Everyone has a story.

Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person–someone who is well-known, influential, or successful, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”

By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services

January 24th, 2024. A date — and a bath — Hardette Harris will always remember.

56 years-old and single, Hardette usually climbs in the tub at night, but fell asleep the previous evening. So, she began her Wednesday with a relaxing soak.

“I’m sitting in the bathtub and I get a text message saying to go look at the James Beard Foundation (website). I was like, ‘For what?’ I go over there and see a post from a few minutes earlier. I’m on the list. I’m like numb and stunned for the next few hours. Like, really? Really?”

“The list” revealed Hardette Harris is one of 20 semi-finalists for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef in the South award (Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Puerto Rico). The winner will be announced June 10th. The James Beard Foundation is a nationally recognized organization which celebrates and supports the people behind America’s food culture.

“It’s a big deal,” Hardette understated.

Hardette, who is from Minden and lives in Shreveport, told me her story of a small town girl turned big-time chef, over lunch at a place of her choosing, Orlandeaux’s Cafe’. She enjoyed smothered chicken livers, mashed potatoes, a piece of catfish, and cornbread. I ate one of the best catfish po-boys I’ve ever had.

As we dined, I wondered if Chef Harris eats out with a critical pallet.

“No,” she said. “I’m just happy somebody will cook me some good food.”

As one of three children, Hardette hung around her parent’s kitchen. “My dad did a lot of the cooking. He would be in there all the time. I would help my mom. I would help my godmother. They knew I liked to cook. I would grab recipes out of their recipe box and make stuff. Back then, magazines had a recipe at the back of the magazine. There was no internet. I just liked to tinker with cooking.”

But Hardette never thought of cooking as a career, though she wanted to get a taste of what was outside of Minden.

“I knew there were other things because I watched television. I read magazines. I would become familiar with a lot of things in other places. I was like, ‘I know there’s more in this world than what I can see, and I want to see it.'”

So, after graduating from Minden High School, Hardette moved to Houston, where her sister was attending the University of Houston. Hardette worked several jobs, and was doing well, but still didn’t know what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

That is, until she discovered the Art Institute of Houston was starting a culinary school. “I said, ‘I love cooking so much, that’s what I could do for my job. I could do that for my career.'”

Hardette applied, and was accepted. But there was one problem.

“I’m allergic to shellfish. That’s really silly. Why would I go? . . . . I just felt like if you’re going to cook, how are you going to skip over shellfish all the time?”

Hardette eventually enrolled in culinary school — two years later.

“I said, ‘That’s what I want to do. I will figure it out.'”

And she did, graduating with an associate degree in Culinary Arts.

Now what?

“I had no plans . . . . I just knew I did not want to do large-quantity cooking. I didn’t want to be a caterer, a baker, or a restaurateur. I wanted to do one-on-one cooking.”

Hardette wanted to be a private chef, cooking for a person or family (but not living with them).

Through a placement company, Hardette’s first job after graduation was cooking for a single man and his son. “He just needed breakfast and dinner. That was a full-time job . . . . I fixed fresh-squeezed juice — a healthy breakfast. He went to work and I left. I came back and had dinner ready at 6:30.”

When the man married, Hardette was hired by a family in San Antonio.

“A lot of people think the private chef experience is the opulent, wealthy family sitting around doing nothing but watching the chef cook. That’s not it. They have (a chef) as a necessity. Just like if you and I hired our own chef, it would help us out a lot. (Families) don’t have the time. And if they want to eat healthy, somebody else can cook it better than them. If it’s somebody else’s job, that person does everything. They stock the refrigerator for snacks. They get the kids’ stuff together. That’s a luxury not to have to do that.”

Hardette’s parents, while in good health, were getting older. So, in 2014, Hardette moved back home. That’s when she began promoting the food on which she grew up — North Louisiana food.

“We celebrate ham hocks and neck bones. We crumble up our cornbread in our Pot Likker and our peas . . . . It’s a cucumber, onion, and tomato salad.”

This is where I should point out that Hardette admonished me for not knowing the meaning of “Pot Likker”. If you don’t know, either, Hardette explained ‘It’s the broth from the greens.'”

In 2015, Hardette, wanting to spread the word about our cuisine to the rest of the state, wrote the official State Meal of North Louisiana. It includes the likes of a mini Natchitoches Meat Pie, Fried Catfish, Baked Ham, Collards, and Sweet Potato Pie. Thanks to Hardette, Louisiana is just the second state (Oklahoma) with an official meal.

“Everything blew up after that.”

Hardette began working with what was then the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau. She hosted “culinary experiences”, called “Us Up North.” Hardette had pop-up dinners, and cooked for tour groups visiting from all over the world.

“All of my work has been toward celebrating our food.”

Along the way, Hardette made a name for herself. She was featured in a six-page spread in Louisiana Cooking Magazine. She wrote a column for Louisiana Kitchen and Culture. In 2019, she opened a restaurant, appropriately named “Us Up North”.

But then came Covid. Also, Hardette’s parents’ health began to decline. So, her focus was taken away from her restaurant. Hardette’s mother and father are now deceased. However, Hardette is ready to devote all of her time and energy to “Us Up North” serving people on a regular basis.

But don’t think her James Beard Foundation recognition will change anything about what she cooks and how she cooks.

“I’m going to do the exact same thing I’ve been doing. This is what got me here. I’m not going to change. I’m not going to fancy it up and make it look like anything different. The only thing I have to change now is to make it more available for the people to eat.”

Knowing the chef probably had to prepare a meal for someone, or work on a new recipe, I decided it was time to ask my final question (about food). As always, what is it about her story that could be helpful to someone?

“No matter how ridiculous it sounds to others, if it makes sense to you and you see the end — sometimes you can visualize your journey — stay on that path . . . . Stay on your journey if you believe in it . . . . This can be an example to others. Never think you’re not good enough to be in the room with the best of the best.”

Speaking of being “in the room”, before we parted ways, I asked Hardette about the meaning of an event which wasn’t culinary in nature. It was my understanding she attended Barack Obama’s second Presidential inauguration in 2013.

“He was the first African-American President. Just to be there. . . . . We were waiting for hours. It was cold, cold, cold, cold. All of the sudden, you hear the crowd cheering. The motorcade is making its way. You can see it through the trees. Tears just fell, because you know you are where your ancestors could have never dreamed you could be. It was an experience I will never forget.”

That makes two experiences Chef Hardette Harris will always remember.

Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com

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