This is OffBeat’s annual “food” issue, a tradition we started some years ago when we featured what is (in our humble opinion) the second most important feature of our culture (music is first of course, and you wouldn’t be reading OffBeat if you didn’t think so!).

We always try to take an “offbeat” view of our subject matter, and it’s no different this year. Since musicians and music lovers tend to eat three meals a day like other people do, we thought we’d take a look into what musicians are into, food-wise. I think you’ll be surprised at what you find. In keeping with OffBeat’s mission of continuing our region’s culture and heritage, we’ve featured an article on the influence of one of the great unsung heroes of local cuisine, Gerard Maras, who has influenced a generation of new chefs to greatness—sort of like how Louis Armstrong influenced jazz players and Danny Barker a whole generation of brass bands, among so many other musicians.

The threads of history and creative ancestry that are respected, treasured and bequeathed onto subsequent generations are hallmarks of what makes New Orleans and Louisiana culture so special. It’s our unique gift to this region, the South and to American musical and food culture.

One thing I’ve come to recognize and truly marvel at in New Orleans is the influence of family in our traditions: both blood family and the family of like-minded individuals who support each other.

I grew up here, but have traveled, done business in many other cities, and have lived in several outside New Orleans. I always wondered why so many people from this city never left to explore the “outside” world. They like it here, thank you very much, and see no reason to even consider living anywhere else… which is a big reason why a lot of our music and musicians remain here. Their real and adopted families are here. It’s comfortable for creative people to live here (although it’s certainly not easier here to make a living than anywhere else; creative output isn’t as valued in this nation as it needs to be).

It’s nice to be close to your blood family, but it’s also comforting for creative folk to know that they have a family of like-minded individuals that they can depend on for support and inspiration.

In the past few years, we’ve started to develop a city that’s welcoming to creatives and innovators, and the effect that they are having on our city is becoming more evident every day. If you live here, you get it; if you don’t, and you haven’t visited New Orleans in a while, I think you need to come on down and see how the city is changing for the better: more music, more restaurants, more new businesses opening every day; new construction, new ideas—but all with the idea of keeping our traditions intact and flowing through whatever endeavors we take on. It’s all good, and getting better.