Red Beans & Rice With Ham Hocks

Second Harvest’s Chef Matt Taylor talks about a family dish that drives home the power of humility and love in feeding others.

Lede New Orleans
4 min readApr 29, 2022
Executive Chef Matt Taylor oversees Second Harvest Food Bank’s Community Kitchen. (Photo by Justin Curtis Marcano)

By Justin Curtis Marcano

Chef Matt Taylor spent more than 15 years cooking at the top restaurants and hotels in New Orleans before taking the helm at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans Community Kitchen in 2021. For Taylor, food isn’t just food. It’s a medium for serving love and care for culture, community and family.

On a morning in November 2021, I sat across from him in his office at the Second Harvest campus in Elmwood. He had just stepped away from the kitchen and was sitting behind his desk in his white chef uniform and a striped apron. He wore a black Dad hat with the Second Harvest logo on his head.

We talked about the logistics of his work and then I asked Taylor what his favorite dish to make was. He paused a beat and chuckled. He started telling me about his recipe for red beans and rice and the time his mother-in-law schooled him on the “right” way to make it.

Volunteers plate meals at the Second Harvest Food Bank Community Kitchen in Elmwood in November 2021. (Photo by Justin Curtis Marcano)

His mother-in-law, Debra Harmon, had been on him for awhile about the way he made red beans and rice, always noting the absence of one key ingredient: ham hock. Taylor noted recipes for red beans and rice typically include meat for richness and flavor, but the exact meat called for varies. Taylor always used smoked sausage. He saw others add andouille or ham hock. What to add is always cause for friendly debate for families in New Orleans.

Taylor was cooking red beans for a family get-together about a decade ago when Harmon snuck a ham hock into the pot. He was surprised he tasted it later and thought her version was better. Taylor laughs whenever he shares the story, which is still brought up at family celebrations and get-togethers. There’s an underlying dimension of love there in his laughter. Love of food. Love of family. Love for community. Love for culture.

“Being able to relate to the food that you’re cooking and being able to see it. You have more of a passion for it, you desire it more, you wanna produce it more, you wanna cook it,” Taylor said. “You can’t cook unless you have a passion for it.”

Chef Matt Taylor at work in Second Harvest’s Community Kitchen in Elmwood in November 2021. (Photo by Justin Curtis Marcano)

In Taylor’s kitchen, even humble dishes like red beans and rice require love and care. It lines up with his approach to running the Second Harvest’s Community Kitchen, which produces roughly 10,000 meals a week for local seniors and children in after-school and tutoring programs. The kitchen also responds after disasters like Hurricane Ida last August.

The goal is to serve good food, regardless of the situation, Taylor said.

“When people think of a food bank, you’re thinking you’re going to get a warm up meal. No. We serve shrimp creole, shrimp etouffee,” Taylor said. “Quality meals.”

Feeding America estimates more than 60,000 people in Orleans Parish alone had trouble getting consistent access to food prior to the pandemic. Need spiked during Covid-19 shutdowns and job losses. Experts predict food insecurity rates will remain high as a result.

Taylor told me he wants people to feel good about using Second Harvest’s services. Part of that effort is making food that people want to eat. In his view, everyone has the right to a hot meal prepared with a warm heart.

“For our culture, you know, for people throughout the community to get food that they recognize,” Taylor said. “It’s important.”

Volunteers plate meals at the Second Harvest Food Bank Community Kitchen in Elmwood in November 2021. (Photo by Justin Curtis Marcano)

Justin Curtis Marcano is a Fall 2021 Community Reporting Fellow. Marcano was born and raised in Miami and graduated from Tulane University in 2021. He is a writer and storyteller based in New Orleans.

This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.

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