As to be expected in New Orleans, the Krewe of Red Beans’ Bean Madness Championship in 2019 was fiercely contested,  bringing red beans and rice to the spotlight of culinary competitions. And, as with any challenge, there can only be one winner. 

The Queen of Red Beans is crowned.

Emily Shaya was crowned the Queen of Red Beans — with her recipe now creating new fans at Miss River, where red beans and rice isn’t just a Monday tradition — it’s celebrated daily. The restaurant, located in the Four Seasons New Orleans Hotel, is part of Pomegranate Hospitality, which owns Saba and Safta’s Kitchen in New Orleans, as well as other restaurants in the U.S. and the Bahamas.

The restaurant’s cuisine is guided by Emily’s husband, Chef Alon Shaya, himself a winner of two James Beard Foundation Awards. But when it comes to red beans and rice at Miss River, which is Chef Alon’s culinary homage to Louisiana cuisine, it’s Emily’s red beans and rice recipe that’s the star.

Studying the art and science of perfect red beans.

So how did this native of Georgia embrace one of the city’s most beloved dishes? Emily’s deep dive into New Orleans food began when she attended Tulane University as an undergraduate and its A.B. Freeman School of Business. Afterwards, while living in Atlanta, she got homesick for New Orleans food. “I missed New Orleans so much that I wanted to bring that piece of it there,” says Emily.

She experimented with cookbook recipes and the instructions on the back of the Camellia Brand Red Kidney Bean bag, brought back ingredients from her trips to New Orleans, and used her creativity to craft her signature dish.

“I decided I really wanted to perfect red beans,” says Emily.

Once she returned to New Orleans for good, her kitchen became a hub for friends and family to gather around simmering pots of beans.

The meat stock is the thing!

The red beans recipe would evolve even more with trips to local grocery stores. “I’d see what kind of interesting meats we could get — sausage or pickled pork … we eventually found pickled turkey necks and experimented with that for a while,” she says. 

A key ingredient became a rich, gelatinous stock made from chicken wings and sometimes pork. “I think the stock is really important,” says Emily. “It makes the beans creamy because the base is not water.” That and simmering the beans all day are “kind of like my secret weapons.”

Another key step for Emily is soaking the beans. “I just think it makes life a little bit easier,” she explains. “You don’t have to watch over the beans as much if you soak them.”

Here’s where to come eat these perfect red beans:

Her red beans recipe was adapted for Miss River, “So it has all the love and care that we do at home. The team here in the kitchen does it every day.” Emily’s red beans and rice are featured in two ways at Miss River: as a side dish, Emily’s Famous Red Beans and Rice, or as an entrée, Emily’s Famous Red Beans and Rice with Buttermilk-fried Chicken.

“We really wanted to pair fried chicken with our red beans and rice,” says Emily. “We’re kind of famous for our fried chicken here. We [also] do a whole chicken that is really a spectacle.”

Why Camellia Brand beans? For Emily, the answer is simple: consistency. “When you are soaking your beans, you can see how clean the water looks. You know you will always get beautiful beans from Camellia.”

Emily, who is a co-founder and director of New Projects at Pomegranate Hospitality, is still making her red beans and rice for family and friends as often as she can.

Whether in her own kitchen or made by the staff at Miss River, each pot carries the same intention: to feed, comfort and create lasting memories.

Emily Shaya’s Famous Red Beans and Rice Recipe

Bring Emily Shaya’s red beans home — a soulful, slow-simmered taste of New Orleans tradition, straight from Miss River’s kitchen.

Courtesy of Emily Shaya | Founder and Director of New Projects, Pomegranate Hospitality (New Orleans: Saba, Saba’s Lounge, Miss River and Chandelier Bar at Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, Safta’s Table; Denver: Safta, Ceci! Italian Lounge; Bahamas: Silan at Atlantis Paradise Island)

Miss River, Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, 2 Canal St.; (504) 434-5701, missrivernola.com/; on Instagram. 

Highest Quality, Premium Beans, Peas & Lentils

In 1923, L.H. Hayward began sourcing and selling the finest red beans he could find at the old French Market in New Orleans, and his son, Gordon Hayward, trademarked “Camellia Brand” after his mother’s favorite southern flower. Today, Camellia is a 4th generation family-owned company in New Orleans and has continued to sell the highest quality dry beans, peas and lentils available for 100 years.

Grown in the United States, these non-GMO beans, peas and lentils consistently outrank the highest USDA grade and meet the higher “Hayward Standard” — a term coined by trusted farmers the family has worked with for generations. Always freshly harvested the same year they’re sold, they’re cleaned six times before being packaged in our iconic cellophane bags. That freshness ensures our beans cook faster and are consistent in taste, color, and texture. Camellia products are also BRC-certified, meeting the international standard for food safety practices and proof of our commitment to responsible food production.

