-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -I'm Dook Chase, and welcome to the Chase Family Pavilion.

It's on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, where my grandmother, Leah Chase, grew up.

Today we celebrate those who paved the way for us.

I'm talking about my great-grandparents -- Dooky Sr. and Emily -- my grandparents -- Dooky Jr. and Leah Chase.

They are here with us in spirit as we gather as a family and taste our wonderful picnic dishes.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Our picnic starts with a mainstay of Chase family gatherings -- pulled pork cooked low and slow until it's fall-apart tender.

-Today at the pavilion, we're starting off with a pulled pork that we're gonna cook in a wood-fire oven.

I want to introduce my cousin Chef Gavin Goins, whose grandmother Yvette is my grandmother Leah's sister.

So Gavin's gonna lead the charge and show us just how we start this dry rub on this beautiful piece of pork shoulder.

-Alright.

So, what I've done already is scored the top of the fat cap, and we also made some slits and added some whole garlic cloves in there.

So, what we're gonna do, we're gonna start with some salt.

And we're gonna get both sides.

-And the reason why we slit those fat caps is as you cook this, slow-cook it, you want that fat just to ooze on in with this beautiful seasoning he's doing.

-Next, pepper.

And you can be liberal with this because it's a big piece of meat we use in the pork shoulder on this.

Granulated garlic.

♪♪ And we're gonna rub this in, so it doesn't have to be perfect right now.

We're gonna rub it in with some oil and get it all evenly spread.

Next, chili powder.

♪♪ And finally, brown sugar, which is gonna create a nice caramelization on it.

Alright.

We have that.

We're gonna go with a little bit of olive oil and rub everything in.

-And this is where you get your hands a little dirty, just massaging that beautiful piece of meat.

-We're gonna get all that.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ -And that rub is just soaking it in, and we're creating flavor and building and flavor upon flavor.

This is a 5-to-7-pound pork shoulder, and we love to use the bone-in.

It just enhances that flavor as we cook.

It also protects us as it cooks low and slow.

-Alright.

So now it's ready to go in the pan with it?

-Yeah.

-Alright.

So we're gonna go in our cast-iron skillet.

We already have a little bit of water in here.

You don't want to put too much.

Just enough to keep it moist.

And we're gonna keep it covered.

And what the water does is kind of acts as like a steaming action while it's baking in there.

So we have that in there.

We also have some fresh thyme sprigs.

We're just gonna place it around.

Tuck it right -- right in there.

♪♪ Alright.

And, last, we're gonna cover it.

Alright.

So we have our pork shoulder ready to go in.

We're using a wood-burning oven that's set to 250.

And we're gonna place that in there on indirect heat.

So that's gonna go about 6 to 8 hours.

But you can do this at home.

If you're doing it at home, you want to set your oven at 350, and it'll take you about 4 hours.

♪♪ You're looking for an internal temperature of 190.

30 minutes before it's ready, you want to uncover it and let that brown sugar get real caramelized on there, get you a nice crust.

-So now that we have the pork shoulder in the oven, I want to talk about what we have here.

This is just oak that's burning.

It hasn't been soaked, right?

If you're talking about smoking things where you soak those chips -- we didn't soak this wood 'cause we want this wood to be our heating element.

It's burning at a good 250 degrees, and we're gonna let it just work for 6 to 8 hours.

-Alright.

♪♪ -The pavilion celebration is the perfect time to eat, drink, and remember Leah and Dooky.

-This gathering was -- Leah, right, was my grandmother.

This is what she loved to do.

So I think the Chase family definitely works hard, and we play hard.

We always like a party.

-Oh, she would love it.

She would really love it.

She wouldn't sit down, I'll tell you that.

She'd feel obligated to have the -- just constantly be cooking and all that.

You know, that's one thing she wouldn't stop doing.

-Oh, she'd be so proud of Dook.

She just thought the world of Dook.

He was -- She even called him her son because sometimes she'd call on the phone and she said, "Let me speak to my son," and I'd give the phone to Dooky.

