Bayou Eats | The Secret Ingredient at Etc. Catering

ARTICLE BY STARLA GATSON
AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY KELLY MOORE CLARK

For five decades, Etc. Catering has blended family tradition, culinary creativity, and heartfelt hospitality into a beloved Northeast Louisiana institution. Founded by Joyce Stephenson and now operated alongside her daughter, Rhonda McDuffie, the business continues to serve generations of customers with home-style cooking and enduring Southern charm. Anyone familiar with the restaurant business knows how difficult it can be to survive in it. So, when a food service provider manages to achieve decades-long success, it’s wise to learn what their secret is. 

That’s the first question I asked Rhonda Stephenson McDuffie upon learning how long Etc. Catering, the company she operates alongside her mother, Joyce Stephenson, has been in business. McDuffie answers with no hesitation, declaring, “I don’t serve anything I wouldn’t have at my house.” 

While McDuffie’s commitment to using only high-quality ingredients is admirable, it’s probably not the sole reason Etc. Catering, which Stephenson founded five decades ago, is still booked and busy. That the food tastes good probably helps quite a bit, too. Of course, the food tastes good; Stephenson is a gifted chef. She’s been in the kitchen since she was six years old, and, as the youngest of 11 children, learning to cook for large groups became second-nature to her right away.

Despite having so much kitchen experience, Stephenson didn’t set out to cook professionally. At least, not right away. When Stephenson first got married many years ago, she was in an entirely different profession. After the birth of her third child, she decided to leave her job to stay home with the children and the family pets. “We always had pets, some stranger than others,” McDuffie shares, noting that at one point, the Stephensons had a dog, a hawk, and a mink.

Staying at home brought Stephenson back to cooking. Sure, she’d done it for her family every day. But now, with time to do it for others, Stephenson began preparing meals for friends and extended family members. 

“[She did it] so frequently that Daddy finally asked, ‘Do you think you can get the cost of groceries back?’” McDuffie recalls.

Thus, Etc. Catering was born. Stephenson brought her neighbor and close friend, Hilda, on board, and the two dove headfirst into hospitality. Thanks to a three-by-five-inch ad in the local newspaper, Etc. scored its first real catering order: a 200-person wedding meal. 

“We came home to see huge amounts of roast beef in electric roasters,” McDuffie says of that order. “It seemed to be looking back at us. We stood there looking at all this roast with our mouths gaping open. Then, we started laughing hysterically. The party was a huge success, and the hardest part, getting started, was done.” 

From there, Etc. Catering only continued to grow, providing food for all kinds of events, including two of the three Stephenson children’s weddings.

“For my wedding, [Mother] cooked for over 500 people,” McDuffie says. “Thanks, Mother, the memories last forever, even if the marriage didn’t.” 

Etc. Catering trucked along, with Stephenson and her business partner at the helm. After several years, though, Stephenson’s partner decided to step away from the business due to health issues. As she made her exit from ETC, McDuffie made her entrance, first on a part-time basis before eventually transitioning into full-time. 

For more than 20 years, the company operated out of the Stephensons’ kitchen. But as Stephenson and McDuffie’s business grew, so did the need for a dedicated Etc. Catering space. The good news was that the family had a local property, the former Stephenson Chevrolet auto lot, available for them to move into. The bad news? It was in bad shape.

“The Stephenson Chevrolet property has been in our family since the early 1930s, and it was in terrible shape,” McDuffie says. “We either had to renovate or take bulldozers to the building. We decided to renovate. The renovation was somewhat like trying to resurrect a dinosaur.”

After months of hard work and lots of imagination, the mother-daughter duo managed to transform the old car lot into an ideal workspace, and Bastrop’s 224 North Washington Street has been Etc. Catering’s headquarters ever since. July 2026 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary in that location, McDuffie says proudly. 

Now, the building holds no traces of its car lot past, save for the framed newspaper clippings featuring Stephenson Chevrolet that hang on the walls. It’s a welcoming, well-decorated space with rosy pink artwork over the windows and a small dining area for groups who want to reserve the space for a meal.

There’s a dark wood barn door in the building, and behind that is where the magic happens. The spacious Etc. Catering kitchen lies on the other side of the door. There, you’ll find shelves of spices, jars of pickled items, big cans of vegetables, and a refrigerator full of sweet treats ready to be served. There’s also a bookshelf in the corner of the kitchen, stocked only with cookbooks. As I peruse the titles on the shelf — they have everything, from the Amish Community Cookbook to the holy grail of cooking, Irma S. Rombauer’s The Joy of Cooking — Karen, Stephenson’s granddaughter-in-law, says in passing, “Grandmother reads cookbooks like novels.”

That makes sense. They say those who are best at their craft are the ones who never stop honing it, and that describes the ladies of Etc. They’re always learning, McDuffie says, explaining that, as culinary and décor trends change, the company must, too. “For example,” she explains, “one weekend, you may use all silver and crystal for an event. The next weekend, you may be using hammered copper chafers and wooden bowls. Trends are always changing.” 

By the looks and age of her cookbook collection, Stephenson has long been aware of how important it is to learn about and adapt new culinary practices. Fortunately, she’s passed that knowledge down to her daughter, who oversees much of the company’s day-to-day operations now. At 91 years old, Stephenson is no longer in the kitchen every day, just occasionally. But, McDuffie adds, should she need a reminder or guidance, “[Mother] is always a phone call away.” 

And, of course, she has an excellent staff to aid her, too, including Shadonna, Karen, and many other nieces and nephews who step in to help out. With so many hands on deck, Etc. Catering runs smoothly, catering events and selling to-go plate lunches four days a week efficiently. Don’t mistake the efficiency for ease, though. The work is challenging, says McDuffie.

“A caterer has to love the whole process,” she says. 

And, just like her mother, she does. Despite having done so for decades, working in the food service industry hasn’t gotten old for McDuffie. The result, whether an upscale holiday dinner with elaborate dishes and crystal or a laidback birthday party with sandwiches and cupcakes, is always gratifying. I ask why, and McDuffie answers quickly: the people. Through Etc., McDuffie and her crew get the opportunity to meet and serve people they may have never met otherwise. That, she says, is the most rewarding part of the process.

“We have made some really good friends that we’ve met [through the business],” she shares. 

And, McDuffie adds, they’re always happy to make new friends through the business. Etc. Catering is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and they are always happy to chat with both returning and prospective customers about catering their next event. 

When they aren’t prepping for their next catering gig, McDuffie, Karen, and Shadonna are in the kitchen cooking lunch for the community. Tuesday through Friday, the ladies of Etc. Catering offer an entrée and sides for customer pick-up. Since they offer a variety of dishes, like chicken fried steak, smoked pork ribs, chicken and sausage jambalaya, and lasagna, there’s enough variety to please plenty of palates. The menu changes daily, so be sure to check out the company’s Facebook page to see what’s being served each day, then call (318) 281-5580 to reserve your meal.