-Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... -At Dooky Chase's Restaurant, the deeply rooted tradition of food sharing extends to Chase family celebrations in New Orleans and Madisonville, where an abundance of pots and dishes line tables and everyone brings a favorite dish.

Today, Chefs Dooky Chase and Cleo Robinson prepare three dishes that represent the luck of the pot.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Stuffed bell peppers is one of Chef Dooky's go-to dishes for family gatherings.

-Here in New Orleans, you don't go to a party without bringing something, so, we're talking potluck and one of the favorite dishes that I love to bring to any party is our stuffed bell pepper and we'll get started with the stuffed bell pepper.

You can see we have two types of meat -- of course, our chaurice sausage here, that has that cayenne heat in it; and then ground beef.

And always, you want to start to browning that meat, first.

So, I have a little butter.

[ Sizzling ] And I'm on a low to medium heat.

Start to add in my meat.

[ Sizzling intensifies ] -This dish is about as diverse as our cultures are.

There are many, many combinations to it.

We are so bountiful and blessed in Louisiana, with so much seafood, you could add shrimp, as was done in our homes, but we saved the really good, good stuff for the holidays and special occasions.

-And you can see here, I started to brown my meat and I'm really just breaking it up, right?

I don't want those huge clumps in there.

I want to break it up, so, when I start to add my vegetables -- my onions and my bell peppers -- all that really starts to create a well-balanced stuffing for our bell peppers.

I added my onions here.

I have my celery that I'll add some in here.

Just working that in.

-Our potluck of events were mostly a gathering of all of the family members for great picnics.

You got a full course meal and a little extras.

The grandchildren finally got big enough where they brought desserts, so, everybody played a role and, when you went down the table and you put all of your plates together, you got a nice smorgasbord of dishes and it was wonderful.

-You can see here I'm adding my bell pepper and I'm adding the green and the red.

And I added a little more bell pepper than your onions and your celery because this is a stuffed bell pepper and I want you to taste that bell pepper through this meat.

And, of course, I have to add in my garlic.

And I love garlic.

I'mma hit it with a little salt.

A little pepper.

I got a little more butter.

And I did add fresh thyme to this.

We're just going to let that cook.

Marry it with these breadcrumbs.

And you can start to see how this is going to pull it together.

And it's going to pick up that beautiful juice, that liquid that we created.

And now, you can see it starts to move the whole pan, right?

That's what we're looking for.

That breadcrumb is not only picking up that juice, but it's marrying all those ingredients together.

-And I like that you added the red bell peppers, too, because it gives it a little extra pepper taste to it.

-Yeah, that's what we're looking for.

And you can start to see all that great juice is coming together and now, we're making the good stuff in here.

If you're using fresh thyme, you can see, as I start to move these leaves over, right, you want to make sure you pull those stems out.

So, here's what we're looking for.

You can see it's all adhered together and now, we're ready to stuff them.

I'll put this right here.

-And we can just stuff them in there.

♪♪ So, we cut the bell peppers a different way.

We'll cut them in half and leave them, so, when you put them on your plate, you get a nice, tall bell pepper.

But when we're going out on our regular Sunday dinners or bring them over for a potluck, we cut them in half to stretch it out and we'll get two out of one and we'll make them stretch that way, but, certainly, any way will work and, like I said before, normally, when the bell peppers are in season and you're trying to preserve them and put some in the freezer, you may cut them in half and, that way, you can get more space in your freezer.

But either way, it's a beautiful dish, works wonderful, and everybody loves them.

Great color, looks great, tastes great.

So, there.

-I got lucky -- I made enough stuffing for all the bell peppers.

-All the bell peppers.

You did great.

-Last things we have here is a little parsley, paprika, and breadcrumbs because they do go in the oven for another -- I'd say, a 350° oven of 10 to 15 minutes.

And what you're looking for is that bell pepper to cook, right?

You want to make this, cook this to be tender.

So, when we eat bell peppers, some people scoop out just the stuff and I eat the whole thing.

That breadcrumb is going to crisp up just a little bit.

The stuffing is nice and soft.

You dive into it, you get that crisp breadcrumb texture on the top.

You're going into that soft stuffing and then that cooked bell pepper.

We'll add a little water to this.

We'll cover them just a little bit.

