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By Poppy Tooker Kevin Belton is a gumbo of English, French, Native American and African ancestry. His mother’s family has roots in the French-Caribbean island of Martinique, and his French-speaking father’s family came from the Bayou Lafourche area of Southeast Louisiana near Thibodaux. Standing six feet, nine inches tall, the big guy has a heart to match his imposing size.

A s a child, Kevin Belton was surrounded by love and food. That love was evident in every bite served by his mother, Sarah Thomas Belton, and her mom, Magnolia T. Battle, when the family gathered around the table. “We tried to have breakfast together every day, but family dinners were a must,” Kevin recalled. Nan, as he called his grandmother, always lived with the Beltons Uptown on Valence Street, just off Freret. That bustling corridor was the place Nan and Kevin regularly shopped. “Across from Canal Villere [longtime New Orleans grocery chain] there was a butcher shop with live chickens and turtles,” Kevin said. “Nan would call to the butcher as we passed, ‘I need two.’ He would quickly dispatch a pair of chickens that we’d pick up on our way home for that night’s dinner.” Typical of many homes, Kevin’s days of the week were marked by what was for dinner. Mondays meant red beans, Wednesday dinner was panéed meat, and seafood was served most Friday and Saturday nights. There was always dessert. “Mom baked a wonderful homemade chocolate cake. It was yellow cake with her special chocolate icing,” Kevin smiled. “That was always my birthday cake growing up.” In 1977, while Kevin was in Baton Rouge playing football for LSU, his mom passed away, changing the course of her son’s life forever. “I quit football and came back to NewOrleans. I had been studying marketing at LSU, so I enrolled in classes here, but never graduated. Mom always said, ‘Jump on a barge and take it down the river. If you don’t like it, jump on the next one. If you don’t

teach. She made class so much fun, so that became my approach.” Another door openedwhenKevin followed his mentor, Joe Cahn, to WYES for the live Showboat Auction . “That was how I learned to do live TV,” Kevin reflected. “Somebody didn’t show up that next weekend and they asked if I could auction a board for them. Before long, I was featured in their pledge breaks, too.” As an only child, Kevin played alone in his room pretending to be people he’d seen on TV. That make-believe helped hone the innate talent for entertaining so characteristic of Kevin Belton today. When WWL-TV icon Frank Davis died in 2013, the station dedicated the studio kitchen — a place that had been Frank’s domain since the 1980s — to him. An entire month was devoted to Frank’s memory, with Kevin re-creating Frank’s recipes on air every Tuesday morning leading up to the dedication. When the month was over, Kevin was asked to fill Frank’s shoes. Humbled by the opportunity, Kevin thought, “I can’t be Frank. I can only be me. But I do talk to Frank all the time when I’m at the station,” he laughed. “Going through the equipment locker that originally was Frank’s, I’ll say to him ‘Hey! Did you see that?’ wondering what he’d think about some new food craze — like the Cronut.” Kevin’s years of commercial TV cooking success are unparalleled in the Crescent City. Public television opened its doors in 2015 after Chef Paul Prudhomme retired from his long-running PBS series. WYES Programming Director Beth Utterback asked Kevin to come see her. Utterback said, “Chef Paul retired, and we want you to do the next

like that, take one going the other way. That’s been my approach to life.’” A part-time job with a tourism company led in many ways to Kevin’s role today as New Orleans’ culinary ambassador. During that time, he crossed paths with the New Orleans School of Cooking founder, Joe Cahn, who saw a spark in the young man. “Let’s work together” he suggested, and Kevin was soon the manager of Cahn’s Louisiana General Store. “I learned so much about Louisiana and its food by traveling to buy authentic ingredients for the store. We’d go to Gueydan for Ellis Stansel’s popcorn rice and to Ville Platte for Mr. Ortego’s special hot sauce.” Until it was on the shelf at the general store, the fiery concoction was previously available only out of Mr. Ortego’s trunk! Within six months at the New Orleans School of Cooking, Kevin found himself following in his mom’s footsteps when he began teaching there. “I guess it was in my blood,” Kevin said. “Mom was a school teacher, and I got to sit in the back of her classroom during the summer watching her

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