NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home for over 125 years.

Zatarain's born and raised in New Orleans.

From the spice of jambalaya to the flavors of a classic crab boil, it's a taste of New Orleans made at home.

And by Camellia Beans, rooted in New Orleans since 1923.

A family business with a devotion to beans spanning four generations.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

DOOK: Today on "A Chef's Journey," we're in the Bayou St.

John neighborhood to visit Parkway Bakery & Tavern, an iconic corner po'boy shop.

About 100 years ago, Parkway began selling the time-honored sandwich to feed area workers.

My grandparents started with the corner po'boy stand in the Tremé, so this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.

So let's head inside to meet my friend Justin Kennedy, who came up with new classics to join Parkway's menu of old favorites.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ DOOK: So we're in the kitchen at Parkway Bakery & Tavern with my great friend, Justin Kennedy.

JUSTIN: Good to see you, Dook.

DOOK: How you doing, bud?

JUSTIN: How you doing, man?

DOOK: Doing well.

Justin is the general manager of Parkway, and not only is he keeping tradition with some of the great classics of these po'boys, but you're putting your spin on some new twists.

What, what do we have here?

JUSTIN: I call it the James Brown.

DOOK: Okay.

JUSTIN: And it's like the best of both worlds.

So when you do a po'boy, you want to start with the French bread.

What makes the bread so great in New Orleans is we're baking below sea level.

We're baking below sea level, and something to do with the water.

If a Frenchman looked at this bread, they might laugh at it because it's crusty and crunchy on the outside, but when you cut it down the center, look at that.

It's airy like cotton candy.

DOOK: Got the pillow, baby.

JUSTIN: You know?

It has that pillow touch.

DOOK: Oh, wow.

JUSTIN: It's a perfect vehicle for what we're about to do.

DOOK: Well, let's make it happen, man.

JUSTIN: Okay.

DOOK: Show me how we build this.

JUSTIN: So, we start with our slow-cooked beef, and this is our barbecue style, right?

So, we, this is chuck roast, and what we do is we cook this for hours on end.

And you know what the key is to a good barbecue sauce?

Grape jelly.

DOOK: Grape jelly?

JUSTIN: I put grape jelly in my barbecue sauce.

DOOK: Oh, man.

You got spins on all kinds of things.

JUSTIN: So then, we top it off with this fried Louisiana shrimp.

DOOK: Oh.

JUSTIN: And we fry the shrimp in a light corn flour, not corn meal, and just fill it up.

Takes about, I don't know, 14, 15 shrimp.

Now, the next thing we're going to do is top it with that barbecue sauce.

It's like the gravy to a roast beef.

So on top of that, we're about to do the spicy mayo.

DOOK: Now, this is not just any mayo.

JUSTIN: Oh, no.

DOOK: You said spicy mayo.

JUSTIN: This is spicy mayo.

We marry it with a little hot sauce.

DOOK: Okay.

JUSTIN: Right, a little Louisiana hot sauce.

You always got to do your fresh lettuce.

Tomato.

The secret is freshness.

You know, everything that's here today, that lettuce, tomato, pickle, shrimp, bread that's baked this morning, it's gone today.

Nothing sits around.

And then to top it off, we put pepper jack cheese on this thing.

Regular sliced pepper jack cheese, and this is the kicker.

DOOK: Uh-oh.

JUSTIN: We got to melt that thing, Dook.

DOOK: We're bringing technique out on a po'boy here.

JUSTIN: Bam.

And then in the restaurant, during while we're rolling, we'll slide this bad boy in the broiler.

DOOK: Okay.

JUSTIN: Right?

But for you, you know, I got to bring out my little gadget.

DOOK: Oh, I love it, baby.

JUSTIN: But it's the same concept.

You want to get a little char and smoke on that pepper jack cheese.

DOOK: And that enhances just the flavor of this whole sandwich.

JUSTIN: It does.

DOOK: You got that char coming through, that smokiness coming through, hitting that pepper jack cheese.

JUSTIN: That's it, man.

It's an accelerant for deliciousness right here.

DOOK: I love it.

JUSTIN: Now we're going to close this up and cut it.

DOOK: Let's make it happen, brother.

I'm ready to dive in.

JUSTIN: All right.

And this was the 2018 Best of Fest winner of the Po'boy Fest.

DOOK: Oh, but there's a saying that you say after you eat this sandwich, it's going to make you want to what?

