The best fried chicken combines a satisfying crunch with a savory juiciness and just the right spice. Is it possible that within the love for great fried chicken there can also be a dose of unity, that civic ideal that too often feels elusive?
That goal was the initial spark behind the National Fried Chicken Festival, and it's guided the event's growth.
The National Fried Chicken Festival returns this weekend, Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, with a greatly varied menu of its namesake dish and many other types of food from more than 40 vendors. It brings music on two stages, an expanding list of programs and attractions and a location directly on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans for waterfront breezes and views.
The concept, however, started with conversations around weightier social issues than festivals and good times.
It came about when the city created a program asking residents to work together on ideas of racial reconciliation and community-building. At one point during that program, the local consultant Jade Brown-Russell turned to a friend and said, essentially: If you want to bring people together in New Orleans, someone should just start a fried chicken festival. Food binds us, and everyone loves fried chicken.
That someone was Cleveland Spears, who runs a marketing firm that produces events. The lightbulb went off and for nearly a decade now the community has come together around fried chicken at the festival he founded.
Today, strolling the grounds between levee and seawall, gives a full-spectrum view of New Orleans life and a taste for how fried chicken cuts across cultures.
There is the classic Southern rendition in many competing iterations. There is fried chicken that shows Vietnamese, Korean or and Thai flavors, chicken from Latin American kitchens, blazing hot chicken sandwiches and creative twists. It’s all fair game for this fowl. The vendors are all independent operators, mostly small, many new.
So, if you head to the Fried Chicken Fest on the lakefront this weekend , you can eat well , connect with New Orleans culture and maybe even help a few of these new voices in food spread their wings.
