add a little onions to that.

You don't have to add them all, right?

The roast has already been baked.

It's already cooked.

It has the onion flavor in it.

This is the onions that we want to make when you have that daube glace, and you're showcasing the onions and the carrots and the peppers and the garlic.

We're going to add these carrots.

These are fine dice, right?

You want to make sure everything has that consistent shape.

So we'll sweat this down, and as we add, of course, we're going to add a little salt and then a little pepper.

Not too, too much pepper, because I'll show you at the end, we're going to hit it with a little red pepper flake to make sure we have enough heat added.

To that, I'll add in some of these red peppers.

You just want to move those red peppers around and let them start to marry.

So now the textures should all start to come together.

Then we add in the garlic.

Now add in a little green onion.

And this is where you take care of that leftover magic, that glace that's been sitting at the bottom of there.

And we hold that roast, and we just start to pour that in.

(sizzling).

I'm calling it glace because, as you know, when you cook a roast, and you put it in your refrigerator, and it cools, you get a jelly, right?

As it reduces that, we call it the glace, that glaze, that jelly.

So that's what we're mimicking here.

We're trying to make that jelly, but adding the meat back to it and create a gelatin loaf, if you will.

Now that's coming to a simmer, I'll add in some of our beef here.

Fold that in.

And this is the consistency you're looking at this stage, right, to make sure you have the right beef ratio to those vegetables, because we're going to start then to add in our beef stock.

And you want to add it right to cover.

Nothing too much over top, because you still have to add a cup of water as we work in that gelatin.

So as this is coming to a simmer, we're going to start to work in our gelatin.

And you want to incorporate this with cool water first.

So I have a cup of cool water here.

I always like to add just a little and bring it in, and it'll help you mix it around.

And then I can add the rest.

Making sure we got all of it from the bottom and the sides.

And you want to let this sit for one minute before you bring it to this pot.

You can see here, we came up to a nice simmer, and I want to make sure I have the right consistency in terms of heat.

Oh, the beef is coming through.

That garlic.

So you know I have the vegetables.

I just need a little more hit of heat, because as you know, when you're tasting a cold dish, you need that flavor to be pronounced.

Now we'll start to incorporate this gelatin, and we're going right in.

So you're going to bring this to a quick simmer for one minute.

I'll just move it around just to make sure we're all good, and then we'll start filling our tins.

Now, what I like to do is to get a little bit of the meat and make sure everybody has a little bit of meat in their tin, right?

It's funny how dishes transcend, right?

This is a dish that they would make with leftovers.

Nowadays, this is a dish when you're thinking of getting fancy and having fun at a dinner party.

You're feeding somebody daube glace.

It's interesting how times change, and what was once a way to recreate a leftover has now become a delicacy or something very, very fancy.

And that she often used to joke, not only at this dish, but so many dishes back in the day.

She said, "We ate that out of necessity."

So at this stage, what you want to do is let this sit on the side and cool for 15 minutes.

After that, you're going to put it in your refrigerator for a minimum of four hours.

You're going to just give it a little shake.

If it's not set, it has to go longer.

I love to set mine overnight.

That way, I know it's where I want it to be.

And when it's where you want it to be, let me show you what you end up with.

We have the beautiful cup tins.

We have a loaf right here, and then you can start to see that meat just shining through.

This is a great way to start a party, but also to tell that generational story.

When I walked through the Vaucresson Creole Cafe, what I saw in that case was the hog head cheese, and I know it told a story of that family, and it brought back the memory of this daube glace with me and my grandmother.

It's all about Creole sausage.

Sounds simple, right?

But let me show you a way to perfect cooking sausage.

So to this pot, I'm just going to add a bit of water, and then I'll bring in our sausage here, and then we'll just add that right on top.

And then I'll come back with a little more water.

What you're looking to do is make sure you have water that rises up just a little above half.

That's what I'm looking for.

You let this go for seven minutes, then you're going to turn that sausage over.

This is Creole sausage.

That's just what we have in New Orleans.

We have that chaurice sausage.

It has that flavor; it has that heat.

It has all those herbs in there.

But if you have any other sausage, whether you like green onion sausage, you have chicken sausage, any of it that has that fat content, this is how you want to perfect it, right?