JUSTIN: It's going to make you want to dance.

DOOK: I love it.

JUSTIN: Get on the good foot, baby.

DOOK: Well, we're going to go get on the good foot in this dining room.

We're going to taste the classic, we're going to taste the new twist, and we're going to keep this party going.

Tell me a little bit about Parkway Bakery & Po-Boys, and how did this all start?

JUSTIN: Sure, sure.

So we're the third family to own Parkway Bakery.

It started in 1911, and if you look at Parkway, the aesthetics of it is that cookie-cutter corner building with the door on the side with the tin awning.

Those buildings are speckled all over the city of New Orleans.

And what they were, they were corner bakeries, corner delis, corner grocery stores before these big supermarkets, and Parkway was the bakery for the neighborhood.

DOOK: Wow.

JUSTIN: Opened by a German baker in 1911, and in the '20s, the Timothy brothers, the Timothy family, took over.

That was the family that made the name with Parkway Bakery.

This area was very, very industrial.

You got the American Can Company, that's high-end condos and apartments.

That was a can company, employed 500 people.

When they blew the whistle for lunch, they came to Parkway.

And when all this industry left in the late '70s, '80s, the guys were getting older, and they couldn't do it anymore, and they put it up for sale.

My uncle, Jay Nix, who's the sole owner now, lived right next door, and he bought it, and he was in construction.

We opened up December 23rd, 2003.

I was 18 years old.

We didn't know what we were doing.

We just took the legacy that the Timothy family had built, and what a legacy they created.

I'm talking about line out the door.

One thing about a New Orleans po'boy shop, in that line, it ain't no certain type of ethnicity, it ain't no certain type of money in your pocket, rich or poor.

Everybody comes to a New Orleans po'boy shop.

The city comes to me every day.

I get to feed them.

This ain't your grandpa's Parkway Bakery.

DOOK: Yeah.

JUSTIN: We got the old building, but we're keeping up with the Joneses.

We're coming up with the James Brown, but then we don't forget the classics, like the classic Gulf shrimp and Louisiana oyster.

It's our big city sandwich.

It's New Orleans culture between two pieces of French bread.

And what happened was, 1929, the height of the Great Depression... New Orleans, the main way to get around the city was the streetcar.

So it took a bunch of train union guys to run that, and they were some of the guys that got hit real hard because they were told, "Hey, run these streetcars, but we're not going to pay you."

So they quit.

And some former conductors, Benny and Clovis Martin, the Martin Brothers, uh, they used to be in the streetcar business.

But they got out of it before the hard times hit and opened a coffee stand, like grocery store, and able to get food, clothing, and monies for these striking streetcar workers, and they were making sandwiches.

So they said, "You come to Martin Brothers coffee stand, show your badge, we'll feed you.

We'll feed our poor boys."

And the po'boy sandwich was the first thing they tried was fried potatoes.

It was inexpensive, and it fed a lot of people.

DOOK: I got to jump into this James Brown, man.

I have to give this a taste.

And I'm going to get up and... JUSTIN: You can see, it holds together.

DOOK: It holds together.

A lot of great things on here.

Oh, man.

That is hands-down delicious.

But I got to get back in the kitchen and make some magic like this.

This new classic is out of sight, brother.

Appreciate your time.

JUSTIN: Appreciate you.

DOOK: And I got to get back to this sandwich.

JUSTIN: All right.

DOOK: Welcome to my kitchen, where inspiration and creation come together in a celebration of culture.

Today, we're talking po'boys, and specifically crab-on-crab po'boy.

We have some beautiful soft-shell crabs that we're going to fry right here.

And as you know, as we're frying, we're always going to use a wet hand and a dry hand.

And you want to keep it simple, so I have my egg wash here.

Again, that's one egg, half milk, half water.

We whisk that together.

Now, one thing about these soft shell crabs, you want to dress them, right?

That means you want to peel off that lip, and also they'll have some, we call it the dead man, but it's the gills of those crabs.

You want to remove that from this crab; flip that skin right back over.

But also, you want to make sure you have some seasoning under that as well.

So we have a little salt on there.

We'll add a little pepper, and then I have a little granulated garlic that I love.

It just adds a little extra flavor to it.

I'll flip that over, and you want to get all sides of this beautiful crab here.

And be gentle with it, right?

You want this beautiful crab to stay intact as you season.

And now we go wet, and I'll put that guy here, and I think I can do two in there.

