For once in a blue moon, we really know the origin of a dish, when and where it was first made, who invented it, and why. Oysters Rockefeller were created in New Orleans in 1899 by Jules Alciatore, son of the eponymous founder of Antoine’s Restaurant. What was he thinking? All the authorities agree that he picked the name because John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil tycoon, was the very image