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The food at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival remains remarkably consistent, with the same vendors returning with the same dishes year after year, often for decades. Thus they become their own traditions at the annual spring fest.
But now one of the longest-running Jazz Fest food vendors is bowing out. For first time since its debut in 1987, there will be no crawfish bread at Jazz Fest this year.
The same vendor serves sausage bread and shrimp bread, but it’s the crawfish bread that ranks as one of the most popular perennial items at Jazz Fest.
John Ed Laborde is the creator of crawfish bread and founder of Panorama Foods, a caterer in the central Louisiana town of Marksville. He said the decision to end a 35-year run as a festival food vendor was a daunting one.
“One thing I learned from my daddy, there comes a time in your life when you’re less effective and maybe it’s time to move on,” Laborde said. “It’s just been a good run.”
The decision came to the through a matrix of factors and what Laborde called “stressors.” At 65, Laborde said it was time to reassess the all-consuming effort it takes to participate in Jazz Fest, a two-week stretch of outdoor food sales that takes months of preparation. He takes a hands-on role in that work.
“I make every batch of dough, and I cook every loaf of bread,” he said, describing 16-hour days at the peak of crawfish bread prep time.
Many of his key staff members have been with the company for decades, and they are also getting older. The heavy lift to ramp up for Jazz Fest while keeping up with catering duties for weddings, funerals and other events around their community was becoming more onerous.
Costs have also risen across the board, Laborde said, from raw materials to the New Orleans hotel rooms needed to house his crew coming down from central Louisiana to staff the Jazz Fest booth.
Laborde said when he saw changes in his contract from Jazz Fest this year, that proved to be the final nudge, though he would not elaborate on those changes.
“Jazz Fest has been part of my life since 1987. I love it, I’d never say anything bad about Jazz Fest; they’ve been good to me, I’ve been good to them,” he said.
But now one of the longest-running Jazz Fest food vendors is bowing out. For first time since its debut in 1987, there will be no crawfish bread at Jazz Fest this year.
The same vendor serves sausage bread and shrimp bread, but it’s the crawfish bread that ranks as one of the most popular perennial items at Jazz Fest.
John Ed Laborde is the creator of crawfish bread and founder of Panorama Foods, a caterer in the central Louisiana town of Marksville. He said the decision to end a 35-year run as a festival food vendor was a daunting one.
“One thing I learned from my daddy, there comes a time in your life when you’re less effective and maybe it’s time to move on,” Laborde said. “It’s just been a good run.”
The decision came to the through a matrix of factors and what Laborde called “stressors.” At 65, Laborde said it was time to reassess the all-consuming effort it takes to participate in Jazz Fest, a two-week stretch of outdoor food sales that takes months of preparation. He takes a hands-on role in that work.
“I make every batch of dough, and I cook every loaf of bread,” he said, describing 16-hour days at the peak of crawfish bread prep time.
Many of his key staff members have been with the company for decades, and they are also getting older. The heavy lift to ramp up for Jazz Fest while keeping up with catering duties for weddings, funerals and other events around their community was becoming more onerous.
Costs have also risen across the board, Laborde said, from raw materials to the New Orleans hotel rooms needed to house his crew coming down from central Louisiana to staff the Jazz Fest booth.
Laborde said when he saw changes in his contract from Jazz Fest this year, that proved to be the final nudge, though he would not elaborate on those changes.
“Jazz Fest has been part of my life since 1987. I love it, I’d never say anything bad about Jazz Fest; they’ve been good to me, I’ve been good to them,” he said.
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