You can see that water is reducing just a little, and then you come right on this side.

And as that sausage cooks, the skin starts to tighten, and that's when you can poke just little holes with a fork.

Nothing too much, right?

Just a little to give it... See that juice coming out?

Just enough to let it breathe and that fat to come out.

That's all you're looking to do.

See how that fat is just starting to ooze out?

Now, that's flavoring that water.

And it's red in this case because we have so much flavor in this chaurice sausage.

This is our hot sausage, so there's cayenne pepper and red pepper flake and, a lot of herbs and spices in here, and paprika.

So you're getting that color, you're getting that flavorful profile that's seeping down in that water.

Again, on this side, seven more minutes, right?

So this is the stage where you want.

The fat from that sausage has overtaken the water that's reduced.

This is where you're really starting to crispin' that skin.

And you see that color that you're starting to get?

That's what you're looking for.

Give this one last turn, and you see the, the coloration on that skin.

That's when you know you have something here.

Look how beautiful that is.

Just that coloration.

Now, if you thought we were going to leave all this flavor in this pot, you're certainly wrong.

This is where you start to pick up that flavor.

We're going to add in our onions, and we're just deglazing, right?

Watch us wash the bottom of this pot.

And they're picking up all that flavor, all that fat that's coming from that sausage, right?

Of course, in our sausage, we talked about it, it has so many spices, so many herbs.

You don't want to lose any of that.

This is the point where you want to start to add those sweet peppers, right?

You see them?

The onions are getting pliable.

They're getting flexible.

Now we start to bring in these sweet peppers.

I have red and yellow.

You want to let this cook for two minutes, and we're just going with salt.

The reason why I'm going with just salt for this sausage is because it has a lot of heat.

We talked about the cayenne, the red pepper flakes.

If you have a sausage that you're using that doesn't have that much heat, certainly add pepper to this stage.

Now this is done.

We'll place this right here, and we'll come back to our sausage, and we'll slice it up for presentation.

Still has the juice in the middle.

I have grits right here, and if you're talking New Orleans, we serve everything over grits.

And we're going to go right in the middle.

And we're just creating a nice bed for all this flavor.

Next up, we're going to add a little bit of our onions right on top.

And now we're bringing the star of the show.

And when you look at that sausage, you see those red pepper flakes that's all throughout there.

And I'll put one right here, and then I'm coming right back just with a little more of this color.

Right on the middle.

Finish that off with a little green of parsley.

Always make the sausage the star of the show, because those butchers and sausage makers took their time to showcase their flavors.

Our last dish showcasing the Creole sausage, I want to talk about its versatility.

So we're going to start with the sausage outside of its casing.

So many times we use the sausage for stuffings, and I'll show you how to make a croquette.

So we're going to start in this pot here, and all I'm looking to do is just brown this sausage.

I have some vegetable oil going into this pot.

Not too much.

We'll go right on in.

And as that sausage starts to work, we're going to start to build the basis of our croquette.

These potatoes, they were cubed in a half inch, and they were cooked till fork tender.

And just as if you were mashing for mashed potatoes, right?

You're just going in this bowl, and you're mashing them down.

So, croquette, you can do it with two ways, right?

You can do it with potato, or you can do it with flour.

We're going to form it into a cake, but sometimes you can form it into a roll.

We'll start to add a little salt, not too much.

I have white pepper and just a hint of it.

We're going to crack in one egg to this dish.

Add that in there, and we'll start to fold and mix it in.

And I can smell that sausage.

I know it's getting a good coloration on one side.

We'll come work right on here.

Let me show you what we're looking for.

So as we flip that over, see that color?

That's all you're looking to do.

Fold it, flip it, and really, you're rendering that fat, cooking that sausage.

It has that texture that'll balance against that potato.

To that, we're going to add a little color.

We're going to throw in a little chopped parsley.

Now this is ready.

The only thing we have to add to that is our Creole sausage.

So I have one right here that's been cooling already, and all you want to do is just come and get chunks, right?

As you go in there, you want to have chunks of sausage as you bite into that croquette.