I'll get this one here, go wet, and we'll move on to my dry hand.

And as you know, before I got started, always season that corn flour.

I threw in a little salt, I threw in a little pepper, and a little garlic.

I fry all my seafood at 325 degrees.

Of course, you have to compensate for when that crab is going to go in, so I want it to get to about 340, because when we drop it in, it's going to reduce to that 325.

Here's the key.

You want to go shell side down because you want that beautiful crab to open up for you.

Now, be careful, it will start to pop a little bit.

As you know, seafood, it still has a little water in it, and it's going to release.

So here, we're going with that second one, and we just want to layer it back, shell down, and just let that go.

So now we're going to move on to the most important thing of a po'boy, the bread.

So when you're talking po'boys, we love to put it on this beautiful French bread here.

And one thing I love to do as we open it up is to give it a light little butter and toast it, warm it up in that oven.

So I have some butter here.

I have my oven set at 400 degrees, because I'm, I'm going in there just for a quick moment.

Right, I just want to toast it, let this butter ooze into this bread, and we're going to go right in that oven.

Now we're coming back to check on our crabs.

They're looking beautiful.

They're golden brown.

So when you think of crab-on-crab, we're doing a beautiful crab salad of lump crab meat on top of this soft shell crab po'boy.

They look beautiful.

We'll start to turn these over, and just look at that fry that's coming through.

And that's right where we want it to be.

I have a little plate here, and we're going to set these out and just let them rest.

And flip it right on down.

And just look at that.

You can see that crispiness, that texture.

And now we get to what I love, the star of the show.

So we have some beautiful jumbo lump crab meat that we're just going to slide right on in this bowl.

I have a little bit of lemon juice.

Help wake that crab up just a little bit.

A little salt and a little white pepper.

Here we have a little mayonnaise that we'll add to it.

This recipe is just so simple.

When you're doing crab salad, certainly, people sometimes use Creole mustard.

But think of a po'boy.

When you think of a po'boy being dressed, you're thinking of that lettuce, you're thinking of that mayonnaise, you're thinking of these beautiful tomatoes.

Well, this is the dressing of this crab-on-crab po'boy, this lump crab meat salad, and this is just beautiful.

You can see, not too much mayonnaise.

I'm going to give it a taste, but before I give it a taste, I have some beautiful chives here I want to add to this dish.

Oh, that crab just speaks to you.

A little bit of lemon coming out, a little hint of that white pepper, finishing off with that chive.

That lets me know this is ready.

Now I got to check that bread.

I can hear it talk to me.

And this is beautiful.

You can start to see that butter melt, creating that crust, and that's what we're looking for.

So now, as we're talking about dressing a sandwich, we have these beautiful Creole tomatoes.

And this is where we start.

You get these soft-shell crabs, and you just lay them right on here.

This beautiful crab salad that we're going to put right on top.

And just look at that.

And one thing in New Orleans, as we always love to call, you want that fall-over.

So as I top it more, I want to make sure we catch everything about that coming off right.

When you get a little lagniappe, as we call it, coming off that sandwich.

And then you come with these beautiful Creole tomatoes right on top.

When you talk about the next generation, putting on a modern twist to classic po'boy is a soft shell crab.

You're thinking of crab-on-crab, beautiful lump crab meat.

I cannot wait to dive into it.

This is how you dress a soft-shell crab po'boy.

My cousin, Robert Hidell, came up with this one.

He wanted candied yam spread with beautiful fried oysters.

So that's what we're doing today.

We have these beautiful yams right here, and this is simple, right?

Candied yams, you can have a little sugar, cinnamon, water, just to lightly tap the top of that yam and reduce it, reduce it, and create that caramelization.

And I'll show you, we have some of that working right over here.

My oil is hot.

Again, we're looking for that 325.

And what we're going to do here is we're just going to put them right in here.

And as you know, before I got started, always season that corn flour.

And it's simple seasoning.

All we're doing is salt and pepper.

That's all you're looking for.

That's all an oyster need.

But the key to it is, as, as I learned in my grandmother's kitchen, is you better make sure you have enough pepper.

So she would always tell me, right, I'll have some pepper that's going on these beautiful oysters.

She said, "When you think there's enough, add just a pinch more."

So I'm getting ready to add just a pinch more.

Oysters don't need any wet batter, right?

We do that for shrimp, we do that for fish, we did that for those beautiful soft shell crabs.

