Feed the Holiday Foodie:
Poppy Z. Brite’s Four-Course Meal

By S.J. Chambers

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The holidays are not only about gifts, but also gluttony. As the end of November arrives, peoples’ watercooler banter turns from football into salivating reveries of tomato gravy, chicken and dumplings and sweet potato casserole. By the fourth Thursday in November, everyone has become a foodie and will remain so until the last drop of ‘nog is drunk Christmas day.

Maybe this seasonal shift is obvious, but this recently occurred to me while reading DUCK, the latest installment in Poppy Z. Brite’s LIQUOR series.

Although she has been writing the foodie series since 2002, many people still only know her for psychological and homosexually male-dominated horror found in LOST SOULS, DRAWING BLOOD and EXQUISTE CORPSE. The man-on-man action remains, but deals less with flesh, blood and madness and more with love, dreams and how to cook a steak.

In the series’ five novels, New Orleans’s restaurant culture provides the backdrop for Rickey and G-man’s quixotic dreams. Filled with hope, they are foils to what Brite has called her past “angst-ridden characters.” Friends since childhood, lovers since high school, they are an inseparable couple driven by a mutual passion that unexpectedly takes them to the top of the Big Easy’s dining scene. The possibility of them opening an upscale restaurant is nil until they partner with Lenny Duveteaux, a chef icon concoction of Gordon Liddy and Emeril Lagasse. With great power comes many weirdoes, and Lenny’s shady connections get the boys in a lot of muck.

Brite has received a lot of flack from fans of her earlier work. Although the series is lighter and buoyant, they still have that same elements that make her novels unique: a rare relationship based upon common dreams, bound by fighting reality and postcard descriptions of pre-Katrina New Orleans. Whether slick with blood or splattered with grease, these are the real reasons why Brite is read.

But don’t take it from me, take it from her. Below is a menu to further your holiday gluttony. Although THE VALUE OF X is about the Liquor chefs, it is a prequel that deals more with their budding relationship than food, so I am excluding it from the menu:

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LIQUOR

Rickey and G-man are drinking in a park, mourning their newfound unemployment, when Rickey has a crazy idea. New Orleans has a plethora of restaurants run by Snowbirds unable to deliver what locals want. Rickey concocts a restaurant theme that no true native could resist: a menu where everything is made with liquor.

Ideas are free and plenty, but reality costs money. How are two kitchen punks from the Ninth Ward going to get enough cash flow to open an upscale restaurant? Money, as personified by Lenny Duveteaux, hears the idea and offers Rickey and G-Man a no-strings-attached partnership. Of course, nothing is truly free and a psychopath looms in the shadows. In addition to father issues, a superiority complex and an acute coke habit, Rickey’s former employer, Mike Mouton, is driven by obsession and jealousy to shut Rickey and G-man down.

A novel with a few bodies in the freezer, LIQUOR is the more horrific of the series.

PRIME

With a Gourmet magazine cover and a Beard award under their belts, Rickey and G-man are on the path of culinary greatness. Even so, Liquor is still in Lenny’s pocket. When the restaurant becomes a target for political vendetta against Lenny, the duo renew their resolve to buy Lenny out. Despite their improved finances, money would still have to fall out of the sky for them to gain any fiscal edge on Lenny’s share. Prayers answered, Rickey is offered a consulting job by a fledgling Texas restaurant who wants Rickey to rescue it for $10,000. Not bad for a week’s work, but Rickey has to spend that week with Cooper Stark, a ghost from Rickey’s New York Culinary Institute past.

Consulting goes well, and the restaurant is revamped into a steakhouse (hence the title), but when Stark suddenly dies with “John” (Rickey’s first name) tattooed on his ass and wills Rickey as his sole beneficiary, it looks like Rickey’s past will forever haunt him. He has to clear his monogamous name while unraveling the mystery of Stark’s death.

Soul Kitchen

Reminiscent of PRIME, this features another consulting gig and another old acquaintance. Chef Milford Goodman has just finished a 10-year term at Angola Prison for murdering his boss. Claiming to have been framed and wanting to get back in the kitchen, Rickey and G-man place him in Soul Kitchen, the new floating casino restaurant under Rickey’s supervision. Milford’s life seems back on track until he discovers the restaurant’s silent backer is Clancy Fairbairn, a shady mo-fo who murdered Milford’s boss.

While Milford tries to clear his name and Fairbairn tries to keep him silent, Liquor and G-man are struggling to stay afloat despite Rickey’s new, distracting interest in Vicodin.

DUCK

Written after Hurricane Katrina, this novella is set in an alternate universe where Katrina avoids New Orleans for Florida. It takes a reprieve from mystery to highlight the series’ primary theme of achievement. The hunting/conservation organization Ducks Unlimited wants Liquor to cater a 300-person banquet featuring all wild duck courses. In addition to experimenting with rare fare, the guest of honor is former New Orleans Saints quarterback and Rickey’s childhood hero, Bobby Hebert. This is a unique opportunity for Rickey and G-man to demonstrate their skills to the man who inspired them to do something “with purpose.” Let’s just hope nothing goes wrong.

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Well, that ought to hold you over through the New Year. If you want to know more about the work of Poppy Z. Brite, visit her website at: www.poppyzbrite.com. Happy holidays and bon appétit!

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