Of all the world-class kitchens in the state of Louisiana – and I’ve visited more than a few – my favorite has always been “Miss Elaine” Turk’s in Eunice, a city of less than 12,000 in the heart of Cajun country.

Don’t bother looking for reviews of Miss Elaine’s kitchen in newspapers or magazines, though. Elaine Turk’s kitchen was open only to family and friends, and we had to take our shoes off outside the door. Elaine kept her floors, kitchen and house spotless. How she managed to do that with all the coming and going of relatives, friends, eight children and their 19 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and all their friends, is a mystery to me.

But Elaine’s modest, ’50s era kitchen with its (real) knotty pine cabinets and shallow double sinks (she never had a dishwasher) could at times barely hold everyone who wanted to be there. It was THE place to gather – especially before or after every major family event. And many times my husband, Frank, and I and several of our five children were happily among those crowds.

Elaine Marie Bollich of Mowata, La., became part of Frank’s family when she
married one of his favorite cousins, Dr. Carl Edward Turk, a chiropractor whose mother and Frank’s mother were sisters.

Frank loved to visit Carl Edward as often as possible, especially during duck, goose and quail season. And while the longtime hunting buddies were out in the fields, I got to become friends with Elaine. A petite, feisty beauty from a big German family (one of 13 children) she had beautiful black hair, dazzling blue eyes, a droll sense of humor and was an amazing wife, homemaker and mother. Affectionately known as “Noonie”to her family, she was adored by her husband, children and all other relatives.

Watching Elaine and Carl Edward raise their children inspired me and Frank towant a big family, too. But watching Elaine relentlessly keeping up with the laundry for her family of 10 – with most of their eight children playing sports most of the time – and seeing how much food the kids went through daily, forewarned me that raising a big family was hard work.

After Carl Edward died suddenly in 1986, “Noonie” continued being her family’s “comfort, strength and warmth … our safe place in the world,” her grandson Chris Belfour would say at his grandmother’s memorial service last November. Elaine was 74 when she died, and lived long enough to see all of their children and their families happy and successful.

All four of Elaine’s daughters – Sissy, Leslie, Judy and Monie – learned from their mom to be good cooks too. Her sons – Carl, Frank, Joe and Robert – are also good cooks and specialize in cooking wild game. But they had to learn most of those recipes from their dad. Elaine did not like, and never cooked or ate – the ducks, geese, quail and other game her menfolk harvested.

Cooking was surprisingly not one of Elaine’s favorite homemaking tasks, and she always downplayed her abilities. But everything she made was memorable. Sissy remembers best the chocolate and coconut cream pies and homemade hot chocolate; Judy her mom’s potato salad. But all the kids agree that Elaine’s chicken and sausage gumbo was in a class by itself, even when compared to that of famous cooks.

“I’ve eaten gumbo in every restaurant in Lafayette and New Orleans and mom’s was hands-down the best. She had the touch,” vouches her daughter Leslie Turk, a magazine editor and writer. “And her coconut cream pie was to die for. After her stroke (a few years ago) we teased her that she might have lost her touch, but she didn’t. It just took her longer and she had to go over the ingredients several times. Once she forgot to put the coconut in her pie and just waited for everyone to take a bite to see if they noticed. And it was so good, a couple of us didn’t. She got the biggest kick out of that.”

Elaine’s kitchen is closed now. Her children and grandchildren gathered there as a family one last time at Christmas and soon her house will be put up for sale. But if Frank and I can make it to Eunice before that happens, all the Turk children have told us, they would love to gather there with us again in the kitchen one more time, in memory of our dear Miss Elaine.

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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