-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -Dooky Chase's Restaurant began as a popular corner stand where Edgar "Dooky" Chase Sr. and his wife, Emily Tennette Chase, sold lottery tickets and po'boy sandwiches in the Faubourg Tremé community.

In 1941, the Chases moved across the street to the restaurant's present location, establishing a multigenerational family business that has served New Orleans for eight decades.

Today, Chefs Dook Chase and Cleo Robinson return to the restaurant's roots with three hearty po'boys.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] ♪ ♪ ♪ We start with one of the restaurant's origin sandwiches, the french-fried potato po'boy.

-You talk about the history of Dooky Chase Restaurant.

You talk about the sandwich shop and the bar that started with us selling po'boys.

And one of our key po'boys that started it all was a french-fried po'boy.

So we're gonna get started showing you how we did that.

This is simple, but it is a crowd-pleaser for adults and kids.

Here you can see Cleo's peeling a potato.

This is about a 1/4-inch french fry that you're looking for here.

You do want to have a bowl of cold water or room-temperature just so that potato doesn't turn brown on you.

-And this po'boy was pretty famous for the younger crowds.

The younger group did not so much have their little nickels saved up to afford the big shrimp po'boy or the oyster po'boy.

So this was their means of getting in to see Ms. Dooky and talk to Ms. Dooky and get them a po'boy.

And she didn't care how much a po'boy cost.

Money was not her thing.

She just wanted to make sure that her customers were happy.

So she had this po'boy, and they would go out and hustle their little cans or their little Coke bottles and recycle, and they got their 25 cents and they came to see Ms. Dooky and got themselves a french-fried po'boy.

-While we were cutting and peeling the french fries, you can have your oil heating up.

Now, you're looking for about a 325-degree temperature here.

You don't want the highest temperature 'cause we're cooking these potatoes twice, right?

The first time is just to make sure they're cooked.

We'll pull them out of there, and then a second time is to make sure we get that golden crisp that we're looking for.

So our oil is almost ready.

We've been soaking these potatoes in water.

You don't want to put water in hot grease.

So you can start to smell our oil is getting hot and where we need it.

And I'm just patting dry those potatoes, right?

So you see I'm knocking all off that excess water that kept them from getting brown.

And always remember -- Do not overcrowd the fryer.

When you put things in, that temperature is gonna go down.

And I smell it.

I think we're here.

You can see my bubbles.

And I'm not looking for a strong fry, right?

I'm just looking for this 'cause this is gonna hang in there for about six to eight minutes.

And I'm gonna add all these french fries in there.

So, the original location we had right across the street from Dooky Chase -- just a bar and a sandwich shop, right?

And we were real simple.

Come in.

Get your po'boys.

Get a drink.

Hang with my great-grandfather, who was just -- He lit up any party, any festivity.

He was a people's person.

You can see our fries.

They're working.

They're not turning golden brown, which is perfect.

If you start to see that when you're frying this, they're turning that color, you want to lower that heat.

Go ahead and lower that heat drastically.

Even if you need to cut your heat off just to lower that temperature on that grease, do that and then turn it on to a low to medium heat.

But I'm not looking for any color on these things.

If we get a little bit, that's okay.

But for the most part, I am just strictly looking to cook this potato right here And here's what I'm looking for.

And I'll let those out and just drain them here.

♪ And as you can see, there's not much color on those here.

Right in the inside, but it's not crispy yet.

We turn this up to about a medium-high heat.

We want to get to about 375.

We're gonna let these fries cook for about two to three minutes.

All we're looking for is color and crisp.

So now we're at the temperature we want.

We're putting them in.

[ Oil crackling ] You can see in the pan, we're starting to turn that color.

It's starting to get to that golden crisp that we're looking for.

-Looks good.

-Looks beautiful.

See?

This one's coming out golden brown.

I think we got about 30 more seconds and we're coming right out with these bad boys.

Look at that color that's coming out on it.

So when you see that color, that's when you know you got your texture right.

And now I'm coming right on out here.

And nowadays, you know, you do this with your air fryer, but we're showing you the original way.

And if you're going back in that fryer, right, you want to let that heat come up a little bit.

So don't automatically throw more potatoes in there.

