French Quarter Culinary History and Tasting Tour

Highly recommend. We enjoyed the vast and frank history and made the tour that much more enjoyable. Food was great, was nice seeing the inside of kitchens - the variety of items featured on the tour was great! Would be nice to do a combination cocktail/culinary tour in the future!!!!

informative and fun

I am a local that attended with my houseguest from Arizona. We both enjoyed the tour immensley. Renee was a great tour guide. Since we had read what to expect on the tour, we weren't looking for food to taste at every stop. The food that we did taste was wonderful and quite filling. We didn't eat dinner later that night because we were stuffed. We heard a lot about the history of New Orleans ,and I ,as a local, even learned some things. I would definitely reccomend the tour.

Not realizing several of the restaurants on the tour would be closed for Father's Day, we were a bit disappointed with missing Antoine's gumbo. However, the food (when we finally tasted it) was awesome, as always. We were a bit disappointed with our guide...he really didn't take into account that we had 8 teenagers...who were hot and more into the actual history of the area as opposed to "how to make roux". Would I do another tour? Absolutely...although may choose a different time (NOT a holiday!). One REALLY good aspect of this particular tour was the stop (shop along Jackson Square) that included red beans and rice...the "cook" who served the dish was informative, interesting, plus included a bit of her own ethnic background as she was stirring and serving...REALLY effective for my particular "students".

I would recommend this tour at the beginning of anyone's visit to the French Quarter. Be prepared to do some walking, and if it's in the summer months, it's hot outside. We went in June, temperature was 100 degrees, but we are from Texas, so nothing new to us. The tour guide is very informative about the history in New Orleans and the local restaurants. We visited 4 restaurants and 3 local shops of culinary interest. We sampled some foods at each restaurant. This is good information to have when you are trying to pick a restaurant in N.O. I would not recommend this to anyone under 18, unless they are interested in history and the culinary arts. We had some teenagers in our group, and we could tell half of them wished they were somewhere else. Overall, I recommend this tour.

Our tour guide Renee was very informative and interesting! We heard about New Orleans and famous restaurants history, local folklore, current events, impacts from Katrina, and of course the signature dishes of New Orleans. We tasted shrimp remoulade and shrimp & oyster gumbo in Antoine's beautiful new Hermes Bar, pralines, muffaletta panini, homemade sorbet, melt-in-your mouth beef brisket, rice and beans, and of course rum cake! No need for dinner that night! Renee kept everyone fascinated, including our two college-age children! Even though it was close to 100 degrees, we ducked into many cool places. If you are looking for a behind-the-scenes, through-the-kitchen, information-you-don't-find-in-tour books, delicious-food-from-famous-establishments kind of tour, this is it!!!

We are repeat visitors to NOLA. At this point, we felt we had done all of the tours possible. This culinary tour, discovered in New Orleans Magazine sounded different and it was. We did not know about some of the things discussed. It was very interesting to tour the kitchens and back rooms of the restaurants. The sample foods were a wonderful treat. Overall, we would recommend the tour to others and would consider a second tour, if alternate restaurants are featured.

This is a must for anyone interested in food. Our tour guide, George, provided valuable information about how the history of the city relates to food. Meeting chefs, seeing different locations, and tasting the food was an experience we will never forget.

Our guide had great knowledge of the area and the cuisine. We visiited many famous places to places that were out of the way and the tastes were generous and delicious. The locals in each place were friendly and willing to answer any questions. It was one of the high points of my trip to New Orleans.

I am not sure if this was a culinary tour, a history tour, or simply a stroll through the French Quarter. Although our tour guide seemed knowledgeable, it was difficult most of the time to hear what he said. The major restaurants, Antiones and Brennans offered no more to the people on the tour as to what anyone walking in off the street would have received. Not even a sample in those places. The sample in the praline shop was available to anyone who walked in as were the one praline free if you bought twelve coupon. Rum cake at a bar in Pirates Alley was probably the best sample but a small bit of sandwich and Italian Ice Cream and a small new restaurant was just a tease. A small red beans and rice sample was served standing up in the back of a souvenier shop and fianally, a small portion of brisket was served a Tujaques will standing up in the smoke filled bar. You rarely got a napkin and were lucky to get a outside table at the Pirates Alley stops. Read a book about creole cooking and then stroll through the quarter, stop in, and ask questions and you would be just as well off and still have money left to really eat in one of the restaurants.