Drew Robinson is the pitmaster at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q. He previously wrote about serving up gratitude in trouble times and why barbecue matters and the the sacred ritual of the tailgate.

There are old traditions and then there are old football traditions. I had the fortune of witnessing one resurrected in my lifetime two years ago when Alabama played Texas in the Rose Bowl for the National Championship. But there are new traditions too.

Alabama vs LSU is not a historic rivalry, it is only really a new tradition because they both have become superpowers in the same division of the same conference. So much so that they have beaten away all of college football for a rematch in the BCS game.

How important is this game to each fan base? My grandfather was born and raised in New Orleans. He loved LSU. He loved Alabama too because that became his adopted home, but he never put the Crimson Tide above the Bengal Tigers.
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Emeril Lagasse knows the way to a consumer's heart is through food. With over 2,000 television episodes, 16 cookbooks, and 12 restaurants to his credit, the 52-year-old chef and restaurateur turned his name and culinary prowess into a financial empire that employs 1,700 people.

Long before he became a household name, and his catchphrase "BAM!" became popular, Lagasse was a young chef who worked his way up to the position of general manager at the legendary Commander's Palace in New Orleans. In 1989, he opened his first restaurant, Emeril's, and four years later, inked a lucrative television contract with The Food Network, resulting in a 17-year run.

Read Emeril Lagasse cooks up an empire from scratch

The smoky aroma of chicken and sausage gumbo fills the air inside Café Reconcile. A moist, tender pot roast emerges from the oven while the timid hands of novice knife holders chop onions and peppers.

It’s two hours before lunch time inside Café Reconcile and Chef Joe Smith sounds like an old-gospel preacher filled with the Holy Spirit teaching a small group of young men and women how to bring New Orleans-style food to life.

“It’s called soul food because there was no measuring, they just knew how they felt,” Chef Joe tells his captivated audience as they prepare the day’s lunch menu. “I feel it!”

But this isn’t your ordinary New Orleans kitchen. Chef Joe isn’t just teaching the mechanics of cooking. This is the kitchen of life.
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This summer, CNN's Defining America project is traveling the country with the CNN Express bus and iReport to explore the stories behind the data and demographics that show how places are changing.

To hear Lakesha Reed describe her cooking talents she's not classically trained as a chef, "I'm just grandma trained."

Reed, a New Orleans native, moved to Houston, Texas, in 2005 as one of the city’s thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. We met her last month when CNN’s Defining America project hit the trail for Texas to find out how the Lone Star State has changed over the past decade.
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5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.

If you can't take the heat, you don't have to stay out of the kitchen - but there's really no reason to crank the oven up to 500 degrees. That is, unless you want to get your Bikram Yoga in during dinner prep.

If anyone knows about handling the heat and getting people fed, it's Tory McPhail. The James Beard nominee is the executive chef at the storied Commander's Palace in Eatocracy's adopted second home, New Orleans.

Summer in the Big Easy means average high temperatures well above the 90-degree mark so pass the gazpacho, wontcha?

Five things to cook when it’s too darn hot to cook anything: Tory McPhail
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When iReporter Patty and her husband Ed's travels took them to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, little did the adventurous couple know that they were in for the seafood feast of a lifetime. At a restaurant called The Fruit Stand, they met a cook named Anne, and she sized them right up.
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Gail Simmons may be the busiest woman in the food world right now. Not only is she about to jet off to Los Angeles to film the next season of Top Chef Just Desserts - she's got a memoir in the works, sits on the board at City Harvest, and hosted last Friday's James Beard Broadcast, Books and Journalism Awards.

We chatted with Gail in the press room at last night's James Beard Restaurant Awards and asked her about her favorite food city and the issue that's sickening our nation.

New Orleans residents, and the millions of people who pour into the city each year for Mardi Gras, Saints games and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (a.k.a. "Jazz Fest") know that the city is fueled by a fierce passion for life, art, music and perhaps most of all - its food. In the face of almost unimaginable tragedy, the city's signature cuisine sustained the bodies, spirits and souls of its people and inspired them to fight ever-mounting odds to keep the culture they love alive for future generations.

Eatocracy gathered together some of Louisiana most vibrant, vocal and knowledgeable residents, fed them a multi-course meal crafted by celebrated chef John Besh, and asked them what they think makes New Orleans cuisine such a vital part of the culture.

And when people like CNN's James Carville and Mary Matalin, chef and civil rights activist Leah Chase, Mad Men star Bryan Batt, food scholar Poppy Tooker, Treme writer Lolis Eric Elie, CNN Hero Derick Tabb and fisherman Lance Nacio sit together at a table, they're going to talk with their mouths and their hearts full.

Watch the video and share your fondest New Orleans memories and your favorite restaurant tips in the comments below.
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On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 crew members and leaking more than 200 million gallons of oil into the water. Today marks the one year anniversary of this disaster.

From "Stories from the Gulf, one year on"

In the Louisiana marshes, members of the Pointe Aux Chenes Indian Tribe say the spill has affected everything.

"It changed our way of life for sure," says tribe member Theresa Dardar. "We're not eating like we usually eat."

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Watch the Green Solutions in Focus: Eatocracy Edition hour-long special hosted by Tom Foreman on Saturday, April 23rd at 3pm ET and see all Earth Day coverage at eatocracy.com/infocus

Previously - Oysters stage a comeback after BP disaster, Beyond Raw: How New Orleans serves up oysters and a Secret Supper in the Big Easy
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