Musician Jon Batiste Jazzes Up Ina’s Barn With Louisiana-Style Red Beans and Rice

Jon Batiste’s Grammys would bring light into a dark room. He’s won eight of them, plus an Oscar and a Golden Globe, for his musical prowess. You might have seen him on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, or heard his love riots throughout the New York City subways. Next stop? Ina Garten’s barn. He’s bringing the funk and his mother’s recipe for Louisiana-style red beans and rice.

In preparation for his arrival, Ina elevated a comfort classic, peanut butter and jelly, because Jon loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Ina’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

Ina’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars begin with a peanut butter shortbread. She creamed butter and sugar in the stand mixer, then added a teaspoon of vanilla, followed by two eggs. Once they were fully incorporated, she added two heaping cups of creamy peanut butter.

Ina followed up with the sifted dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking powder. She separated two-thirds of the luscious brown dough, then gently pressed it into a lightly greased pan. After dolloping the dough with hefty portions of raspberry preserves, she topped it with the remaining crumbled shortbread dough to sandwich the flavors, then baked it for 45 minutes.

Batiste’s Light

Jon is a vibrant multi-instrumentalist whose musical prowess stretches across instruments like the drums, melodica, piano and much more. He studied jazz and classical music at Juilliard. He formed the impromptu band, Stay Human, which became the house band of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

During his time at The Late Show, Jon and Stephen moved about Ed Sullivan Theater like a pastor and a spirited organist. Jon backed Stephen up mid-sentence with jazzy tunes to emphasize jokes or employed his musical knowledge in hilarious segments.

Jon's and Stay Human’s impeccable comedic timing enhanced the show by providing new layers of context through instruments. Viewers saw variations of Stephen’s disappointment, excitement or confusion by a quick musical selection, or even provided humorous looks into daily life through their chords.

Momma Batiste’s Louisiana-Style Red Beans and Rice

Jon’s Louisiana-style red beans tutorial is a lesson on moving in the kitchen with your heart. For this recipe, he wasn’t measuring with traditional tablespoons and measuring cups; he let his soul move with the ingredients. Jon heated a few glugs of oil in the pot, then Ina dropped the trinity: bell peppers, celery and onions. After adding the garlic, they let the ingredients groove in the pot to soften and develop flavor, then added water. The green bell peppers rose to the top as Jon swirled the stock. “My mother used to tell me you could tell the portions by the color of the water, that should look like a swamp.”

Before adding the red beans to the pot, Jon ventured on a musical side quest: He tried to get Ina to sing.

“No, you’re never gonna get me to sing.”

“What if I get you to say the word 'one'?”

“One.”

“Say it long.”

Ina stretched “one” long enough to hear a slight tune.

“Oh, wait! You heard it?!”

After Ina gave in to a mild musical number, Jon added the red kidney beans to the pot. He improvised the amount of turmeric, Cajun spices and cayenne for the beans while thinking of his mother; she loved to study New Orleans cuisine, then do her own spin on the dishes, much like how he goes about his music.

Synchronizing With Your Craft

Improvisation is a critical part of Jon’s craft. Jazz lends itself to spontaneous synchronization. At jam sessions, musicians learn from and experiment off each other’s sounds, melding instruments like flavors in a slow cooker. The documentary American Symphony followed Jon and his wife Suleika Jaouad’s journey as he tried to compose a symphony after receiving news that Suleika's leukemia had relapsed. American Symphony was a reflection on balancing success and grief as they happen simultaneously. For the symphony, he gathered musicians across various genres — like Indigenous folk musicians, marching band musicians and modular synth programmers — for his take on a symphony orchestra.

This was supposed to be a miraculous performance for one night only. Then, without warning, in the middle of the symphony, the power went out. Jon’s years of improvisation were put to the test. He improvised on the piano for 20 minutes, furnishing the hall with a harmony that electricity couldn’t fill.

Moments like that Jon dreads — but lives for. It’s terrifying, but it’s evidence of how much time you’ve dedicated to the craft and how far you’ve come. Like red beans slowly cooking in a pot, the craft needs time to develop before serving it to others.

'That’s a Nice Vibration'

Ina added parsley to the pot as Jon admired how the red beans changed the color of the stock. He mashed some beans against the side of the pot to thicken the sauce, then invited two types of sausage into the stew: turkey and andouille. “This is like the last flavor capsule that unlocks superhero status for your beans,” he proclaimed. Ina and Jon added bay leaves and a sprinkle of leftover parsley and left the beans to simmer again for another hour. The entire dish takes about three hours to cook.

Once the beans were done, Ina filled two bowls with fluffy white rice, and Jon followed up with a healthy ladle of the beans. They gushed over the wonderful flavor and how time and a few ingredients can create a miraculous dish. Then, after a few bites, Jon serenaded Ina with his melodica.