The SoFAB Institute is pleased to announce
the arrival of the complete works of Chef Louis Osteen
The SoFAB Institute is pleased to announceNEW ORLEANS, LA — The SoFAB Institute is pleased to announce the arrival of the complete works of Chef Louis Osteen to the John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library. Louis Osteen, a South Carolina native, former member of the board of the SoFAB Institute and co-founder of the Southern Foodways Alliance, is one of the foremost pioneers in the growing popularity of southern food and lowcountry cuisine. Osteen acquired fame as a chef before networks began to focus on TV chefs, and wrote a book, Louis Osteen’s Charleston Cuisine: Recipes from a Lowcountry Chef.
Chef Louis Osteen has generously donated over 30 years of his work in ten boxes to the SoFAB Institute, which will be sorted and filed in the archives of the Boyd Culinary Library. The boxes are full of notes, early menus, recipes, and correspondence with other chefs including Julia Child. The papers will be open to the public and available for review.
- What: 30 years of Louis Osteen’s work: written recipes, menus, and correspondence
- When: Monday – Friday 11 AM to 5 PM and by appointment
- Where: The John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library at the SoFAB Institute, 1609 Oretha C. Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA 70113
- Call 504.267.7490 to schedule an appointment
About the John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library
The John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library contains over 15,000 volumes of culinary books, food and cocktail menus, pamphlets, archival documents and a growing number of important collections, other literature and ephemera, all collected by and donated to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. The collection is non-circulating but available for reference. The library serves as a unique resource for residents, visitors, and researchers in the fields of fitness, nutrition, policy, and public health as well as an open resource that facilitates the professional development of current and future culinary artists.
The library also houses the Menu Project, an ongoing effort to collect, catalog, and digitize menus from every restaurant throughout the South and beyond. The database records the public history of eating and equips scholars with a critical tool in their study of American foodways. Additional information regarding the Culinary Library and Archive can be found at sofabinstitute.org/sofab-
About the SoFAB Institute
The SoFAB Institute is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural enterprise. It documents and celebrates the food and drink of all cultures through exhibits, programming, and a range of media. Because everyone eats, all aspects of food and drink—culture and geography, anthropology and history, economics and politics, law and policy, media and the arts, science and technology—reveal the state of the world. SoFAB, home to several collections, among them the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, The Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC), the John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library, and Pacific Food and Beverage is growing into the nation’s most comprehensive cultural institution studying food and drink.
For more information on the SoFAB Institute, please visit www.sofabinstitute.org.
