We grew up together in the Quarter. She always smelled like garlic and butter and something sweet. It was the best smell in the world. It meant Constance was cooking and everything was going to be fine.
2 months ago
Constance Marie Delacroix
June 30, 1955 – March 28, 2026 · 70 years
"She cooked with love and fed more than just hunger."
Biography
Constance Marie Delacroix was a chef, restaurateur, and culinary educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. For 30 years her restaurant, Maison Claire, was a landmark of Creole cuisine in the French Quarter. Constance trained dozens of young chefs through her apprenticeship program, and her cookbook, "The Sunday Table," remains in print 15 years after publication. She closed the restaurant in 2020 and spent her final years teaching cooking classes for cancer patients. She is survived by her daughter Claire, son Antoine, and a recipe box that is already the subject of a family negotiation.
Messages & Tributes (7)
+ Write a MessageHer class for cancer patients was the most healing thing that happened to me during treatment. She made us chop and stir and laugh. For two hours every week, I wasn't a patient. I was a cook.
2 months ago
Constance was one of the last great Creole chefs of her generation. Her food had a memory in it — you could taste the history.
3 months ago
She taught me to cook before she taught me anything else. Said: if you can feed people, you will never be without purpose.
3 months ago
Maman, there is a hole in the kitchen. In every kitchen I will ever enter.
3 months ago
"The Sunday Table" is the most-used book in our house. It has been for ten years. We eat from it every week.
2 months ago
I trained under her for two years. She was exacting and warm in equal measure. I now run my own kitchen and every day I ask: would Constance accept this?
3 months ago