Treme Episode 5 - Food!

Janette Desautel and Jacques, in the kitchen of Desautels.

Along with the music of New Orleans, food is a big component to some of the subplots of "Treme." Some thoughts on this week's ep.

(Click "Read More" to continue, I don't want to spoil it for anyone.)

The primary food subplot in "Treme" is an uptown restaurant, Desautels, run by Janette Desautel. Janette is smart, savvy, sexy, and casually dating/screwing Davis Mcalary. The struggles of her restaurant are well-written and believable. The writers (hat tip to Lolis Eric Elie, columnist for Da Paper, for this week's teleplay) have tied Janette directly to LaDonna Brooks and her search for her brother, Daymo. In this ep, Jacques, the sous chef of Desautels, relates to Toni Bernette how Daymo worked at the restaurant in the weeks just before the storm. Another lead for them to hunt down.

One might think this is all becoming a bit incestuous, Tony representing LaDonna, which leads to getting Antoine out of jail, which leads to getting Davis out of jail, which leads to Davis giving Sofie Bernette piano lessons. Davis is sort-of dating Janette, and now it turns out Daymo worked at the restaurant. Just remember, there's no six-degrees-of-separation in NOLA; on a complicated day, it's three. When dealing with people whose business and/or social connections cross racial lines (like Toni's would because of the legal practice), it's more like 1.5 degrees.

The Bernettes, Creighton and Toni, like to eat out. They're regulars at Desautels, and this week they're seen at Upperline. The Hubig's pie at Desautels was a nice touch, even if Hubig's wasn't back yet.

This week's big food event is the Top Chef invasion. New York chefs Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert, David Chang, and Wylie Dufresne show up at Desautels with no reservation, dropping John Besh's name. Janette is a consummate pro; sure, she's not totally comfortable with these names in her place, but she's undeterred. I like her decision to "low-ball" the Noo Yawkers, giving them sweetbreads, rabbit kidneys, and andouille sausage. They're in NOLA, challenge them with a very peasant-class meal. I disagree with her that you can't "Out New York" the New York guys. Our restaurants can, and often do. There's a LOT of talent in NOLA restaurants. Yes, Antoines and Galatoires have stabilized menus that haven't changed much in decades, but there are a lot of innovative places like the fictional Desautels that I'd stack up against "Top Chef Masters" or "Iron Chef" restaurants any day. (I still think Besh got a raw deal from "Iron Chef.")

Anyway, of course the New York quartet love Janette's food (and her butt). The "low ball" approach works, mainly, I suspect, because those guys probably don't get treated so casually when they go out to eat in a different city. They have to go incognito to little home-cooking places where they don't have cable to get meals like Janette served them.