Tony Fletcher (from left), his sister Elizabeth James, both Hurricane Katrina refugees from New Orleans, and Fletcher employer Doug Hamilton, owner of The Corner Cafe, prepare to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant.

For Cafe employees who had to work on the holiday, Fletcher made a Thanksgiving dinner -in traditional New Orleans style, including stuffed peppers with his grandma's secret recipe,baked macaroni, snap beans and sweet potatoes.

Tony Fletcher, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee, found a little bit of home in Morgantown at the Corner Cafe, where he works as a short order cook. The Comer Cafe serves a Cajun- inspired menu, with items such as chicken jambalaya, craw- fish etouffee, blackened chick- en and vegetarian Creole.

Fletcher, a New Orleans native, has a taste for spicy foods and loves to cook them.

"I can fix something any way someone wants it, but for me, I like it spicy," Fletcher said.

He fell in love with cooking at a young age. He remembers growing up in the Third Ward projects, watching his moth- er and grandmother cook and wanting to know what they were making.

"They wouldn't tell me, I'd just spend all day stirring the pot and watching what they put in," Fletcher said.

Fletcher's grandmother made sure that he and his six siblings learned how to cook, especially Fletcher and his two brothers. She didn't want any of her grandsons depending on a woman for anything.

Such self-sufficiency proved helpful when Fletcher was dis- placed by Katrina and forced to start life over again in an unfa- miliar state at 45. When Fletch- er was evacuated from Louisiana, he was placed at Camp Dawson, a National Guard training facil- ity in Kingwood. After becoming comfortable with the change, Fletcher heard from fellow evac- uees about a college town that had plenty of restaurants. Fletch- er never planned to depend sole- ly on FEMA to start over, and he was ready to find work.

After arranging for a ride to Morgantown, Fletcher tried, without much luck, to get hired. , Doug Hamilton, owner of the Corner Cafe, said he was wary of hiring evacuees but he decid- ed to give Fletcher a try anyway.

"I was a little leery at first, but he shows up on time and he's done a great job," Hamil- ton said.

Hamilton opened the Cor- ner Cafe's doors, on the corner of Campus Drive and University Avenue, two years ago. Hamil- ton, 25, has worked in many of Morgantown's restaurants, but wanted a place of his own. He and several of his cooks have been classically trained at French culinary institutes, but he stresses that is not a pre- requisite for being hired.

"I'll hire "someone with Denny's experience, if they're good," Hamilton said.

In Fletcher's case, though he is not classically trained, he's had experience working in New Orleans — and for two years in Texas — cooking Greek, Mexican, Italian and traditional Cajun cuisine. Cajun food, which originated from French cooking, uses many of the same core vegetables, such as onions and celery, but does not use others, like carrots. Because Cajun cooking took root in the bayous of Southern Louisiana, where it is impos- sible to grow some vegetables, the Acadians or "Cajuns" replaced them with peppers, mushrooms and okra. These are all staple ingredients in gumbos andjambalayas.

Fletcher is grateful for his job and plans on staying in the area for at least two years. He has made fast friends with the other employees and cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for those who worked on the holiday. In traditional New Orleans style, he fixed turkey, stuffing and stuffed peppers with his grandma's secret recipe, baked macaroni, snap beans and sweet potatoes.

"I've always wanted to work in a place like Cheers, where everybody knows your name, now I am," Fletcher said. "I love it."