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Like so many things in New Orleans, the story behind local writer Elisa Speranza’s debut novel, "The Italian Prisoner," (Burgundy Bend Press) begins with a party and food. While attending an event in 2003, Speranza, then a new transplant to the city, was chatting with local chef Joe Faroldi about their mutual Italian American roots when Faroldi sha...

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There are 1,970 pipes, 50 “speaking” stops, 34 pipe “ranks” and even 12 tiny bells, but the 3D musical jigsaw puzzle being pieced together by a team of Italian craftsmen inside Notre Dame Seminary Chapel will coalesce in a pipe organ that both honors the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ French heritage and produces a resonant sound matched to the chapel...

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The feel and taste of an Italian grandmother's kitchen will be evident at The Chicory House when author Elizabeth Williams takes over for a celebration of her book "Nana's Creole Italian Table: Recipes and Stories from Sicilian New Orleans" at 6 p.m. Thursday. Williams, founder of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, will tempt the taste buds wit...

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Jerry Pellegrini, one of the top professional boxers ever to come out of the New Orleans area, died Tuesday. He was 78. Pellegrini’s daughter Dawn confirmed his death in a Facebook post Thursday morning. Pellegrini began to fight professionally as a teenager, but that came a year after he started his other profession as a barber, which gave him the...

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The majority of Italian immigrants in New Orleans were from Sicily and started to arrive in large numbers in the 1880s to escape a homeland that had fallen into a corrupt, dangerous, and unlawful state. They arrived in a city where previous Italian immigrants had established a decent-sized community, dating back to the French era. In fact, the Ital...

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These palm-sized wine cups in the New Orleans Museum of Art's collection were crafted during the time of the Roman Empire, sometime around 100 BCE to 100 CE. Roman craftsmen developed new glass techniques, advancing a craft that had been cultivated over thousands of years in Middle Eastern and Egyptian cultures. Romans invented ways to blow glass o...

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Louis Prima was a very talented Italian American jazz singer, trumpet player and bandleader. Fans knew Prima as a polite and friendly celebrity. He always signed autographs or posed for pictures with a smile. He was born in New Orleans on December 7, 1910. His father, Anthony Prima, was the son of Sicilian immigrants from Salaparuta. His mother, An...

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Practically until the end of his life, Les Bonano was engaged in his passion for boxing. Just days before he died Sunday at age 79, Bonano completed negotiations with Don King for Jonathan Guidry of Dulac to fight for the NABF heavyweight championship on June 11 in Miami. “I’m not doing too good, but we were able to make the deal because King likes...

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Burgundy Bend Press recently announced the release of “The Italian Prisoner,” a work of historical fiction written by Elisa M. Speranza. Set in the Sicilian community of New Orleans’ French Quarter, the novel illuminates a true but little-known story involving Italian prisoners of war on the U.S. home front during WWII. “The Italian Prisoner” is an...

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Lisa Becklund and Linda Ford, creators of the James Beard Award semifinalist Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy in Depew, and its urban outpost, FarmBar, will bring their interpretation of authentic Italian cuisine with Il Seme, 15 W. Fifth St., in the space the formerly housed Lassalle's New Orleans Deli. The restaurant will begin accepting reservatio...

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