Go in 10 minutes, uncover them for the last 5 minutes, and you got yourself a perfect bell pepper here.

Here in New Orleans, we love to serve this with our Creole sauce, so, I have a little bit of Creole sauce right here that we put right at the bottom.

And you just talk about a beautiful color and you come just right on top in the middle here.

Show you that.

And this is an amazing dish.

We'll hit it with a little parsley for presentation.

But you're tasting that stuffing, right, and you're looking at the crisp breadcrumbs.

When you show up to a potluck and you have stuffed bell peppers in your hand, you will be invited to every family gathering and every party because, not only do they love you, but, really, they want you to bring the stuffed bell pepper.

-The Chase family embraced the two essential ingredients for a successful potluck -- carefully prepared home-cooked food and a gathering of loved ones.

-My mother was very much a celebratory person and so was my daddy's side of the family.

We celebrated everything, especially birthdays, baptisms, confirmations.

We would have -- especially baptisms, we would have big parties.

All the kind of sweets you could imagine.

-You know, the beautiful thing about my grandparents and what they were able to do was hold the family together and they did that by having so many family gatherings, whether it was holidays or just a pop-up picnic on the weekend for somebody's birthday.

And, during those events, it would be a potluck, right?

Everybody would bring a dish and, of course, my grandmother and her family, they would cook so many dishes, but you never had a multiple of anything, right?

Nobody duplicated dishes and I think that's because we started to know who brought what and who was good at what, right?

So-and-so is great at mac & cheese.

So-and-so is great at barbecuing.

And then I'mma just fill in the rest.

-Next, a mainstay of every potluck dinner -- baked macaroni.

-You all know what dish were making When you go to any potluck, any family gathering, there will always be one dish that's a mainstay, and it is baked macaroni & cheese.

We'll start with a little butter.

And what I'm doing is just trying to do a Béchamel, right?

That's just a little butter.

A blond roux.

We'll add milk.

I'm going to add heavy cream because I want that creaminess, just greatness on this macaroni.

But the funny story is my wife.

As we would go to these family gatherings, I grew up eating a custard baked macaroni; she grew up eating a creamy one and, you know, when I would make macaroni, she was, "Mnh-mnh.

This is not right.

This is not what I like."

But my cousin Wayne would make the best creamy baked macaroni that you ever had.

So, we would go and she would say, "Okay, who's making the macaroni?"

And I would say Wayne, all things were great.

If I would say me, not so much.

We're just making a blond roux.

I'm not trying to color that flour and that butter, right?

I'm just trying to cook that flour taste out of it.

And we're almost there.

And to that, I'mma start to fold in my heavy cream.

♪♪ It's not the consistency that you wanted, just yet, because we will add eggs to this.

So, when you look at it at home and you think this is too soupy, that is exactly how you want it to be right now.

We're going to hit this with a little salt.

White pepper.

The reason why we use white pepper here in the baked macaroni is you tend not to see all those black pepper flakes.

A little garlic.

I'll let that simmer.

Whatever cheese that you love, certainly, go ahead and dive in and put those cheeses that you love, that your kids love.

You just have to make sure it has enough cheese in it.

Way if I know if it's enough cheese -- my cheese sauce has to turn that same color as this cheddar, right?

You see, I'm there, but not almost there.

I'm getting ready to add a little more cheese to this.

♪♪ Certainly, if you want to use American cheese, you certainly can.

I will tell you, American cheese has a higher milk content in it, right, so, be careful.

As you add that, it's going to create a little more liquid than what you're looking for, which is okay.

You just may have to add a little extra egg to it.

And we're going to fold that in and work that in.

And this is coming along right where I want it to be.

So, while that's folding in, I'll add two eggs that you just want to beat, right?

If you want it more custardy, you will add more eggs to this.

I'm just going to add two.

We'll beat these up.

That's mixed good.

Before I add the egg, I'm going to turn it completely off the heat.

I'mma add just a little bit of our sauce here to these eggs.

And I'm just going to temper them.

And you can see we're not cooking these eggs.

We're just tempering.

And then after that's tempered...

...I can fold it in just like so.

And this is what we're looking for.

You see that beautiful creamy sauce?

That's exactly the consistency we're looking for.

Now, we just have to make sure our flavors are there.

It's almost there.

I need a little more salt.