100 Years of Beans Done Right

Camellia Brand has been bringing people together to make memories and enjoy family meals for a century, and our customers are the most important ingredient to that success. Just like a pot of red beans that is slowly simmered and lovingly tended to, the best things in life take time. We’ve always put our heart and soul into everything we do, and that’s the recipe that has kept us going for 100 years and counting.

Cooking a pot of Camellia red beans into a state of creamy perfection is an authentic, soulful Monday tradition that people look forward to every week. It’s kitchen therapy — the ultimate comfort food — and Camellia is at the very heart of this tradition. New Orleanians and Southerners — by birth or by spirit — are devoted to the Camellia brand and have built a community around how to cook, season, savor, and celebrate with Camellia beans. None of our competitors can stake a claim to the same quality, tradition, or passionate following.

Here’s to another 100 years of beans done right!

When You Really Love Red Beans

How much does Saint John Chef Daren Porretto love red beans?

He has a tattoo of one on his finger.

For this New Orleans-born and-raised chef, the city and its food are his passions, and he shares them at the French Quarter restaurant. Through those passions, Saint John customers get a culinary awakening — a conversion, perhaps — of Southern and Louisiana food that goes beyond tradition.

The proof? The moment a waiter places the pork belly cassoulet down on a table, there is a pause: Take a photo, inhale the heavenly aroma, or just dive into the flavor? Most people do all three, as simultaneously as they can, when it comes to this brunch favorite.

A Cassoulet Made with Camellia Beans

Making the cassoulet is a two-day process that starts by soaking Camellia Great Northerns overnight. Then, it’s time to render the meat (Andouille sausage, tasso and ground pork belly), throw into chicken stock, and add vegetables including the trinity (onion, bell peppers, celery), plus garlic, bay leaves, salt and pepper. 
“All the usual suspects,” Chef Porretto says, cooked to the right balance, so the mixture is buttery and smooth.

Finally, the pork belly is braised in root beer and topped with a cornbread crust.

A combination of flavors, the cassoulet creates a historical connection between its French origins and Louisiana, with beans as the common denominator.

 And Porretto wouldn’t use anything other than Camellia Beans.

“I feel like I don’t have a choice to use anything else,” says Porretto jokingly.

Camellia Beans is what his grandmother relied on when the two of them cooked together. And when Porretto worked in New York City for a year, she made sure he was well-stocked. Her care packages included at least three different types – usually white beans, red beans, and one other.

“New Orleanians stick to our roots,” he says. “It’s like if you go to the grocery store, and there’s no Camellia Beans, you go to another store to find it. It’s something ingrained in my DNA.”

It’s that DNA — along with a dedication to Southern and Louisiana food — that Porretto and restaurant owner Eric Cook are bringing together in a modern, updated cuisine that never forgets its roots.

Hoppin’ John Oyster Salad

Another example of their culinary philosophy is the Hoppin’ John oyster salad, a fresh take on the New Year’s Day Southern tradition of serving cabbage or greens (symbolizing money, or dollar bills), with blackeye peas (symbolizing prosperity, or coins), and cornbread (symbolizing gold) – all with the goal of starting the new year with good luck.

Instead of cabbage, the salad features Bibb lettuce topped with crispy fried Gulf oysters. It is then ringed by a combination of crumbled bacon, chopped red peppers, and slow-cooked, smoky blackeye peas, “which bring a great flavor and texture to it,” says Porretto. Dressed with a green remoulade — not the traditional pinkish-hued version — it is a light, flavorful combination that melds Louisiana and Low Country traditions.

Red Beans and Rice

And what about the red beans and rice? The classic dish was added back to the menu — Mondays only, as per New Orleans’ custom — with Porretto putting just as much thought into it.

 However, he is keeping that favorite more traditional, as any New Orleans native would.

Saint John, 1117 Decatur St., (504) 581-8120, saintjohnnola.com, on Instagram; 
Hours: Brunch and dinner, Weds.-Mon.

NOTE: As of 10/2024, Mahoney’s is under new ownership and doesn’t serve red or white bean dishes and the French Quarter location ​is now closed​.

Mahony’s Po-Boys & Seafood’s Casey Levy had just received an urgent text from his staff at the French Quarter location. It wasn’t about the air-conditioning acting up or a delivery that hadn’t shown up yet. Nope – his staff wanted to know how soon he was going to bring the white beans over. White beans and rice — they are periodically on the menu as a special — are a favorite for staff and customers at Mahony’s.