And she said, "Not him."

And I'd -- "Oh!

The -- Your son."

[ Laughs ] Yeah.

No.

She'd be really proud of him.

-She'd be extremely excited.

She really loved when the family got together.

After every major event, every celebration, there would be a big event at the restaurant.

And those were her best times.

We would eat whatever -- what was left in the kitchen, and she'd always prepare our favorite meals.

And she would just love this, you know.

This idea that we had to come and build this property was based on her ideologies, you know -- keep family together, celebrate, and have fun with family.

Those were -- Those are the things she instilled in us over her lifetime.

-Next, Chef Zoe uses pantry staples to make a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce for extra flavor on the pulled pork.

-I'm with Chef Zoe, and she's gonna make a beautiful barbecue sauce that's gonna top that wonderful pork shoulder that we have in the oven cooking.

-Yes, so, to our pot, I'm gonna add a little bit of oil.

And we're gonna start to simmer some onions.

And we're gonna have it on, like, a medium-low heat.

So, while our onions start to simmer...

I'm going to add some celery.

And some bell peppers.

And we'll let this cook down for about 5 minutes.

-And when you think about barbecue sauce, right, this flavor that we're trying to enhance, where you see the onions, the bell pepper, all that is just gonna make a beautiful sauce that infuses and builds that flavor up on that pork shoulder.

-So, Grandmother Chase actually came up with this barbecue sauce because she was invited to Memphis in May, and it's a huge barbecue festival in May, and she said, "If I'm gonna make anything, it's gonna have a trinity in it."

So, of course, we have our onions, our bell peppers, and our celery that we're sweating down.

We're gonna let this go for about 5 minutes so that they're soft.

-And any time that you're sweating the trinity, that flavor, that smell, that's when you know you're going down the right path.

That already wakes you up, knowing that you're building flavor.

-Alright.

Now we're gonna add some of our ketchup.

We're gonna add some yellow mustard.

We'll add a little bit of hot sauce.

A little bit of Worcestershire sauce.

We'll add some chopped garlic.

And we'll give this a good stir.

-And, I mean, man, every aspect that she adds, it just hits you with that flavor of each layer that's gone in this component.

That hot sauce hits you with a little bit of heat that you know you're gonna taste in it.

When we're cooking, there's always flavor, texture that you play with.

One of the ones that we do is that sweet, tangy spice, right?

It hits you with a little sweetness, and then it comes back with a little heat, which is also gonna go well with that brown-sugar rub that we have on that pork shoulder.

-So, now we'll stir in some molasses, and that's gonna give it that dark color that we're looking for.

That should be perfect.

Making a mess.

And then we'll also add some hoisin sauce.

And to finish our barbecue sauce off, we'll add a smoke flavoring.

-Looks beautiful, Zoe.

Let's give it a taste.

-Yes.

Alright.

-Thank you.

-Mmm.

-Oh, that's right on the money.

-That's it.

-You taste that sweetness.

You taste that heat coming through.

You can taste the bell peppers, the onions, the garlic.

That's gonna pair beautifully with that pork shoulder.

-Yes.

So we'll let this simmer for 30 minutes.

And then we'll have our delicious barbecue sauce to glaze over that pulled pork.

-The family gathering is an opportunity for reflection and gratitude.

-I would love to say thank you for the foundation and the guidance that you've given our family over the years that has clearly continued to carry on.

We truly respect and honor our roots and our culture, as shown here today.

We have multiple generations, distant cousins.

We're all still close-knit, and I think that's something that they really harped on.

And essentially family first -- that idea has kind of kept through, through the generations.

That's why we're all still here today.

-For me, I would say thank you.

Thank you for teaching me to do for others and that the impact that I can leave on this world is based on the service I give to others.

She was definitely one who loved to serve others, and we never understood it growing up.

We just -- It was just a part of what we did.

But I would say almost all of her grandchildren are in industries that serve other and some others in some type of capacity.

-I would like to say I love and I miss her.

I miss both of them.

I would like to thank her for supporting me through everything.