Give it about a minute, 30 seconds.

Let it come back up.

Add your more potatoes.

Soon as you come out, you want to hit it with a little salt and pepper.

And this is gonna adhere to the fries.

And now I'm moving over 'cause I have the best po'boy maker in the city.

I'm gonna let her work her magic.

-So we toasted our bread with some butter.

And then we're gonna start the assembly.

We're gonna take our french fries and lay them on the bread.

Make sure everybody's all covered up.

And then we're gonna put some good old mayonnaise on there.

-So you talk about a dressed po'boy, right?

A dressed po'boy in New Orleans -- You know what you're getting on that sandwich.

You have your mayonnaise, your lettuce, your tomatoes, your pickles.

-And it was so much better when it was Creole tomato season.

That was even an extra treat when it was Creole tomato season so you got you some good tomatoes and some wonderful, fresh iceberg lettuce.

It was always iceberg.

We didn't do the fancy romaine and the butter lettuce and all of this.

It was just some good old iceberg lettuce and, of course, some dill pickles.

And I love that iceberg lettuce because you get a little bit of that crunch.

-And texture.

And voilà.

There you have the wonderful Dooky Chase potato po'boy.

-And, Cle, when we had those guests that come in and had that french fry po'boy and just wanted a little bit of extra something else, what would we give them?

-I think if they had an extra 10 cents in their pocket and they wanted to get rid of it, Ms. Dooky would treat them real good and give him a little roast beef drippings to pour over their po'boy.

-And we would just move that bad boy right on top.

And, you know, like I said, the beautiful thing about po'boys -- If you wanted to cut this in half and half and have fun with it and feed the family, you can.

And then you tie along this gravy with it, you got something that everybody's gonna enjoy.

No ketchup needed for this french fry.

Roast beef gravy is all you need.

-Edgar "Dooky" Chase Sr., a parade second-liner with a big personality, ran the restaurant's bar.

Emily served as Dooky Chase's genial hostess and cook.

-My father's father was a second-liner, and he founded the Square Deal second line parade group, the Jolly Bunch Boys, and he loved to party and loved the good life.

-So together, when my great-grandparents had the opportunity to start giving of themselves through food, through the culinary experience of a po'boy shop, and then where we are present day -- Dooky Chase's with the bar service and modest table service -- that brought them great joy.

My great-grandmother was a lady well before her time.

As far as having a vision, she had a vision and a passion.

That stemmed from wanting for her family to thrive but also the community.

-Next, a hot sausage po'boy starring a Creole chaurice sausage made by a New Orleans company founded in 1899.

-We're gonna start by putting a little water in a skillet.

[ Steam hisses ] Ooh.

That's some good sound effects.

And it's gonna be a one-pot dish.

This is gonna be an easy one to make.

We're just gonna let this sausage render off some of that fat that's in it.

And we're gonna let it boil there.

It's pretty accessible to get a good sausage.

There are many, many sausages out there that are comparable.

Most readily would be a smoked sausage, but it's not as spicy as this one.

But this is a really good sausage.

It's not overly spicy.

It has just a hint of cayenne pepper and the crushed red peppers, and it's really, really, really tasty.

And it requires a few different dressings.

I like to wait till it all boils out and then it'll take it straight to a frying stage.

That way, you don't have to change your skillets and go to another one.

And then you get to use its natural fats and get it to cook right in its own fat.

So it's not long.

And a big mistake that people have is they like to get there and poke it.

Well, if you poke it, you're gonna get an oil gusher.

So we don't recommend you do that.

All right.

As you can see, I've taken the sausage to where all of the water is boiled out of it, and now we are going to slice it open.

And we're gonna go back to that skillet.

And then we're gonna put the final fry on it to crisp it up.

♪ Put it in there like that.

Get a little fire going.

Here we go.

♪ ♪ Got to make sure we have enough protein to fill our po'boy up.

I didn't actually start in the kitchen at Dooky's.

I came in under the assumption that I was working my way through college.

And I got three years in... and found out that college wasn't for me.

Or my field wasn't for me, I should say -- what I chose.

But in the meantime, I fell in love with the restaurant business.

Working with my aunt was memorable.