Quality and consistency on the menu
For both the red bean and white bean dishes at Mahony’s, that meant using Camellia Beans.
“The quality and consistency achieved from about a century of maintaining those standards – how could we not want to use a local brand that lives that?” said Levy.

For every white bean there is a season
The white bean specials — Mahony’s uses Camellia Bean’s Great Northern variety — only happen about six months a year, divided somewhat by seasons. During the fall and winter months, that version is “looser, more old school style,” and is served with griddled shrimp with house seasoning that adds sweetness to it. The creamier version usually comes out during Hogs for the Cause, a culinary benefit in late March, and like the festival, is pork-centric.

Red beans: always on the menu
The red beans, which are always on the menu, are also made creamy. For that dish Levy “went to the drawing board … back to basics of what I learned early on in my family’s restaurants …. red beans old school, let the ingredients talk to themselves and figure out how they will handshake together.”

But instead of soaking the beans overnight using cold water, Levy said “we use hot water and add the smoked ham hock right away, with soaking only needed for five hours.”

After that, the smoked ham hock is removed, the beans are rinsed off quickly, then put back into the pot. “The absorbing of the smoky water into the beans gives them a different ‘bite’ when eating the beans. Lets you have that porky goodness without all the heavy oils needed,” said Levy.

Always cook the garlic in bacon fat
“Add your normal trinity, then garlic rendered in bacon fat,” said Levy, “a bay leaf and a little salt and pepper. We don’t add much seasoning at all.” They let the mixture simmer for a bit with the bay leaves and spices, then add in thin-sliced andouille sausage. “This will cook into the beans and give them that ‘lil extra flex,” says Levy.

Near the end of the cooking, when the red beans are creamy, a dab of Tabasco sauce is mixed in, before it is served with popcorn rice, smoked sausage and jalapeno butter cornbread. Some customers opt to have fried chicken with it.

Keeping it old school
“Like with many restaurants in Louisiana, the varying ways that they cook their beans lends to a great sampling of old school and newer flavors that can exist in the ‘kitchen sink’ cooking of the red and white beans world,” says Levy. “I like to think that ours has a taste and ‘feel’ that lets people remember a simpler way of cooking them and create that simmering of memory that made them fall in love with red beans in the first place.”

Mahony’s Po-Boys & Seafood, 3454 Magazine St., (504) 899-3374; 901 Iberville St., (504) 717-2422, mahonyspoboys.com

To understand how important the Fiorella family has been to the food culture of New Orleans, just ask the folks who line up early at Fiorella’s Cafe in Gentilly, waiting for the doors to open. They wait for that hot and crunchy, award-winning fried chicken that is perfectly seasoned down to the bone. Some are there for the wide variety of po-boys on the menu. And many are there early on Mondays for first dibs on the hearty, smoky Monday red beans and rice before they sell out.

Family Recipes from a French Quarter Restaurant

Owners Kelly and Calcie Fiorella are carrying on a family tradition, with family recipes, based on the original Fiorella’s Restaurant on Decatur Street in the New Orleans French Quarter, which was operated by their dad, CJ Fiorella, until he closed it 1999. As that restaurant’s origin story goes, CJ was a New Orleans grocer of Sicilian descent who just wanted a good cup of coffee. Every day CJ would make his way to the French Market to buy fresh produce. After taking care of business, he would stop in the Market Place Restaurant and purchase a coffee. One day in 1984, the restaurant’s owner, Anthony Bianca, who knew CJ and his family and their love of cooking, approached him and offered to sell him the restaurant. It took a bit of pushing from a friend, but CJ finally accepted, and Fiorella’s was born.
CJ renamed it Fiorella’s Cafe and brought a large amount of the family’s own recipes to the restaurant. Not completely satisfied with the menu, he began to walk around the French Quarter and look at the different menus to see what others were doing. Since this was a family style neighborhood spot, he wanted to make sure he offered red beans and rice on Mondays, served butter beans another day, and stayed true to a typical New Orleans menu – but with a Fiorella spin.
“When my brother and I decided to reopen the family restaurant here in Gentilly, I said to him, I’m the one doing all of the cooking,” said Kelly Fiorella. He was not only excited to be back in the kitchen but also to bring back the original family recipes, including the famous fried chicken (they go through about 80 to 100 pounds of it per day).

How do you red bean, Fiorella’s?

Fiorellas Cafe in Gentilly on June 14, 2021.

One plate you will only find on Monday is red beans and rice – a recipe that was handed down from Kelly’s grandmother. “It was a tradition, and it was always with Camellia beans,” he said. “There were always little bags of Camellia beans in the pantry,” he said. “She also had stacks of Camellia white beans, red beans, navy and black-eyed peas. I can remember always seeing that little Camellia logo.”
On a typical Monday, Fiorella’s goes through about 10 to 12 pounds of Camellia red beans, according to Kelly. It’s all made fresh Monday morning and usually sells out by mid-afternoon. And when it’s gone for the day, it’s gone. Fiorella’s red beans recipe is a hearty one. You will find the hint of bacon with the onions, bell peppers, and garlic. They add ham, pork shoulder, and andouille sausage. The key to a good pot of beans, Kelly says, is to cook them low and slow.