And I think that's one thing that has been continuous throughout our whole family, is she's always supported us in any of our endeavors and has been our biggest fan, including my grandfather, as well.

-Just being in her space and just hearing whatever her topic was of the day I think is what kind of gave us all a smile.

And then being, you know, "grown enough" to maybe enter into a debate with her about something was always the fun thing because we were always like -- "Look, little girl."

That's how she would end it.

You know?

"You don't tell me.

I tell you."

-Our next dish is an easy summer side from Chef Cleo.

Leah's coleslaw, featuring her favorite tropical fruit -- pineapple.

-Continuing on with our family picnic, a dish that pairs so well with that beautiful pulled pork is my grandmother's pineapple coleslaw.

And Cleo's gonna take it away.

-I'm gonna take it away and start out with just a half a head of cabbage that is shredded.

Not many of us went for this coleslaw because Aunt Leah liked to put pineapples and mayonnaise in it.

But we went along with the program anyway, and we're gonna continue on, and this is what she did.

And we have some mayonnaise.

Gonna put a little bit of mayonnaise to start out with.

And we're gonna have some carrots.

That was always a good little sweet thing to it.

A little bit of pineapple juice just to pick up all of the flavors.

We have those great pineapple chunks that she loved.

This -- And her other dish was the pineapple salad.

So she was big on pineapple.

-She loved the pineapple.

Pineapple cake.

That was one of her favorites.

But she always played with those flavors that you would say, "What's going on?"

But it'd just enhance when you married these different flavors together.

-We have a little bit of salt.

And we have a little bit of sugar to balance it out.

And we're gonna get it all mixed up very quick.

It's not a complex thing, but it's what she liked, and this is what we're gonna do.

-And when you're talking about marrying those flavors with that sugar -- and we have white pepper that's in here and that pineapple -- when you get one of those pieces, it just pops.

And, you know, when you think of coleslaw, you don't automatically think of pineapple.

But when you marry that with that pork and you marry that with that smokiness of that barbecue sauce, I mean, that flavor that you just build with those layers, you're talking about something that you just don't get at your normal barbecue.

-Alright.

Very quick.

Very easy.

And then we bowl it up.

And it's gonna go so good with that pulled pork, that nice barbecue sauce.

Little bit of sweet.

Round it all off.

There we have it.

Leah's pineapple coleslaw.

♪♪ ♪♪ -This is our normal process for any family gathering.

We have my cousin David Haydel here.

He's the fry master.

We're talking fried fish.

We got fried chicken.

He's got it going on.

And, of course, with such a huge family, this position doesn't...

He's here all day, rockin' and rollin', droppin' fish, making sure we got everything we need for all these hungry people that's getting ready to enjoy this beautiful food.

So, what we do is, it's just a classic cornmeal.

Salt, pepper, a little egg.

This fish has probably just gone for about, you know, 7 to 10 minutes.

You can see we got fish on this side, chicken on this other side.

-This is what's gonna happen over the next few moments.

We're gonna have Aunt Stella lead us in a family blessing.

Followed by that, everybody will get up and make delicious plates.

Don't disappear once you have finished eating 'cause we are gonna sing "Happy Birthday."

And it's gonna be full as usual.

Our normal love and joy.

-We're gonna ask everyone to just join hands for a minute to do what our family has always done.

So, in the tradition of the Chase family, we want to bow our heads, ask God's blessing on all that we do today.

We'd like to give thanks and praise for him, sending us our family chefs in the building -- Chef Dook, Chef Zoe, Chef Cleo -- and all the support that our family gets from the elders and those above who have gone before us.

-Amen.

-Amen.

Enjoy!

♪♪ -A commitment to the family restaurant links the past to the present.

-Everybody was expected to work in the restaurant, and, you know, you didn't question it.

Grandmother called you on Saturday morning and said, "I need your help."

She used to say this thing.

"I'm in the trick bag."

That meant she needed as much help as possible, right?

So we showed up and we did whatever it took.