Nothing too big, just enough where you bite and you start to taste it, you see it, but nothing overpowering, right?

You still want to have those potatoes to shine through.

So this is right where we need it to be.

I'll bring this over to our mixture here, and we just add that right on in.

So you just want to lightly fold it in.

Of course, it's going to break up just a little, so it's not going to be perfect, but you're going to have, as you blend it in, you're still going to find those chunks throughout, and that's what you're looking for.

So this is the stage where you start to form your croquette.

So, what you first want to do is you want to lightly dust your hands with a little flour, and then you start to pick up a mixture.

And then you work it, right?

If you were working a crab cake, then you come with a little flour.

You want to dust that croquette and see that chunk of meat all throughout.

That's what you want to bite into.

And then here we have a little egg wash, and just give it a little dip, and we're going to come right into our breadcrumbs.

This is where you're going, and you still form this ball, right?

And I have a few that are already made.

I'll show you.

And we'll add to this one, and this is exactly what you're looking for.

So to this pan, we're going to add our butter.

And as that goes, I'm going to add some vegetable oil.

And you're looking just to melt your butter.

That's when you know you're hot enough to add your croquettes.

So we're right where we want it to be, and we're going right in here.

And we're not going to crowd it because we have to leave room to flip it.

We'll work with just these four right here.

This is going to take four minutes on each side.

You can start to smell that nuttiness of that butter that's coming through.

You can see it rise on the side, and that's when you know you have a golden brown that you're looking for in this croquette, right?

So we come, and we flip, and look at that color.

That's what we're looking for.

Now, as that side is cooking, we can start to work our mustard sauce.

Real quick, simple sauce.

We'll turn this pot on, right?

I have a beaten egg here, and I'm going to add some sugar to it.

Just not all of it, just a little bit.

And then we'll come right in this pot.

This is on a low heat.

Now I'll start to fold in the rest of this sugar.

Now, as I start to see it cooking a little bit or getting a little closer to the heat that I don't want it to go over, I'm going to add this lemon juice in.

And we'll add it gradually.

Last step to this is we're going to add our Creole mustard.

Now, I didn't add vinegar, right?

Because the vinegar is already in this Creole mustard.

This mustard has heat; it has that vinegar.

It's starting to thicken up, and that's where we want this sauce to be.

See how it's coating this spatula?

That's what we're looking for.

Sauce is done.

The croquettes are perfect.

Now let's plate it up.

And I'm going to show you just how thick this sauce got with that egg, right?

You come right on in here, and look at that.

Pat that dry.

And you're coming right on here.

And I'm not just going to give you one.

I'll give you two, because you taste, and I'll have one right with you.

Pat that dry, and we're going to come right on this side.

Of course, just for a little color.

Nothing too much.

And as you dive into this croquette, you're going to get a surprise from that great sausage, and that just celebrates the Creole tradition of sausage making.

And we didn't forget that mustard sauce.

So I'll see you next time on "A Chef's Journey."

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

JUSTIN: And you know what the key is to a good barbecue sauce?

Grape jelly.

DOOK: Grape jelly?

JUSTIN: I put grape jelly in my barbecue sauce.

DOOK: You got spins on all kinds of things.

JUSTIN: And it gots to be the cheap grape jelly.

DOOK: Okay.

JUSTIN: Can't be that high-end.

DOOK: Yeah.

JUSTIN: No preserves.

DOOK: I got you.

JUSTIN: We do jelly here, baby.

DOOK: Let me give it a sweet grape, baby.

JUSTIN: That's it.

DOOK: Let's go for it.

Cheers to the classics of New Orleans.

What am I saying?

ZOE: Maybe you could use your whisk.

DOOK: Yeah, oh, and you thought I was the bossiest one in the kitchen, check this out.

CLEO: You listen to the fryer; it'll tell you when something is, is fried.

When you first put it in there, oh, it sounds angry.

It, it, it's mad right now, it's really mad.

But then when it gets to be just about done, it'll calm itself down.

DOOK: Look, you all have inspired me.

I have to get back in the kitchen.

Vito, you walking.

You see that?

That was good.

Vito?

GIRL: No.

DOOK: No.

(laughter).

Thank you.

NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