Remember, the key is to make sure the flavor is here now because, once you build it and put it in the oven, right, it's not going to add any more flavor to it, so, you have to make sure that that sauce is spot-on, right where you want it to be.

We'll mix that in again.

And before we do that... Mmm!

That's it.

So, I have my pan.

I sprayed it lightly.

It's okay to use this one because I want that cheese to adhere to all these noodles, right?

I'm not dumping all of my noodles into this bowl.

I'm creating layers again and I want you to be mindful of the first layer I create, versus the second layer.

So, here, I put a layer of our mac, our elbow mac.

I'm going to top it with a little more of our cheddar cheese here.

I'mma ladle in some of our cream sauce.

And make sure you cover it all the way.

Then we're going to come back with our mac... And, this time, instead of going with the cheese, first, we're going to go with the cheese sauce.

You know that beautiful color that you get on that cheese?

That's coming from that fresh-grated cheddar cheese that's melting on here, not the cheese sauce.

There.

And we'll get our last little bit of cheese here.

I have my oven preheated for 350°.

I am not going to cover this.

It's going in the oven just as-is.

The last step, before you put this in your oven, this is a bit of housecleaning.

You want to have a pan underneath that you put it in.

We'll go right in our oven, 350°.

And that's going to cook for about 35 minutes.

I'll get this all cleaned up, we'll let that cook, and I'll get ready to show you what a beautiful potluck, just tradition of baked macaroni & cheese.

And this is what you're looking for.

You see that beautiful color on that cheese?

That's what I'm talking about, right?

Not too crispy.

I don't want it burnt, where those elbows at the top get to be hard.

And we're just going to dive right in this bad boy.

And you can see that, oh, man, that is just beautiful.

This is what I'm looking for right here.

You can see that cheese just trying to melt over.

So, if you show up at any gathering, you will have this baked macaroni as a mainstay.

But the most important thing is who's making it.

-Potlucks once offered an opportunity to share resources during a time of scarcity.

Their magic today is bringing people together over family favorites.

-So, when it came to family gatherings, everyone had their dish.

The rest of us never questioned what they were putting out on the table, what they were serving, because we all knew it was great, you know.

You dare not cook what you know someone else is cooking and you know that's their thing.

Whether you agree that that should be their thing or not, that's their thing and you were going to cook something else.

The family gatherings started early in the morning and, of course, they were going to go way into the night, so, you had to have enough food for everyone to enjoy at different parts of the day.

-We end with a sweet and savory entrée -- tutti frutti pork.

The fruit brings out the natural sweetness of the meat.

-Now, we're talking about a good protein that you can bring to a potluck and you know, this one always kind of just sparks my curiosity of this tutti frutti pork, you know.

When you go to potlucks and people bring a fruitcake, we, at Dooky's, we brought a tutti frutti stuffed pork tenderloin.

So, I'll show you how to open this guy up.

I have a tenderloin.

I'm coming right here.

And, basically, we're just going to roll him out because we want to stuff him, right?

I don't want to hit the bottom of it to create a hole, but I just want to get enough so where we can roll it out and do a good little bit of stuffing.

And I start to do little slits in there and the reason why is I like to have something that that jelly and that fruit can adhere to.

And this is right where I want it to be.

I'm going to move him out with my hands.

I don't want to beat it, right?

Because I don't want to puncture it in any way.

I'm just kind of making it flat, so, when we stuff it, we can roll it later.

And then right when you finish stuffing it, it's simple, right?

It's salt.

It's pepper.

So, we'll hit it with a little seasoning here.

A little salt.

Little pepper.

Got a little granulated garlic here.

Then I have a little apricot preserve... ...that we're just going to spread it on through.

And what this does is it allows that chopped fruit, when Cleo goes to stuff, to stick in there and make it just a little bit easier to roll.

I'mma pick up that little bit there.

And then we'll go ahead on and stuff it with our apricots.

We have raisins, golden raisins.

And this is a dish that always, when you look at it, you say, "Man, they're stuffing it with raisins and apricots and all that," but, you know, pork is a protein that just really picks up great when you do it with any type of fruit, right?

Whether you just have the preserve, if you don't want to stuff it, finish and glaze it with that preserve that we're going to do here, but you'll be amazed, just that sweetness of that fruit against that pork, and this is something that's just going to be great.