We're going right in here.

You just layer those oysters right on in.

And they don't take long.

And it depends on what you like, right?

We have a lot of great people that loves a fried oyster fried hard, and they'll let you know.

For me, I love a flash-fried oyster.

I love that texture, but when you bite in, you still get a little bit of that beautiful oyster flavor coming through.

You cannot beat a Louisiana oyster.

But you don't want to overcrowd your pot when you're deep-frying, right?

The key is you want to maintain that temperature that you're looking for.

So we're still frying at 325.

We're going to let that go.

These will take roughly just about five minutes.

So now we're moving on to our bread.

Of course, when you think po'boy, you're thinking French bread, but we're having fun today.

So I have these beautiful Texas toast.

We're going to put this in the oven.

We want to toast it up.

I did not put any butter on this because my spread is right here.

So we're going to my oven.

Of course, if you're at home and you have a toaster, you can certainly put this in a toaster.

You don't have to use an oven.

But I always love to use oven.

It just speaks to that bread in there while it's going.

While that's working, we're coming back to these beautiful sweet potatoes.

I had that water reduced way, way down, and you don't want it to reduce all the way out, right?

You want to create this spread.

So what we'll do here, they're soft enough, we'll just start to mash them.

Be careful because as you create that glaze, it's almost like making pralines or caramelization.

That's right where I want it to be.

Make sure I get all this beautifulness, and if you can smell this, that sweet potato, that cinnamon.

My oysters are ready.

And this is what you're looking for, right?

That beautiful golden brown, that crispy texture.

That's when you know they're perfect.

Let's get this bread out.

Oh, yes.

Nice golden brown, and this is what we're looking for.

So let's build our sandwich.

And we have our spread, that spread that we worked well on, that sweet potato, mashed it, and just look at this.

And this side, you're building that bread for that oyster.

And come right on top.

Here, we'll create another one for... You know, I love this sandwich so much.

I'm going to do one for me and certainly one for you.

Coming right on top.

And this just brings me back to when you're thinking of that dish with a twist that Justin had at Parkway, this is one of those twists that we're doing.

Now, certainly, we got to put the spread on the top.

And we'll put this guy here, and we're coming right on top of here.

And then on this one, top him off.

There we go.

That's when you know you got a good crunch, that texture of that toast sounding off.

You're coming right on side here.

And always for a little lagniappe.

You like that overflow of those oysters on that sandwich.

And this is our twist on a James Brown sandwich, sweet potatoes and oysters.

We're talking traditional po'boys, and that brings me back to the founding of Dooky Chase Restaurant as a po'boy stand and bar.

So let's get started.

I'm going to show you how we make that po'boy.

Right here, I have a beautiful chuck roast, and what you want to do is you want to start to cut little slits in it, right?

Just enough, because we're going to add some garlic cloves in it.

So I have about 10 slits.

I took this garlic clove, and I cut it in half.

We're just going to start to put those garlic cloves right in those pockets that we made.

You want that cooking time and that garlic to soften up, because you want that just to be soft when you bite into that roast beef, and you get that pocket of garlic.

It's almost like finding a baby in a king cake.

You hit the lucky spot.

So I have a little bit of salt.

I have a little pepper, and then we'll flip this guy over, and we'll do the same on the other side.

We'll add just a little salt and a little pepper to it, and we'll get started.

Here I have a little vegetable oil here.

Pan's already getting hot.

And this is where we're going right on in, right?

It's well seasoned; we seasoned both sides, and now we'll start to sear it.

And what you're looking to do is just get a nice color on this roast.

As this is browning, you have that meat to protect this side, but nothing's protecting here.

So we're going to create a bed for that.

We have these beautiful onions that we just sliced in circles.

Add them on each side, and really, this is just protecting that pot.

Another thing I'm going to add, just to start to get some color, is these carrots.

As you smell that seasoning start to work, it's almost ready to turn.

We're getting to that point now, and you can look, you can start to see that coloration that we have on here.

So now we have both sides, that's searing.

You can start to see that onion starting to caramelize.

And now what we've created is a beautiful bed for this roast to go in.

I have some fresh thyme that I want to put right on top of here.

So we're going to cover this up with our foil, and we're going right into this oven at 350 degrees.

Now, I have one in there before we got started.

I mean, look at that.

Look at that char.

You can see the thyme is already cooked down and infused into it.

