New Orleans’ Camellia Brand worth hill of beans and more
Red kidney beans have an important role in Louisiana cooking, and the Camellia Brand — founded in 1923 in New Orleans — is king throughout Cajun country.
Red beans and rice is a beloved staple in New Orleans, born as a thriftminded meal — toss Sunday dinner’s ham bone into a simmering pot of red kidney beans that can cook undisturbed for hours — served for supper on Monday, which was typically “laundry day.” It may not have the same foothold in Houston, but the dish still can be found throughout the Big Easy, in homes and restaurants, on Monday nights.
It is that red-beans-andrice passion that Camellia celebrates on its Red Beans Road Show, a traveling culinary event that teams Camellia with New Orleansbased food writer Pableaux Johnson. The road show recently stopped for a sold-out dinner at Brennan’s of Houston, which serves red beans and rice to its staff on Mondays and whose chefs use Camellia beans.
A Louisiana native, Johnson is known in New Orleans for his Monday-night dinners where friends and visitors gather over red beans and rice served with cornbread. “I openly encourage people to have a simple thing you can cook to have people over,” he said. “It isn’t a dinner party, it’s supper.” Red beans and rice is that perfect “simple thing,” Johnson added.
Red kidney beans account for 60 percent of sales among the 20 varieties of beans in the Camellia portfolio. Red kidney bean sales spike this time of year, during Mardi Gras when pots of red beans and rice are perfect for feeding crowds. Behind Louisiana, Texas is Camellia’s secondbiggest market with about 11 percent of company sales. Texas not only eats plenty of Camellia beans, it also grows them (black-eyed peas, Lady Cream Peas and crowder peas) from family farms including Pleasanton and Olton that the company has worked with for generations.
Camellia CEO Vince Hayward said that beans are very much in the news as more consumers become interested in issues of sustainability and health. The current fascination with plant-based meat substitutes contributes to something of a bean moment, too. But there’s always reliability and consistency in a big pot of red beans, especially for generations of people in or from Louisiana.
“I like to say our brand and our products stand up in demographics,” Hayward said. “If you’re rich or poor, no matter where you live, you’re going to eat beans.”