And at the time, you know, growing up young, I thought every family was like that, that everybody had a matriarch in their family who pushed and, you know, kept everybody in line.

It wasn't true, and, you know, I found out later in life that many people didn't have the life I had.

-I have to say, it surprised me with my cousin, who I know as Little Dooky, you all know as Chef Dook.

My other cousin Zoe.

That we have people in the kitchen continuing the legacy.

Because I'll be honest, when she passed, I was a bit nervous.

I don't cook.

I like to eat.

My mother doesn't cook.

So it surprised me that I had people within my generation of cousins that are truly carrying on the legacy.

And then, of course, my older cousins carrying it on in management.

And I think she'd be very proud.

And also it's so great to know that this will continue on past this generation and to the next, as even the younger generation seems to have interest in pursuing the industry of the restaurant, yeah.

-I would tell her the restaurant's still going.

They're doing exactly what she would have wanted.

And they're -- they're just adding a variety of other stuff.

But it's just what she would have loved.

She loved fine dining, and she loved to please the customers.

And she thought if you came there, she wanted to make it an experience that you'd never forget.

And so they're doing that.

They're -- They really are.

-Eve Marie Haydel combines simple ingredients to create a classic cocktail with a Cuban backstory.

-Perfect summer cocktail to marry with our beautiful pulled pork is the classic daiquiri and one of my favorites.

Eve is gonna take it away.

-Alright.

Well, we have a very simple cocktail.

It's just three ingredients.

So, we have our rum, our fresh lime juice, and our simple syrup, which is a sugar mixture.

2-to-1 water you heat over the stove.

And so we'll get started with our lime juice.

We're gonna do an ounce of lime juice.

A 1/2 to 3/4, depending on your taste.

But rum is already sweet, so the lime juice kind of just plays into that.

So we're gonna do 2 ounces of rum.

Did you know that this was made by an American that was working over in Cuba that couldn't take how harsh the Cuban rum was?

So he added some lime and some sweetener.

So that's one of the original cocktails we have.

And then later on, there was an American that brought it over to New York.

And so that started our flair with our cocktails and shaking and adding the citrus to our spirits.

-You know, it's wonderful to get the history of that classic daiquiri 'cause when you think, in New Orleans, people automatically go to the frozen daiquiri.

But this is the basis that really started it and how it's got its name.

-And very simple and very clean.

So we have all those ingredients in our tin.

We're gonna get our glasses ready.

Usually in the restaurants, we'll do it in a coupe.

We're out at our picnic with our family, so we're gonna put it in these things.

So I'm giving it a nice, vigorous shake.

[ Ice rattling ] And when we're shaking, we're already diluting it.

So we're not gonna put any ice in our glasses.

So these go straight-up.

And they're -- they're served just like this.

Very clean, simple ingredients.

You can top it with a fresh lime.

I have some dehydrated limes here.

And there's our -- our classic daiquiri.

-Cheers.

-Cheers to you.

This is your favorite.

I had to perfect this one, right?

So, we have our adults here, but we can't forget about our kids.

You know, our family is full of our children, and we spoil them to death, just like my grandmother did us growing up.

So she -- To incorporate, like, "The princess and the Frog," she wanted to come up with some kind of fresh punch or something that we'd serve the family that was, you know, non-alcoholic.

She came up with the Hoppin' Frog.

So, what you have here is a blend of fresh lemon juice.

We have some fresh pineapple juice and some sliced strawberries.

And it's just soaking in, you know, some fresh sugar.

And it's homemade, and she'll bash this up, and we'll put it in a kind of a dispenser and just kind of pour it out.

-And like Eve said, that was her thing.

She never left anybody out.

Right?

She always wanted you to feel like you were a part.

Whether she was making a cocktail and the kids was coming with this Hoppin' Frog, whether it was your favorite dish that she was preparing, she had something for everybody to enjoy.

-Boy, I tasted this one.

-I'm gonna get me a cup, as well.

-There you go.

And then on the side, we'll usually slice some strawberries to put on top because, of course, everything she did included the strawberries from Madisonville.