And here what you want to do is just roll it over.

And this is a crowd-pleaser right here.

When you talk about bringing something to a potluck and you tell them what you're bringing and you say a stuffed pork with fruit, but right when they bite into it, this is something that they just get it.

-The biggest of our family celebrations was my grandfather's birthday.

It was midsummer, fell at a perfect time because I guess everybody could take vacation and get to him.

We had a couple of cousins -- aunts and uncles and cousins -- that lived out of town and it was the highlight of our summer to know that my grandfather's birthday was coming up and it would be an opportunity for all of us to get together.

And it was one of the few times that it was actually potluck where the sisters -- as you know, there were nine of them, but the sisters would all get together and there was never a need for a telephone call or a coordinator.

We just got together and you brought what you liked, what you specialized in, I guess, and we all wound up at my grandfather's property, for the most part, until sometimes, later, we would get together and we would venture out into, maybe, City Park.

But, for the most part, it was always July, around the July 21st time, the time of my grandfather's birthday, and everybody brought their little dishes and they were proud of their pots to come out and everybody got a chance to peek into them and see what they held and it was always great.

-And that's how I grew up here at the restaurant, first, washing pots in the kitchen.

And, of course, you know, I'm just scrubbing away, not realizing the process of, after you wash it, then you come back and you shine it and all that.

And my grandma -- "Boy, bring me that pot."

I'm like, "It's clean."

"No, it's not.

This thing has to be sparkling, shining.

And dry it before you put it on that shelf, or you got a problem."

So, you can see here we tied it.

We seasoned the top with salt and pepper.

We're going to put it on this platter here.

I'm going to hit it with just a little oil to help it as it cooks and we're going in the oven at 350° and this guy here is ready for the oven.

We pop this in the oven.

And, while that's baking for 20 minutes, we'll get all this cleaned up and we'll get ready to create our last glaze for that pork tenderloin and plate it up.

So, we out the oven.

It's baked for 20 minutes.

While I'm letting it cool, I'mma start to work on that glaze that we have here.

I'm going in here with a little butter.

A little bit of our apricot reserve.

And, for presentation, I'mma throw in a little bit of our fruit that we have, some chopped apricots.

Some raisins here and all that good stuff.

And right when that melts, I'mma add in our tenderloin jus.

[ Sizzling ] And you can see -- I already see that beautiful fruit just trying to peek out on us.

And this is what you're just looking for.

Get you a good -- We let that rest a little while, so those juices could come, but this -- look how beautiful that is, right?

Oh, man.

Come and get this big piece here.

And if you want to let this rest at your home for about, you know, I say, about 10 minutes, it'll make it a little cool for you to touch and plate before we finish that off.

I got to just put that beautiful glaze on this dish.

And this is our tutti frutti pork.

When you bring it to a potluck, it's going to spark that curiosity in somebody, but when they dive in and taste that pork and that sweetness of that fruit and that glaze, this is just one that people always talk about because they're amazed how well this pairs together.

-Chef Leah Chase spent a lifetime uplifting the community and building bridges through food.

For more meals that bring people together, join the Chase family next time on "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy."

-Leah Chase's iconic book, "The Dooky Chase Cookbook," has been updated and includes all-new recipes from the series you're watching.

The cookbook is available for $27.95, plus shipping and handling.

To order, please call 1-866-388-0834 or order online at wyes.org.

-Mother was very much a celebratory person, and so was my daddy's side of the family.

We celebrated everything, especially birthdays, baptisms, confirmations.

We would have -- especially baptisms, we would have big parties.

-If we were open for Thanksgiving, we would serve the guests first, and then right after, we would have our family meal, and everybody would come in and we would eat right here in the restaurant.

-If I went to a dance, you know, I would have to stop here to show my grandmother my dress.

Or if it was after any big event, a graduation, if she wasn't able to make it because the restaurant was open, we were knocking on the back door, "Grandmother."

You know, it was like the second ceremony to come see your grandparents.

-When you think about a restaurant and being around this long, I mean, there are some, but this is not easy, not an easy business.

It can take a toll on families and on, you know, generations to follow.

But they made it work, you know?

-For more information about "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy," visit... Funding for "The Dooky Chase Kitchen: Leah's Legacy" was provided by the... ♪♪