It was very educational, and it was very exhilarating just to come in and watch her get excited about feeding somebody.

As I said earlier, money was never an object for her.

She never factored in the money part of it.

It would make my uncle awfully mad.

But she would always tell us, "Don't worry about money.

The money's gonna come.

Don't worry about money.

Money's gonna come.

It's gonna happen."

She was just excited to get food in the pot, get it on the plate, and then go out to the dining room and talk to her customers and them tell her it was delicious.

And you would swear she made a million bucks.

But that's what I fell in love with.

And here I am, some years later, still going -- 42, to be exact.

[ Chuckles ] The restaurant business is not for everybody.

You either love it or you hate it.

There's no in between.

Once it gets in your blood, you just... you go with it.

And as you can see, that sausage is frying, just like I said, in its own little fat.

And they're gonna fry up nice and crispy there.

Not too crispy, but you're gonna get a little crisp to that protein.

And then we're gonna start making our po'boy.

Like I said, we have our nice buttered French bread, which is our staple here.

And then we're gonna put our sausage... on our po'boy.

Ooh!

That's gonna be a healthy one.

Got to have enough protein.

No scrimpy.

All right.

And we're gonna do a little different twist on this one.

We're gonna add a little Creole mustard... ...and a little mayonnaise.

And, of course, it's always great with our Creole tomatoes... ...and some iceberg lettuce... ...and our dill pickles.

And a little extra twist... ...because Ms. Chase's daughter loves red onions.

So we add those.

It's always about pleasing, who likes what, who gets what.

So everybody gets their own little twist on the po'boy.

Oh, nice crunchy -- nice, crunchy French bread, just the way we like it.

Let me get a little toothpick there, hold it together.

And voilà.

Creole chaurice sausage po'boy.

-In 1945, Leah Lange met the Chases' son, Edgar "Dooky" Chase Jr., and they married the next year.

When the couple's four children were of school age, Leah began working in the restaurant, landing in the kitchen.

-She then met my father and then his parents and got the opportunity to come to the restaurant.

And when she saw it, she immediately thought, "Well, oh, I can fit in great here, and here's what I can bring to the table."

-I just have to say to my great-grandmother, you know, her willingness to say, "Okay.

Come on, Leah, my daughter-in-law."

Please come and work with me to continue to improve and grow this business."

And, you know, that had to be pretty interesting, because in our family, we have a lot of strong-willed women with great vision and very skilled.

-Last but certainly not least, a pork chop and oyster po'boy, a favorite of Chef Leah Chase.

-This is one of my grandmother's favorite po'boys.

When you look at this, you see a pork tenderloin and oysters.

And you think about, "What is going on?"

But you think about how well pork marries with oysters.

You know, people wrap it with bacon all the time.

So, you know Chef Leah Chase isn't just wrapping her oysters with bacon.

She's gonna put her spin on it, her little twist.

So, of course, we have the pork tenderloin and then oysters that we're getting ready to get started here.

I have two pots going on at this time, right?

I have my oil that's getting a little hot for these oysters to fry in.

We're looking for about a 325 degree.

Then I have this pot, where I'm gonna sauté the pork tenderloin in, and that's on about a low to medium heat.

I took this pork tenderloin, and we just came off and made little slices here, right?

So we're looking at this is roughly about a half inch or a little less than a half inch thick.

This is what you're looking for, that round that we'll get started in this skillet.

So I'll put these out right here.

Of course, with everything, we're gonna add a little salt.

A little pepper.

We'll flip that guy over.

Do both sides.

A little salt.

A little pepper.

And I can hear my grandmother saying, "Put a little more seasoning on that, little boy."

That's what she would tell me when I didn't have enough seasoning.

I'm gonna get a little bit of that oil down here.

And not too much oil.

I'm not trying to deep-fry this.

Just enough to coat the bottom of that pan so we're not sticking here.

And that's what we're looking for.

Now, while I'm doing this, Cleo will get started on... -I'll start your oysters.

-...getting these oysters battered up.

-This was one of Ms. Chase's favorites.

She loved her oyster sandwich And the only seasoning that was required for oysters was salt and black pepper.

And we just take them and dredge them in corn flour.

So we're gonna give him just a few more oysters.

So...black pepper.

