Feeding New Orleans

“Firth hits stride when discussing her direct engagement with the food scene and culinary workers. Her study is an incisive examination of philanthropy and the New Orleans restaurant industry.”—Louisiana History

“A searing and classic anthropological question about the meaning of a ‘gift’ undergirds Jeanne K. Firth’s fantastic ethnography . . . [which] speaks to scholars from anthropology, critical humanitarian studies, critical race theory, feminist theory, food studies, and organizational sociology, and it belongs on syllabi taught in any of their subjects.”—Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development

“Instead of crafting a study of community-based efforts, ground that has been well cultivated, Firth instead 'studies up' by critically investigating the role of celebrity chefs and their nonprofit foundations in shaping the foodscape, the city and our understanding of what philanthropy can do. . . . Firth concludes by arguing for analyses of the afterlives of aid, particularly of failed efforts, and conceptualizing under-resourced communities as due a rightful share rather than recipients of gifts. These seem like excellent places to start.”—Gender and Society

“Through her meticulous observations at charity events and her interviews with scholarship recipients and donors, Firth demonstrates how chef philanthropy significantly influences the re-construction of New Orleans post–Hurricane Katrina. . . . There is so much to learn from this book and from all the work Firth has done to ensure New Orleans is fed both physically and spiritually.”—Southeastern Librarian

“Well written and engaging throughout, Feeding New Orleans illustrates that you can’t divorce food from larger issues of food access, displacement, labor conditions, and inequality in creative communities. Using the rise of celebrity chef philanthropy in post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans as a case study, she examines how such charitable acts become a major driver of development—and the issues of inequality and longevity that such trends raise.”—Deborah Harris, Texas State University

“Feeding New Orleans analyzes the development of chef-driven philanthropy in the United States through Firth’s extensive field research in New Orleans post Hurricane Katrina, including her own experience working for a food-justice nonprofit. This book provides a persuasive and original study of how race, gender, and American’s consumer culture affect restaurants, food, and philanthropy. A timely and significant contribution.”—David Beriss, University of New Orleans