The Dessert That Lit the Flame: How Bananas Foster Sparked My Love of Cooking in New Orleans (with Recipe)
- Christianne Klein
- Apr 6
- 3 min read
April 6 is National Bananas Foster Day, which for me feels less like a food holiday and more like a personal anniversary - the anniversary of the dessert that first made me fall in love with cooking.
I’ve long said that New Orleans is, if not the best food city in America, certainly the most unique. What other city can claim dishes as varied and iconic as shrimp remoulade, gumbo, jambalaya, crawfish étouffée, po’boys, chicory café lattés, and beignets? The food isn’t just good, it tells the story of the city’s French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean influences in a way that no other American city quite does.
But for me, one dish stands above the rest, and it’s the one where I can honestly say I learned how to flambé when I was a kid: Bananas Foster.
Where my love of cooking classes began
On a family trip to New Orleans when I was about 11 years old, we signed up for a cooking class together, and looking back, that trip quietly shaped so much of what I still love about travel and food today. I loved that you could visit a place, learn its history through its food, and then bring those recipes home with you - a kind of edible souvenir that let the trip live on long after it's over. Every time we cooked one of those dishes again, it felt like we were back in New Orleans for the night.
Bananas Foster was the dish I mastered first. I was equal parts excited and terrified when it came time to light the pan (fire in a kitchen will do that to a kid). At home, my parents were in charge of the actual flambé, but I was hooked instantly.
I remember how proud we were when we were able to recreate the dishes we learned: gumbo, étouffée, and Bananas Foster in our own kitchen. For years after that trip, we would make Bananas Foster together as a family. It became one of those traditions that started on a trip and somehow became part of our life back home.
This photo is from our house when I was a child, complete with braces and my mom’s Gunne Sax dress. Through the years, our plating has improved significantly, but those flavors were always there.
The irony: I don’t even like bananas
The funny part of all of this is that I don’t actually like bananas. I never crave them, rarely eat them, and I’m definitely the odd one in my family. Everyone else loves them. But Bananas Foster? One of my favorite desserts in the world.
There’s something magical about the simplicity of it: Butter, brown sugar, vanilla, rum, banana liqueur, and slightly green bananas, flambéed and then poured over vanilla ice cream.
I always have a bottle of banana liqueur in my house just in case I decide to make Bananas Foster - and honestly, there is no other actual reason to own banana liqueur that I can think of.
The story of Bananas Foster
Bananas Foster was created at the legendary Brennan's Restaurant in the 1950s. At the time, New Orleans was a major port for banana shipments coming from Central and South America, and the restaurant was challenged to create a dish featuring bananas. The result was Bananas Foster, named after Richard Foster, a friend of the restaurant’s owner, and it quickly became famous for its dramatic tableside flambé.
Classic Bananas Foster Recipe
If you want to celebrate National Bananas Foster Day at home, here’s the classic recipe we’ve made for years:
Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 bananas (slightly green, sliced lengthwise)
¼ cup banana liqueur
¼ cup dark rum
Vanilla ice cream
Directions
Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Stir until bubbling.
Add bananas and cook for 1–2 minutes.
Add banana liqueur and rum.
Carefully ignite to flambé (use a long lighter and stand back).
When flames subside, spoon bananas and sauce over vanilla ice cream.
Serve immediately.
National Bananas Foster Day may be a food holiday, but for me, it’s also a reminder of a childhood trip, a cooking class that turned into a lifelong love of cooking, and a dessert that somehow became part of our family tradition - braces, Gunne Sax dresses, flambé bananas, and all.
Christianne Klein is an Emmy® and Edward R. Murrow Award-winning TV Host, journalist, travel and lifestyle expert, and founder of FoodFamilyTravel.com.
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