And notice that I'm using that same pot.

I do not want to waste what I have sticking here.

So we're going to add just a little butter.

So now the butter's working.

We're going to start to add in our onions.

That flavor that I had sticking to that pot is starting to pick up, right?

That's what I'm talking about, never losing flavor.

We're going to add in a little bit of our celery.

And then we're going to add in some bell pepper.

So when you're thinking of a classic New Orleans trinity, this is it right here.

Your onions, your bell pepper, your celery.

And we're going to let that go just a little bit.

Again, picking up all that flavor that's at that bottom.

So I have just a little flour that I'll add in here.

And the amount of flour that you're going to put in is based on amount of liquid that you have right in here, right?

So you don't want to over-flour it, but that's what we're looking for right here.

Of course, you have to layer and season.

I'll add a little salt, add a little pepper, and then now I'll add in the garlic.

And we'll let that work.

And we are almost there.

This is our last deglaze that we have here.

And then we'll just start to add that right in here.

(sizzling).

I'll reduce this heat just to a little low, because all you want to do is simmer.

That's the consistency we're looking for.

I'll just pull out these carrots and put them on the side, and we'll bring this roast right back in here and just start to pull it apart.

And you can see just how this starts to fall apart, right?

You're just pulling and pulling, and that meat just starts to break off right in there.

That's when you know it's did its magic in that oven.

And this is already speaking to me.

I smell it.

I just have to get it on a bed of this po'boy sandwich.

We love to keep our classics, and I'm going to follow that routine.

So here I have a little mayonnaise, and I love a good bit of mayonnaise here.

Both sides got to get it both sides.

This sandwich is supposed to be messy.

You're supposed to dig in.

You're supposed to put on a bib and don't worry about yourself, because this is how great this is going to be.

I have a little shredded lettuce here, we're going to put right on the bed.

And now this is the fun part, right?

You look at that roast beef.

Oh, man.

Just look at that.

And we're not finished.

And now to that, right?

We're talking dress, you're coming down with your tomatoes right on top.

And then on top of that, we have our pickles that we come right on.

Of course, I got this open-faced for you to see.

But in New Orleans, you know what we have to do, right?

We have to give you a little bit of lagniappe.

So I want you to drizzle this here and take that beautiful, just tender roast beef, come right on side.

If you had carrots that was just roasting in there, I want you to have them.

This classic roast beef speaks to everything.

It speaks to tradition.

It speaks to the beginning of Dooky Chase Restaurant.

Thanks for joining me as we explore the food traditions of New Orleans and the reason why we cook what we cook.

I'll see you next time for another chapter in my journey.

NARRATOR: In his new cookbook, Chef Dook Chase explores the legendary dishes and unique food traditions of New Orleans.

This companion to "A Chef's Journey," with all the recipes from the series and more than 125 color photos, is available for $32.99 plus shipping.

To order, call 1-800-815-3153 or purchase online at wyes.org.

DOOK: Don't watch it.

A watched pot never boils.

We're coming in.

And now we'll start to add the gagootza or the cucuzza, you choose.

This is my Christmas in July, I tell you what.

Look, I'm working your whole farm.

Before you know it, I'm going to be a farmer.

VINCE: I'm going to hire you.

DOOK: That's good.

I want to get to work.

They look beautiful.

We'll start to turn these over.

CLEO: Ask questions later.

Never ask them while you were there.

And that was always my thing.

I'm like, "Why, why do we have to do this, Aunt Cleo?"

"Don't ask questions, little girl.

Just do what I'm telling you.

Just do it."

And it was always a great thing to see her energy, to feel her spirit, to feel her come alive when she did these dishes.

DOOK: The goal was whoever eats last eats the little bit.

So, you got to beat your brothers to every plate of it.

Cheers, Mom.

Oh.

Awesome.

NARRATOR: For more information about "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey," visit wyes.org.

NARRATOR: Major funding for "Dook Chase: A Chef's Journey" was provided by the Melvin S. Cohen Foundation Incorporated.

Additional support by Zatarain's, bringing the flavors of New Orleans home.

Rooted in the city's rich culinary traditions, Zatarain's is born and raised in New Orleans.

From rice mixes to frozen meals, it's an authentic taste of New Orleans.

And by Camellia Beans.

You shouldn't rush a red bean.

Let it cook, then you can gather around with family and share in its distinct culture.

Camellia Beans, a taste of home.

♪ ♪