-And my grandmother loved black pepper on her oysters.

She said you had to make sure you had enough pepper on those oysters.

And she was right.

When you take a fried oyster with that pepper, it just brings a whole different flavor to that oyster.

You can see the pork is starting to render.

You watch as that color rises up, right?

You see where it starts to turn halfway.

Then you can flip it right on over.

So we're getting close on here.

I think my my grease is ready for my oysters.

As always, frying, don't crowd the pot.

[ Oil crackling ] Shake off a little excess.

And these are some beautiful-sized oysters here.

-And we like to use our local Gulf oysters.

It's pretty good down here in the South.

We're close to the Gulf, close to the lake, and we get all of our seafood nice and fresh.

-You can see my pork is halfway up.

I'm getting ready to flip them on over.

And that's what I'm looking for, that nice browning on there.

Gonna turn him down.

And that's exactly the color you're looking for.

You can smell that flavor just coming up.

And if you start to stick, just move that little oil around.

Make sure the pan has got it all on all sides.

And now that's about three more minutes.

And it's so beautiful you can do it at the similar time, 'cause while that's going, you got your oysters frying, and that smell is just hitting you, and you're like, "Oh, I can't wait to get both of these out and get them going."

I like to turn over that oyster.

You know, some people like to flash-fry their oysters, right?

Which is good if you want to hit them real quick.

But for this sandwich, we're gonna fry them a little bit harder 'cause we're looking for that crunch, that texture, right?

You're going into that bread, you're going into that cold butter, you're hitting that oyster with that crisp hard.

Then you're coming into the pork side of things.

I mean, you talk about a pork chop and oyster po'boy.

And this is my grandmother's favorite sandwich, and I can see why.

It has all the greats going on in it.

But you look at these beautiful oysters.

I mean, look at that.

Nice golden brown.

They got a great texture on it.

I'm turning this guy off here, and we're gonna get all this cleaned up, and I'm gonna show you how to put this sandwich together.

It's definitely a crowd-pleaser.

We have a beautiful French bread here.

What we like in our bread is one that has a little texture, a little bite to it, right?

Not to doughy in the inside.

-And this is a little bit different than what we've done in the past.

As you can see, our bread is toasted, but it is not buttered.

The key to this sandwich was Ms. Chase loved cold butter.

Don't melt her butter unless you were cooking.

But when it went on a po'boy, she wanted cold butter.

So she liked nice slices of butter.

Oh, yeah.

The more, the merrier.

And what I love about our family...

I better not brag too soon.

Knock on wood.

...we don't have cholesterol problems.

-That's exactly right.

We have longevity.

-And we stack the oysters.

You got to get them nice and full.

Got to get them all on there.

-And you talk about just a sandwich that speaks to you.

-And then we're gonna put a little pork on here.

This po'boy... ...was a nice accident in the makings.

Ms. Chase was sitting one day having lunch, and her lunch was pork chops and some rice.

And I was on the fry station, and I was frying, and I had a few oysters left.

And I was bragging.

I said, "Ooh!

These oysters are so pretty.

They're running so good.

They're a beautiful size.

They just look so good."

She said, "Well, let me taste one."

So, needless to say, I brought her several of them over, and she picked up her pork chop and put it on her French bread and put her oysters with it, and... today we have the Leah Chase oyster and pork chop sandwich that she loves, and she was very happy to eat it and share it.

-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.

-I think she's smiling, and I laugh all the time.

I was like, "This is all you.

It has to be all your doing."

'Cause I have nothing to do with this.

I just kind of showed up like you taught me to show up.

Yeah.

So I think both of them.

I think my grandfather has that little laugh/smirk right now.

-It would be great for her to be able to walk in that door right now and see all of her grandchildren around and her children, hopefully, keeping this legacy going.

-Every time I walk in this restaurant, I say a little prayer to her.

I say a little prayer to my grandparents and all of them and say, "Look, we need your help today.

Guide us through.

What should we be doing?"

-What they are smiling at now is the fact that we have everyone buying into the restaurant, everyone helping us out because of them, because they want the legacy to continue, because they saw the hard work that my mother and father put into the business and the blessings that we're now getting because of their hard work.

♪ -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...