Squirrel Head Placenta Gumbo – Midnight Menu +1 – It’s New Orleans
When you grow up on the Bayou you learn to catch and cook pretty much anything that moves. When you get to be Executive Chef at one of New Orleans’ leading hip restaurants like Tivoli and Lee you can be “influenced” by your childhood roots but you can’t totally replicate that cuisine.
Chef Marcus Woodham is a product of Bayou Goula but the dishes he creates and serves on Lee Circle are a couple of degrees removed from the squirrel head gumbo his mom makes.
Once you’ve gotten past the subject of Squirrel Head Gumbo (you crack the heads open by “giving them a good whack” with a butter knife by the way) you’d be forgiven for assuming the rest of the conversation would seem pretty tame. Not on this show.
Don’t let Kirk Estopinal’s suave demeanor fool you. Kirk, as co-owner of Cure, Hotel Modern, Bellocq, and Cane and Table, is admittedly a master of craft cocktails, Southern dining, and hospitality. What you might not know about him, and probably until tonight only his wife knew about him, is that Kirk has leanings toward cannibalism. As Chef Marcus said after Kirk explained his yen for eating placenta, “We’ve got some catching up to do.”
When Margo and Ray’s guests are not eating cute animals or babies they’re working with Margo and Ray on the Dexy’s Midnight Runners tribute band.