Fiorella’s Weekday Specials – A Schedule to Live By

Kelly also uses Camellia’s large lima beans for the Thursday special of butter beans and rice. “I love the butter beans,” he said. “They’ve got so much flavor to them.” Other weekday specials include meatloaf on Tuesdays, Italian sausage and shells on Wednesday, and shrimp Creole on Fridays. The menu also includes favorite family classics like meatballs and spaghetti, veal parmesan, hamburger steak, fried seafood, a variety of po-boys, and of course, the fried chicken. In both 2016 and 2017, Kelly and Calcie earned the “best fried chicken” award at the National Fried Chicken Festival.

“It’s all family recipes,” said Kelly. “The red beans is a family recipe handed down.”

Fiorellas Cafe in Gentilly on June 14, 2021.

Kelly’s love of cooking was sparked early on, when visiting his grandmother. “Every time you walked into that woman’s house, it smelled like she was cooking a pot of red gravy or something,” he said. “That’s my grandmother’s meatballs that we use with the spaghetti. She taught us her recipes.”
The history of those who came before him is important to Kelly. Black and white photographs of relatives decorate the walls and serve as reminders of the legacy he wants to continue and build upon. The building itself has historical importance, too. The Fiorellas have had a longtime friendship with the Bologna family that formerly operated Teddy’s Grill at this location. To pay homage to that friendship and what the restaurant meant to the Gentilly neighborhood, two black plastic bull heads from Teddy’s Grill watch over the dining room. “We always just wanted to stay true to what is tradition in New Orleans,” Kelly added.

Written by Eric Olsson

If the walls could talk.

Pimm’s Cups, intrigue, first dates, proposals of varying sorts, assignations, Creole flavors and a place to rest after a long day in the French Quarter — Napoleon House hasn’t changed much since 1914 when this famed bar and restaurant was opened by the Impastato family.

But if the walls could talk, Napoleon House would start telling tales from an earlier time when the building was owned by Nicolas Girod. Nicolas was a businessman, mayor of New Orleans from 1812 to 1815, and a dreamer and schemer. Soon after inheriting the building in 1814, he began to alter it, creating the three-story building that we see today. Legend says the work was done in preparation for the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose supporters — rumored to include local pirates Jean Lafitte and Dominique You — were planning to help him escape from exile in Saint Helena and come to New Orleans.

Napoleon died before this alleged escape plan came to fruition, but his portraits still preside over the Napoleon House on the faded plaster walls, and the stern bust of his countenance surveys the dreamily illuminated bar and restaurant where cocktails and classic New Orleans cuisine rule the day and night.

Red Beans on Monday

In 2015, executive Chef Chris Montero of the Ralph Brennan restaurant group took the helm at Napoleon House, where he is also the general manager. Montero, who’s from an 8th-generation New Orleans family and well-versed in classic Creole cuisine, kept many of the original Impastato family recipes, merely tweaking them with artisan-made ingredients. At the top of that list of was Monday red beans and rice.

Montero grew up sampling different red beans and rice styles: his grandmother preferred ham hock, pickled pork, and a spicy smoked sausage; his mother rendered pork and sausage. For his own version of red beans, Montero harkens back to his grandmother’s classic Creole cooking. “I make it with chicken stock,“ he said.

Sausage that tastes good and does good.

One of the two sausages Montero uses in Napoleon House red beans is a Creole smoked sausage that has a local — and philanthropic — origin. As part of “Silence of da Hams,” a team that competes in Hogs for the Cause (a barbecue competition held in New Orleans that’s an annual benefit for pediatric brain cancer), Montero helped develop the sausage. It’s also available in grocery stores, and a portion of its sales goes to Hogs.

Camellia in the (Napoleon) House

Montero also uses Camellia Brand beans. As he put it, “To me this is the only brand people buy.” Montero leaves the important job of preparing the dish at Napoleon House to Josh Bierria, the restaurant’s production chef. A “behind-the-scenes” person, Bierria is an essential part of the team, said Montero. “Josh’s Camellia red beans and rice have become a big item on Goldbelly.com” said Montero, adding, “Two weeks ago we shipped 200 cases of red beans and rice in a day, all over the U.S.” Would Napoleon have liked red beans and rice? Montero contemplates for a moment and answers, “Why, not?!”

Written by Sue Strachan