It’s Christmas morning, and the fireplace roars. A grand table is set for visiting family and friends, and the scents of sweet ham and savory pork roast waft from the kitchen. Music drifts from the piano. It’s the quintessential scene you’re likely to spot at houses across the country on Dec. 25.
But this is the scene at Chef John Folse’s home, and a closer look at his table reveals stories only he can tell. The food is cooked in cast-iron pots more than 100 years old, inherited from his Uncle Paul. The dishes are made from recipes that have been passed down for generations, and Folse can recite by heart the origins of each dish. The meal is plated on antique china, each piece representing a precious memory.
If Folse serves goose on a specific platter, he says, it’s not just because the platter fits the goose—it’s because he has a memory of serving another goose on it somewhere down the line.
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“In today’s world when everything is so disposable, I think to myself, ‘That little green bowl has traveled three lifetimes to be on my table,’” he says, gesturing to a piece he inherited from his grandparents. Today, he’s using it to serve corn maque choux. “And that’s the way that I think about food all the time, whether anybody knows it at the table.”
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Now in his 70s, Folse has lived an amazing life—he’s cooked for presidents, opened a culinary institute in his name, written several popular cookbooks and is heralded as “Louisiana’s Culinary Ambassador to the World.”
But even after all that, there’s still nothing quite like Christmas dinner. He can’t prepare a holiday spread without thinking back to his childhood.
In this story from 225‘s December 2017 issue, Folse dished on the musts for his holiday table, from shrimp-stuffed mirlitons to kumquat ham. Read on for his tips and ideas.