Ruth Fertel

Ruth Ann Udstad was born into a poor family of Norwegian, Alsatian and Croatian descent in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her grandfather was born in Trondheim, Norway and emigrated to the United States where he became an engineer, and her mother was of mixed Alsatian-French and Croatian descent. Her father worked as an insurance salesman, and her mother was a kindergarten teacher. In 1932, during the Great Depression, she and her family relocated to her mother's birthplace, the community of Homeplace in Plaquemines Parish, which was about 60 miles from New Orleans. (Note: some sources claim she was either born or grew up in Happy Jack, Louisiana, also in Plaquemines.)

She skipped several grades in elementary school, and graduated at age 15. The family used the money from her brother Sig's World War Two G.I. Bill benefits to send her to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge at 15, from where she graduated at age 19 with honors in chemistry and physics.

In 1946, Udstad obtained a job teaching at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. She left after two semesters.

On October 2, 1948, she married Rodney Fertel, who lived in Baton Rouge and shared her love of horses, and they had two sons, Jerry and Randy. In 1951, they opened a racing stable in Baton Rouge. Ruth earned a thoroughbred trainer's license, making her the first female horse trainer in Louisiana. Ruth and Rodney divorced in 1958. Rodney failed in the 1969 mayoral election in New Orleans as "The Gorilla Man", often wearing a gorilla suit to campaign events, championing the cause of renovating the Audubon Zoo.

Unable to support herself and her teenage sons on her alimony payments, she initially supplemented her income by making drapes out of her own home. In 1961, she took a job as a lab technician for physician-scientist George E. Burch at the Tulane University School of Medicine, earning $4,800 a year.

During her lifetime, she was known for her charitable work. In 1965, when Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans, she was left without power, and realized that the food in her restaurant was in danger of spoiling. She cooked everything and provided free steak meals to disaster workers and victims in the local area. She paid for the education of numerous children, provided counseling for women starting businesses, and contributed to local schools.

The Ruth U. Fertel Foundation, established in her will, supports education in Louisiana through programs designed to serve students from kindergarten through college. It gave away $1.2 million in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina.

The Ruth U. Fertel Culinary Arts Center at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, is a planned expansion of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute. It will include a student-operated restaurant, six kitchens, a commissary, an auditorium, a computer lab and several classrooms. The historic Rienzi-Levert house will house offices and provide accommodations for receptions and other special events.

The annual Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award is made jointly by the Southern Foodways Alliance and the Fertel Foundation, and honors an unsung hero or heroine who has made a great contribution to food. The award was first made in 2000. The honoree receives a monetary award and a documentary film is made about them.

Honorees include:

2000 J.C. Hardaway – pitmaster, Memphis, TN

2001 Ed Scott – catfish farmer, Drew, MS

2002 James Willis – pitmaster, Memphis, TN

2003 Bill Best – bean and tomato farmer, Berea, KY

2004 Martha Hawkins – restaurant owner, Montgomery, AL

2005 Martin Sawyer – bartender, New Orleans, LA

2006 Tommy Ward – oysterman, Apalachicola, FL

2007 Elizabeth Scott – tamale maker, Greenville, MS

2008 Earl Cruze – dairy farmer, Knoxville, TN

2009 Geno Lee – restaurant owner, Jackson, MS

2010 Peter Nguyen – on behalf of Gulf Coast Vietnamese fishing communities, MS

2011 Hardy Farms – peanut farm in Hawkinsville, GA

2012 Helen Turner — pitmistress of Helen's Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, TN

2013 Alzina Toups — operates Alzina's, a Cajun dining restaurant in Galliano, LA

2014 Goren "Red Dog" Avery — 30-year professional waiter, Birmingham, AL

2015 Phila Hach — caterer, innkeeper, and author, Nashville, TN

2016 David Shields — historian, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC

2017 Laura Patricia Ramírez — tortilleria owner, Lexington, KY

2018 Adrian Miller — author, Denver, CO

2019 Felton Hurst — restaurant owner, Kenner, LA

2020 Hanan Shabazz — restaurateur and activist, Asheville, NC