-Oh, that's awesome.

-I know it is.

-That's -- That's really good.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Leah's grandson, Robert Haydel, is the family's crawfish boil master, working his magic with Louisiana mudbugs.

-This is my cousin Rob, who always does our crawfish boils.

So, Rob, tell us a little bit about all what you put in this crawfish boil.

-Everyone in Louisiana, we do it a little different.

That's the beautiful part about crawfish boils, is that everyone has their own little personal touch and it's always changing, always growing.

We got our basics.

We have our onions, our celery, our garlic.

We have a little different flavors here.

We put a little pickle, a little pineapple in here just to give you a little change of pace.

I like to let it soak.

When it soaks, it develops a lot of the flavor.

It draws it in.

And especially seafood, when it cools, it's when it really draws it in.

And so this pot, we've been sitting for maybe 30 minutes or so.

I think we got something here.

-This is beautiful.

Look.

We got to let these people try this.

Let's go head on and put it in this beautiful pirogue.

And y'all got to see this pirogue.

That's a shout-out to my grandmother Leah's legacy.

And we're gonna pour this in this pirogue and let people come and enjoy these wonderful Uncle Rob's crawfish right here.

♪♪ -The picnic is also a celebration of May and June family birthdays, featuring sweets and a medley that Dooky Chase Jr. came up with, a song tradition that connects the generations.

-One, two, three!

-♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ ♪ Happy birthday, dear... ♪ [ Indistinct names spoken ] [ Laughter ] ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪ ♪ For he's a jolly good fellow ♪ ♪ For he's a jolly good fell-o-o-o-ow ♪ ♪ That nobody can deny ♪ ♪ You put your right foot in ♪ ♪ You take your right foot out ♪ ♪ You put your right foot and shake, shake, shake ♪ ♪ And turn it all about ♪ ♪ Oh, here we go, loop-de-loo ♪ ♪ Oh, here we go, loop-de-la ♪ ♪ Here we go, loop-de-loo ♪ ♪ All on a Saturday night ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -Ready?

Kick it off, Eve.

-♪ This little light of mine, I'm gonna... ♪ -Leah Chase was a little girl from Madisonville, Louisiana, who had big dreams.

In her remarkable 96 years, she helped shape both the culture and the taste of New Orleans.

The queen of Creole cuisine continues to inspire people through her food and through her true legacy, her family.

-When they have a rainbow in the country, it looks huge because you can see everything.

There are no buildings.

Just this beautiful rainbow.

I remember standing in the yard and saying, "I know I can walk to the end of that rainbow and I know there's a pot of gold there."

And I would look at that rainbow and always say, "I could go to that."

-A toast to Dooky and Leah!

Hear, hear!

[ All cheer ] -Chef Leah Chase spent a lifetime uplifting the community and building bridges through food.

For more meals that bring people together, join the Chase family next time on "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy."

-Leah Chase's iconic book, "The Dooky Chase Cookbook," has been updated and includes all-new recipes from the series you're watching.

The cookbook is available for $27.95, plus shipping and handling.

To order, please call 1-866-388-0834 or order online at wyes.org.

-You talk about my grandmother at a young age and her father telling her three things to remember as she was going off to high school away from her family.

And that was work, pray, and do for others.

And you could imagine what those three things took in my grandmother listening and did what she did and accomplished throughout her life.

-They both loved to fish.

So we would -- We city children, not used to getting up 5:00 in the morning, would get up 5:00 in the morning to go fishing with my grandmother Hortensia.

-I'm know outdoors person, right?

So we throw in this -- Just a cane pole.

No -- We're not talking rod-and-reel.

Cane pole.

And I remember feeling something on my toe.

I'm like, "What is that?"

She had us standing a little bit in the water, right?

And I lifted my toe, and hanging on the end of the -- I still had, like, a flip-flop on -- was a crab.

You know?

And I'm like, screaming, "There's a crab holding..." And all my grandmother said was, "Aww.

When you're looking for one of those, you never can find 'em."

-For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit... Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the...