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ORAL HISTORY
Donna Cheramie
Donna Cheramie officially grew up in Galliano, but she recalls spending much of her youth on her father’s shrimp boat. It was hard work on the water, she says. Too hard to think back on with fondness. While Donna has chosen a landlubber’s life as an adult, her managerial position at Leeville Seafood Restaurant requires both a solid work ethic and a thorough knowledge of the region’s seafood. She buys it, cooks it, sells it, and eats it (though often at work a hamburger sounds best).
Donna’s in-laws, Harris and Sue Cheramie, purchased the restaurant in the mid-1990s. Sue, who developed all of the recipes but spends little time at the restaurant these days, taught Donna to cook. Seafood gumbo seasoned with ham and smoked sausage, crab patties, fried seafood platters, seafood fondue, salads piled high with chilled shrimp—Donna and a team of women whom she considers family prepare every dish in house for a clientele of recreational fishermen, tourists passing through Leeville on their way to Grand Isle, and locals who point to Leeville Seafood Restaurant as a place where seafood is done right.
