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NEW ORLEANS— The Botanical Garden in City Park has been a haven for plant lovers for a few decades, but now there’s a new addition that combines the love of botany an the love of great food.

Paul Soniat, of the New Orleans Botanical Garden, “We’re very excited about our new Kitchen in the Garden right in the middle of our vegetable garden and its a way to expand our educational programs and talk about growing vegetables, how to eat healthy. Farm to table sort of thing. It also allows us to work with local chefs to do great dinners and demonstrations.”

One of those great local chefs is Alex Harrell  of the Elysian Bar who spoke to us about the importance of knowing where the food we cook comes from.

“When you have that kind of ability source and you know exactly whose producing food, that kind of connection really helps to create a community between the farmers, the fisherman and the chef,” said Harrell.

On this day Chef Alex made roasted sweet potatoes with harissa, served with whole fat yogurt.  That’s just a sample of what you might find at a Kitchen in the Garden dinner.

“Chef Joaquin Rodas and I will be here preparing a multi course dinner using a lot of fall produce, some local seafood, and stuff like that so we’re pretty excited about it,” said Harrell.

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