Seasoned by Water
Sheri L. Raleigh is a native of Louisiana, a retired public school educator, a culinary historian, and the founder of the Gifts From the Ancestors Foodways Project. She is a graduate of Northwestern State University. She has dedicated years to researching and documenting the migration patterns of Creole families from Louisiana to Texas, focusing particularly on the parishes of Iberia, St. Martin, Calcasieu, Vermilion, and the surrounding areas.
Her work emphasizes the role of food as a cultural archive and a medium for storytelling. "Seasoned by Water" is her debut documentary and represents the first formal expression of decades of research, personal memories, and connections to her ancestors.
Seasoned by the Gulf Shores
"Seasoned by Water: Creole Chronicles" offers a thoughtful exploration of the true implications of migration. This reflection journeys through Lake Charles, Gueydan, Lafayette, New Iberia, and St. Martinville, as seen through the eyes of culinary historian Sheri L. Raleigh. It delves into the Louisiana landscapes that her Creole family has shared over generations.
Seasoned by Creole Cuisine
This is not a conventional history lesson; it is a meditation. It explores our connections to a place through cinematography, natural sounds, vibrant food, and meaningful poetry. What does it mean to carry a place within your body — in your hands, your cooking, and your language — long after you have left?
Seasoned by Ancestral Heritage
The answer can be found in rice fields and bayou waters, sugarcane farms and salt mines, in cast-iron pots and the Creole cottages of Vermilionville Parish. It exists in the shade of the Evangeline Oak and in the quiet of the churches in St. Martinville and New Iberia. Cuisine serves as the archive, while the land stands as the witness.
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