On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Kaitlin Guerin, a New Orleans-based Pastry Chef and Baker with an artistic dance background and an affinity for creativity and science. After attending the pastry program at The Culinary Institute of America and working in Michelin-star kitchens in Denmark and California, Guerin returned home to New Orleans just before the pandemic to ground herself and be closer to family.

She began her pastry pop-up, Lagniappe Baking, during the pandemic, selling exquisite yet nostalgic pastry boxes that celebrate and reconnect the Black foodways of the South through local, seasonal ingredients. This concept has followed her through the opening of Lagniappe Bakehouse, the Central City bakery and cafe that she and her life and business partner, Lino Asana, opening in September 2024. Lagniappe is a term used in Louisiana to mean “a little something extra.”

Guerin was named one of Louisiana Cookin’ magazine’s “Chefs to Watch” in 2021, won the 2022 StarChefs Rising Stars Pastry Chef award, and is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier New Orleans chapter. She is a 2025 James Beard Award nominee for Emerging Chef.

Since opening, the Bakehouse has received Eater New Orleans’ 2024 “Best New Bakery” award, was featured in Vogue and CondéNast Traveler, and was listed in New York Times’ 2024 “Best Bakeries Across the US Right Now.”

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On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with Givonna Joseph, Founder and Director of Opera Creole. Ms. Joseph is committed to the culture of New Orleans, the city of her birth. This is most evident in her research on 19th-century classical music of New Orleans's Free People of Color.

As Founder and Artistic Director of the award-winning OperaCréole, Ms. Joseph’s research has recently been featured on CBS Saturday Morning, NBC Nightly News, and NPR, in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and in magazines such as The New Yorker, 64 Parishes, and Atlas Obscura.

She has received awards such as "Who's Who in America "2024, "Leadership in The Arts" from Washington, D.C.-based Opera Lafayette, and was an Honorary Culture Bearer in The Krewe of Muses parade.

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On this episode of Culture & Flavor, Zella talks with DJ Soul Sister @djsoulsister an internationally-known, veteran DJ artist, whose broadcast programs and live performances feature her personal collection of thousands of vinyl records, which earned her a spot in the book Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting.

A native of #NewOrleans, Soul Sister has hosted her Soul Power show on WWOZ FM New Orleans for 30 years (as of 2025), and has hosted internationally-aired radio programs on Sonos Radio and Worldwide FM, among others. She has been a crate digger and vinyl collector ever since she was six years old.

Soul Sister has opened for many of her favorite artists like George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, The Roots, Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, DaM-FunK, Average White Band, George Duke, Teena Marie, Doug E. Fresh, ConFunkShun, the funky Meters, Dumpstaphunk, Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers, Soul Rebels, Lettuce, Tower of Power, and more; and has also performed alongside DJ artist/producers such as Questlove, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Mannie Fresh, KON, Maseo (De La Soul), Low Down Loretta Brown (Erykah Badu), Rich Medina, Biz Markie, and others. Available on all platforms! @heritage_radio

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